The General Is Up

by Peter Nazareth

Damibia is a fictitious land-locked country in East Africa, in which a demented army general takes power and begins a brutal rule of surrealistic dimensions. "The General is Up" is a comic fictional look at the essentially tragic story of the rise and fall of an African dictator, and the horrendous wrecking of a beautiful productive country in which the formerly idealistic landscape lies scattered with corpses and burt villages.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[soleil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book predicted the expulsion of Asians (East Indians) from Uganda by Idi Amin--it was published nine days before his pronouncement that, as the General believed in fictional Damibia, God had told him to do it. A book that explores the madness of being told you are not a citizen of the country you are born in, whose characters disappear from the text intentionally to meet their fates. Some images in this book really stood out to me. I recommend it to people looking to read about brutal regimes or history.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

12.29.2019 || my professor wrote this book and i read it for his class. it's an interesting book that does a lot in a little space. the commentary is clever, and the touch of humor makes it easier to read a story that would otherwise be devastating. i do think there were an awful lot of characters for such a short novel, and while i think it goes to show just how far the general's reach goes, i don't think every character was created equally. (also, deducting a star because there's a weird amount of sex for a book about a violent coup, written by your very old professor.)