Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure [Paperback]

Stuart Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 1994

Malaria Dreams is a tale of high adventure across Africa, recounted with the wit and humor that delighted readers of Night Train to Turkistan, Stuart Stevens' highly praised first book. "A rollicking, off-beat African odyssey".--Publishers Weekly.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stevens and a former fashion model drove a tortuous route from the Central African Republic to Europe via Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Mali and Algeria. "Stevens is the author of Night Train to Turkestan ; his offbeat African odyssey is a rollicking successor," asserted PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

Malaria Dreams is a tale of high adventure across Africa, recounted with the wit and humor that delighted readers of Night Train to Turkistan, Stuart Stevens's highly praised first book.

The story begins when a "geologist" friend mentions to Stevens that he has a Land Rover in the Central African Republic which he'd like to get back to Europe. It's only later, when Stevens discovers that half of Africa thinks his friend is a spy and the other half is convinced he's a diamond smuggler, that the intrepid author begins to realize he should have asked a few more questions before leaving home. And then there's the small problem of the Land Rover's seizure by the minister of mines, who has appropriated it as his personal car. It is a new Land Rover. The minister likes it very much.

Three months later, Stevens and his twenty-three-year-old companion (the only woman to ever transfer from Bryn Mawr to the University of Oklahoma) have somehow managed to drive-though not in the ill-fated Land Rover-across the wildest part of Africa, emerging scathed but still alive on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Malaria Dreams takes readers along on close encounters with killer ants in Cameroon, revolutionary soldiers in the middle of Lake Chad (a huge mudhole lacking any water), and strangely frenzied Peace Corps parties in Niger. There's a long search for a functional set of springs in Timbuktu and near disastrous bouts with sickness and automotive malfunctions in the middle of the Sahara.

Through it all, Stevens and his ex-fashion model companion battle the odds, and often each other, to return home to tell this unlikely, highly amusing tale.

"One of the funniest tales of misadventure to come along in quite a while.... Mr. Stevens has a wonderful eye for the curiosities of human behavior, Third World variety; he is witty, but not at the expense of the Africans."--The New Yorker

"Mr. Stevens emerges from the book not only as an engaging, picaresque hero, but also as a clever and observant writer."--The New York Times

"For an...Africa veteran, Stuart Stevens's Malaria Dreams will bring the pleasure of recognition. For all readers it brings much laughter."--The Wall Street Journal

"[Stevens's] depiction of exotic people and locales is often eloquent. And he succinctly limns the opulent and squalid vestiges of colonialism. Thankfully, he survived the adventure with his dry sense of humor intact."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"You would have to be out of your mind to go anywhere with Stuart Stevens, but when the travel is only mental, he is the perfect companion: brave, funny, and ever-watchful."--Martin Amis

Stuart Stevens is the author of the highly praised Atlantic Monthly Press travel book Night Train to Turkistan and Scorched Earth, "a political love story." He has written for the Emmy Award-winning television series Northern Exposure and I'll Fly Away and has published articles in Esquire, the New Republic, Outside, and other magazines. The Stuart Stevens Group political consulting firm has produced award-winning media campaigns for dozens of senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial races around the country.

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press (January 13, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087113361X
• ISBN-13: 978-0871133618
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern African Adventures - A look at Reality, September 9, 1999

By 

"kgepp" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure (Paperback)

This is a story on HOW one travels in Africa. Some stories Stevens paints may sound outrageous or outlandish, but that's exactly how it is in Africa. Experienced in traveling and living in this fabolous continent, I can only say "welcome to reality". The author has a very humorous style of telling wild tales of African Bureaucracy and logic as encountered during their misfortunate trip through the Sahara. I smiled my way through the book that I hardly could put down. The tales are so real (as anyone will testify who has been there) that it rocks the reading chair of anyone getting into the book. Don't read the book, if you are planning your first trip to Africa but read it if you want to immerse yourself in real African mentality, shrewdness, and irrationality held together by a humor hard to resist.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny as hell, August 10, 2001

By 

Marceau Ratard (Metairie, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure (Paperback)

This book is about how an American guy ends up driving from the Central Africa Republic all the way to North Africa. Suffice it to say that everything that can go wrong does. I've had a lot of personel experience in Cameroon and I can say that everything that happened to this guy didn't sound that far fetched. It is laugh outloud funny. I just couldn't put it down. If your looking for a funny read, then this book is for you. This is a fun book, it is not meant to be some philosophical consideration about the status of Africa or anything like that. There are several excellent and very seroius books about Africa, but this is not one. This book is an adventure story. It is hilarious, I was kind of sad to finish it. It made me want to go back to Africa and they my hand at driving from Capetown to Tunis. Don't miss it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book I want to write..., March 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure (Paperback)

I have travelled more than the average and as a result, most of my reading tends to be travel guides and the travelogues of others. "Malaria Dreams" easily ranks as my favorite. Most travellers to the third world and particularly Africa will appreciate the truth in the stories which Mr. Stevens tells. I have lent the book to at least 15 other people and only one has not enjoyed it (he had lived in Africa for a number of years and said it was just too real for him to enjoy). I am now on my third copy of the book--the first I lent and never got back, and the second I passed on to some friends who were starting their second cross-Sahara trip. If I ever get around to writing about any of my trips, I hope that I can retell the story in as engaging and humorous a way as Mr. Stevens has.