Customer Reviews

Dancing with the Witchdoctor

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Dancing with the Witchdoctor is a marvelous book, all the more remarkable because it is Kelly James' first one. This account of some of her experiences as a private investigator in Africa reads like a well-crafted novel, a page turner at that. But as she says in the preface, these tales are not about her. James' aim is to tell the stories of women she met and the extraordinary ways they prevailed against the challenges of ordinary life in Africa in these troubled times. She succeeds with gusto.

James calls them "heroines," and does them proud. Among others, she introduces us to the Watusi women of Rwanda, to Moana of Mozambique, and to Lua, a Turkana woman who saves Kelly's life. The qualities James admires in these people come through in the text: courage, compassion, commitment. I found inspiration here.

The land, the elements themselves, have presence in Dancing with the Witchdoctor, notably the unceasing winds of Lake Turkana and the rainforest home of the mountain gorillas. The book smacks of Africa. The beat of life that drew James to that continent resounds in these pages.

This book defies categorization. One Seattle book store originally put it under travel, until an employee who had read it, said "no way." Another has it under World History for some reason. Call it an adventure story (which it is), and people think fiction. Say it's a memoir, and watch people yawn. It's by a woman about women, but it's not a "woman's book," or if it is, you certainly don't have to be a female to treasure it.

One category this book certainly fits: Damn Good Read!

Private investigator Kelly Clark has an adventurous spirit. That spirit leads her to take investigative contracts on the forgotten continent of Africa. She stares death in the face and somehow lives to write about it.

That synposis sounds like a page-turning novel, but this book is much better because it is true. Kelly James is a red-headed American who fell in love with adventure when she as a youngster and tells of her African experience in four stirring vignettes. She is a modern renaissance woman. A master of African culture, regional history and the human condition. She also writes incredibly well.

This book is not for the weak or soft any more than Indiana Jones would appeal to those of high sensitivities. James' Africa is harsh and real. As the sun beats down, mankind also often does the same to its fellow earthly inhabitants. But the lessons James teaches are invaluable. Her love for Africa and its people is indisputable. James teaches us lessons poignantly and with page-turning adventure. Western arrogance can be very dangerous.

A must-read, I recommend this book to all readers who don't need life candy-coated. A winner!

I love true stories about adventures in faraway places. And this fine book certainly meets that test. Kelly James gives us a short introductory chapter in which she describes her upbringing on a ranch in the American northwest. She was raised to ride and shoot and live with adventure. Soon, she realized she didn't want to be relegated to a typical female role in life. And so she became a private investigator and has traveled all over the world in a wide variety of international business investigations. Mostly, she works in Africa and the book is comprised of four separate stories about a few unique assignments.

Her writing style is fast-paced, breezy and has the sense of adventure that obviously drives her life. There's not one boring sentence in the whole book and the action never stops. I read these stories with the kind of attention that kept me breathless and turning the pages as something new happens on every page. And my sense of wonder at her bravery and willingness to take risks never ceased. I just couldn't stop reading and was sorry when this 235-page book ended.

In the first story she investigates a mysterious death of a wealthy plantation owner. In the second story she travels into the depths of gorilla country. In the third story she helps a young man visit his war-torn land. And, in the last story, she is hired to investigate a young female African doctor's disappearance. Often, she fines herself in personal danger and has is forced to survive in a very hostile environment. Each one of these stories kept my eyes glued to the page. I couldn't put the book down until they were finished.

"Dancing With the Witchdoctor" was a mini-adventure for me. It brought me to places I've only dreamed of visiting and made me identify with the author's courage, stamina and sense of adventure. For me, reading this book was like being picked up by a whirlwind and experiencing the trip of my life. I loved it!

Highly recommended.

I loved how Kelly James wrote a book honoring the women she met in her adventures in Africa, instead of just describing those adventures. The sights and sounds in this book will stay with me a long time.

The story, Gorillas and Banana Beer, is a tale of hope in the face of no possible reason to hope, of a young man's discovery of a reason to live and give back when he found no life in our culture, of the bravery and strength and endurance of those who are trying to protect the children and gorillas. This story and the others are too powerful to describe.

Remind yourself again that America is not all there is to the world.

Not often do I read a book straight through...and then be left wanting for more. Kelly James is indeed a modern explorer. Some may say she is a female "Indiana Jones". She is more than that in she gives tribute to the "heart of Africa" : it's women.

I hope there is a second edition forthcoming.

These four wonderful stories present great adventures by an incredibly spirited and sensitive woman who admires her subjects, the lives they lead and the insights their lives offer to our troubled world. They are a tribute to four strong women by a private investigator hired to find lost persons. Nevertheless, this is neither a woman's book, nor a social treatise, rather it is an exceptional page turner by a vigorous writer whose personal adventures are startling for their bravery, the range of encounters and her sensitivity.

For anyone who ever dreamed of Africa, Kelly James takes you there; not the sanitized safari wagon tours, but the real, the scary, the truly exotic Africa. The characters with which she peoples her stories are individuals you would like to have known, would have been privileged to know. Enjoy!

I lived in Beira, Mozambique for two years in the early 1980s, researching the history of women in that city, and I returned for a week-long visit at the end of that decade, so I was very interested to read Kelly James' account - her 24-hour visit to Beira some unspecific time in the 1980s makes up one chapter in this book. I found absolutely nothing that I recognized - not the hotel name, not the descriptions of the harbor, not the portraits of expatriates who were there, not the ubiquituous "shelters," nor her potted history of Mozambique - every detail rang false. By the time I finished this chapter I wondered if she had perhaps been somewhere else entirely, or had fabricated the visit out of whole cloth. I did not read any other chapters after the exceedingly disappointing experience with this one, as I have no trust in the observations or analysis of this author. I find it horrifying that this kind of writing that harks back to the "dark continent" stories of a century ago can still get published by major publishing houses. She has certainly written an adventure story, but I believe it belongs in the fiction aisle.

I was very touched by her relationship with her characters and the courage and stamina with which she faced her adventures. I have known Kelly James for years; she is indeed a very brave and amazing woman. I (Arla Smith)was especially touched to be included in her thanks at the end of the book.

Kelly James has composed a remarkable adventure infused with deep humanity for her characters and deep regard for the heroines that emerge during her journeys. Each story becomes a quest in some Quixotic fashion, to find these women, whose destiny's are entangled with true human tragedy, on a continent that seems to know little else. Either by their death (Detour) or in their trancendence (Witchdoctor), James' Dulcinea's are women given over to events for which they have no control, but with which they encounter with courage and dignity that one hopes to be definitive of modern womanhood. A refreshing book that should be read by all, especially young women whose primary cultural exposure is represented by the empty decadence of Britney Spears and the Hollywood culture of narcissicism.