Cheap The African Queen (Bantam Book) (Book) (C. S Forester) Price

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Customer Reviews of The African Queen (Bantam Book)

The ending redeems itself
Throughout most of the book, I found myself thinking, "This is one case where I like the movie better." Although the plot for the first 3/4 of the book is the same as the movie's, the characterization is a bit different. For example, the movie portrays Rose as a determind, principled, yet prim woman who slowly learns to love; in the book, she comes across as a bit immature, supposedly the result of being repressed by men her entire life, and is so thrilled with the freedom earned by her brother's recent death that she decides to kamikaze a German boat. Personally, I found the movie's Rose more realistic and likeable; the book's Rose felt too much like a poster child of feminist propoganda. <
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>In general, most of the novel is a bit heavy-handed is describing the character's motives, characters, and thought processes, and leaves very little to the imagination. Subtlety, apparently, is not Forester's strong point. <
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>The only thing keeping me from giving this book a lower rating is the ending. Forester truly redeems himself in my eyes with the ending, which is far darker and more realistic than the movie's. The ending calls into question everythng that you assumed that Forester was trying to tell you -- all the notions of heroism, patriotism, and true love. The last line is probably one of my favorite of all last lines, <
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>forcing you to ask yourself: Are Charlie and Rose truly soulmates, or has an extreme situation simply brought them together and instigated passion? While in the movie it is clear that Charlie and Rose truly love another, the book suggests that their "love" may simply be due to the arousal that arises during a near-death situation. For me, this very human, bittersweet ending enabled me to forgive Forester for his earlier heavy-handed treatment of the characters. <
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Was This A College Writing Assignment?
I was shocked to learn how bad this book really is. The title is so beloved by many as the Bogart/Hepburn classic, and one would expect the book to not only match the Hollywood translation but to dwarf it with typical literary superiority. Not so. The basic plot itself is brilliant enough in its simplicity: two unlikely characters (the archetypical Cockney grease monkey and the chaste maiden) have an adventurous float down an untamed river on a cocked-up mission to sink a German gunship. Ok so far. What Forester does with this promising seed is ridiculous and leaves the reader wondering whether this was all just a vehicle for Forester to deliver a little saucy "maiden-missionary-loses-her-virginity" stuff mixed in with his clearly evident views that missionaries are idiots. Forester's story is outrageous on all levels. From the timely and chance first meeting between Rose and Allnut, to the mere minutes that it took for Rose to hatch her ignorant plot to sink a German warship, to Allnut's agreement to participate, to the absurd success of the journey, to the ridiculous "Cockney ingenuity" with which Allnut fashions a propeller out of a coconut or some such stunt, Forester lays a number of eggs. The creme de la creme is Rose's glorious fall from grace. This whole angle of the book borders on soft porn, at least by 1930's standards. Are we to believe that this apparently devout missionary woman has maintained her purity for all these years just to give it all to this unbathed louse? Forester clearly delighted in this stuff: at one point, he actually describes Rose's 'chests' as literally levitating with her newfound vigor and energy - having replaced her former existence of Christian bondage with a new life of unbridled jungle boogie. Come on. Last criticism, with a SPOILER ALERT: the movie's ending is much better than the novel's. Whereas the movie made the boat (the very namesake of the book) into one of the main characters that ultimately sunk the German gunboat, Forester sinks the Afican Queen early and unceremoniously, and then takes the reader through an irrelevant account of Belgian naval manuevers and German military justice. Anyway, I've written enough: stick to the movie.