Interior [Hardcover]

Justin Cartwright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 1988

This novel, set in an African country, Banguniland, with diversions to America and other countries, attempts to exploit 1950s political and social mores. The narrator, son of a journalist who disappeared in Africa in 1959, tells the story of his attempt to unravel the mystery of his father's ill-fated expedition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Provocative and absorbing, British writer Cartwright's (Freedom for the Wolves) third novel titillates the reader's sensibilities on several levels, both as a suspenseful adventure story whose layers of mystery are slowly peeled away, and as a psychological journey into the heart of Africa. The narrator, an African of Boer ancestry, was a child living in the U.S when his gadfly journalist father disappeared in 1959. In his eagerness to "give himself a more textured surface," the father had adopted the nom de plume of Hollywood film director Lance Curtiz. In company with his formidable colleague and mentor, Mrs. de Luth, "a terrifying old bird" with an "unblinking Lutheran gaze," the ever optimistic Curtiz had set off on a National Geographic -sponsored expedition to Banguniland. It was reported that he perished there in a river accident, but lingering questions persist about his disappearance. Now, 35 years later, his son is in Banguniland where nearly everyone he encounters seems prepared to offer startling information about his father's fate.. The story segues between the narrator's private life, replete with sexual conflicts, and the spirit-filled culture of old Africa; and before we discover Curtiz's fate, we see present-day Banguniland after Western do-gooders have departed. Though paying homage to Conrad and Greene, this ironically humorous, well paced tale is wickedly of the moment.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This multilayered novel, set in the heart of Africa, includes a bit of everything. Treks to the heart of the continent blend modern safari sophistication with the adventures of Stanley and Livingstone. Graham Greene characters lumber in and out of the plot along with contemporary natives bidding for independence. The book's narrator returns to Africa, his childhood home, to film a documentary, but the bush grapevine assumes he has returned to find his father, who disappeared 30 years earlier on a National Geographic expedition. Past and present merge as the novel pursues the treks of father and son against the backdrop of the mysteries of African people, terrain, and wildlife. Told in an arch, humorous, and slightly aloof style, this sophisticated adventure is for larger fiction collections.
- Joan Hinkemeyer, Englewood P.L., Col.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (September 19, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241125634
• ISBN-13: 978-0241125632
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,216,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining work by a good novelist, September 30, 2010

By 

algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Interior (Hardcover)

"Interior" is loosely written, and does not achieve real intensity or focus until chapter 16 or so. I can forgive all that because it is entertaining, meaningfully explores some big issues, and the protagonist is very likable. Like other Cartwright novels, the prose is good.