The Catastrophist [Paperback]

Ronan Bennett (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Scribner (1997)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000RAW7MM
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Catastrophist, December 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Catastrophist: A Novel (Hardcover)

Bennett's novel was a fascinating read immediately following Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible--the same setting, a completely different perspective, two excellent novels (read both). Bennett's casting of the end of a relationship, amid the destruction of a nation is a compelling story. The story of the protagonist's sorrow over the loss of his lover, and the story of the equally short and catastrophic independence of the Congo are superbly blended. The prose sings in this novel and although Bennett contends that, ...there is no such thing as a change in people... this is exactly contradicted by the story here. One wants to read this book and then talk about it--it is emotionally charged and goes to the heart of the issue of whether we ever really do connect with other people as the author portends his main character never had until middle aged and under extreme duress. One who found Cold Mountain intriguing, will also be captivated by The Catastrophist.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A story of lives drawn to conflict in the Congo, February 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Catastrophist : A Novel (Paperback)

Ronan Bennett's "Catastrophist" grips you from the outset. Who are these characters stranded on the banks of the Sankuru river in December 1960 and what is their involvement in the life and arrest of Patrice Lamumba? Why is this "a story of failure"? Bennett sucks you into the lives of the main protagonists in a style that is crisp and direct. Gillespie's cynicism and and resignation is set in contrast to the idealism and dynamism of Inez. Both are flawed. And the Belgian Congo is flawed. I never felt I was being given a treatise on the political history of the Congo but ended up being as intrigued by the story of its conflict as by the the fate of Bennett's characters. He has managed a considerable achievement in marrying a story of deep personal sensitivity and searching with one of the Congo's despairing lurch for normal life. And maybe it's about all our lives. This is a great book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.", May 1, 2006

By 

Jana L. Perskie "ceruleana" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Catastrophist : A Novel (Paperback)

On June 30, 1960, the Congo was emancipated from Belgium. African nationalist leader Patrice Emery Lumumba became the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it declared its independence - the long awaited "Depanda" had arrived! In October 1958 Lumumba had founded the Congolese National Movement (Mouvement National Congolais; MNC), the first nationwide Congolese political party. Forced out of office during a period of violent political upheaval in September 1960, he was assassinated in January 1961.

During the Congo's turbulent beginning many countries intervened in its political affairs. "They used: fear of communism, economic collapse, civil war, and protection of European citizens living in the Congo to back themselves for intervening." And the expatriate community, living in luxury, sipping sundowners at poolside, did not appreciate their world, their comfortable lives slipping out of their control.

At the time, the Congo was the biggest and richest country in central Africa, one with huge strategic importance - not only to the Belgians, but to the US. Katanga Province, the size of Britain, remains one of the richest areas in all Africa if not the richest. "The mines of the Union Miniere and Forminiere provided the world with eight per cent of its copper, sixty per cent of its uranium, seventy-three per cent of its cobalt, eighty per cent of its industrial diamonds. Katanga has gold, silver, tin, zinc, manganese, columbium, cadmium, tungsten, tantalum: its supplies will never be exhausted." This was the land of Unilever, Brufina, Union Miniere and the Banque Empain, companies which were not about to let their holdings slip away easily.

Into this tumultuous, politically charged setting wanders James Gillespie, a disaffected Irish/English writer, author of a few well received novels and a contributor to various periodicals. He arrives in Leopoldsville with the intent of pursuing a waning relationship with Ines Sabiani, his fiery, radical Italian girlfriend with whom he is deeply in love. Gillespie's arrival in the Congo represents a major emotional commitment for him. Ines is a journalist with her country's communist newspaper L'Unita. She is as passionate about the cause of Independence and about the charismatic leader, Lumumba, as James is indifferent, or as he would say, "objective." And he is a skeptic, a pessimist. Part of the problem between the two lovers is that James is never on anyone's side. He insists, "I see all sides. My craft demands it." He is against intolerance, dogma, illiberalism. But he is for nothing. In?s invests herself emotionally as well as professionally in that which she believes. Her affair with James is doomed before Gillespie sets foot on African soil - just as Patrice Lumumba's government is doomed before he takes office. At one point In?s tells Gillespie that, "Dante wrote that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality." She accuses him of being a "catastrofista," a "catastrophist," one who believes "that no problem is small. Nothing can be fixed; it is always the end."

As James becomes caught up in the historical movement, colonial injustice and the chaotic brutality that accompanies it, he is finally forced to take sides...and action.

Although well written, I did have some difficulty with author Ronan Bennett's style. It made for ponderous reading at times. I am fascinated by this period in Africa, especially the politics, and by the character of Patrice Lumumba in particular, so I had personal incentive to persevere. "The Catastrophist" reminds me of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American." Both novels deal with the chaotic end of colonialism, have journalists as protagonists and idealistic, if Machiavellian, CIA operatives fomenting intrigue and even more violence. The colonialists in both novels, the Belgians here, the French in Vietnam in Greene's work, act paternalistically and condescendingly towards the "natives" and don't really take the independence movements seriously.

"The Catastrophist was short-listed for the 1998 Whitbread Novel Award.
JANA