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I, Charles, from the Camps
Charles Agwok never asked to come into the world as a poor black African on the most terrible of continents. It seems especially unfair to him that it is a matter of chance whether he will sleep in a bed, find a job, marry, or die of hunger and disease. Yet although he never asked for his fate, now he must somehow find a way to survive it.
As he embarks on a coming-of-age journey to find meaning within a world that only recognizes violence, Charles does his best to endure the horrifying conditions that he and the other displaced people of Odek must face every day in the sprawling camps of northern Uganda. When a desperate need to find work leads him to the city of Kampala, Charles spends the next ten years as a bitter man frustrated with the unfairness of the world. Charles has no idea he has the power within to change his fate until he is reluctantly recruited to become a soldier in the Lords Resistance Army and must face his past as it rises up to meet him.
In this powerful story, a young Ugandan on a quest to survive his unfortunate circumstances grudgingly becomes a rebel who learns that it is only he who controls the demons living within his soul.
As he embarks on a coming-of-age journey to find meaning within a world that only recognizes violence, Charles does his best to endure the horrifying conditions that he and the other displaced people of Odek must face every day in the sprawling camps of northern Uganda. When a desperate need to find work leads him to the city of Kampala, Charles spends the next ten years as a bitter man frustrated with the unfairness of the world. Charles has no idea he has the power within to change his fate until he is reluctantly recruited to become a soldier in the Lords Resistance Army and must face his past as it rises up to meet him.
In this powerful story, a young Ugandan on a quest to survive his unfortunate circumstances grudgingly becomes a rebel who learns that it is only he who controls the demons living within his soul.
224 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 21, 2018
5 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Joel D. Hirst
12 books27 followersJoel D. Hirst is a novelist and playwright. "An Excess of Nationalism" is his 5th novel. All great writers need their Armenia novel, this is his. He has also written "I, Charles, From the Camps", his 4th novel, a coming of age struggle about a poor boy from the camps in northern Uganda and his tragic attempts to build a wall between himself and the misery which nevertheless comes for him, as well as "Lords of Misrule", about a Tuareg from Timbuktu who is radicalized to jihad and how he finds his way out, and what it costs him. He has also written "The Lieutenant of San Porfirio"; and its sequel "The Burning of San Porfirio". His first play is "Dreams of the Defeated". Joel was a visiting Fellow in Human Freedom at the George W. Bush Institute and a visiting International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a graduate of Brandeis University.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 16, 2018
From the first page, the novel's protagonist, Charles, a young black man from Northern Uganda, speaks harshly and yet poetically about his life; the miserable, barren existence that he and his family eke out in a refugee camp, and his bitter knowledge that others on the globe live a life of privilege, not knowing or caring about his tribe, the Acholis. He challenges the reader directly--what would you do, if you were me? He sometimes pleads his case, and sometimes bristles with contempt for his audience, who could not possibly imagine, let alone endure the circumstances he has to live with.
Charles is no Ugandan Horatio Alger, rising up from nothing with pluck and luck. He has pluck, at least initially, but he never has luck, because his country is awash in corruption, civil war, and is ruled by a tyrant. Hirst skillfully builds and describes the world Charles inhabits; the exposition in the novel is notably good. You share the heat, the dust, the rain, the smells, the primitive conditions, the uncertainty and the injustice with Charles. You also meet the well-meaning charity workers from the vantage point of the people they are supposedly helping. (The novel doesn't go into this, but there is a compelling argument to be made that giving our old clothes, toys, bicycles, glasses and so on to Africa just distorts their economy and hurts African businesses.) Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa.
Nor are there any easy answers in this book, and no resolution to the question: is Charles an evil man or the product of his circumstances? That is left to the reader, which I can respect, but I did struggle with the fact that [spoiler] Charles is unable to articulate why he does the things he does at certain pivotal moments.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted. There are depictions of violence and cruelty. However, the vivid, passionate writing and the dynamic protagonist will remain with me for quite a while.
Charles is no Ugandan Horatio Alger, rising up from nothing with pluck and luck. He has pluck, at least initially, but he never has luck, because his country is awash in corruption, civil war, and is ruled by a tyrant. Hirst skillfully builds and describes the world Charles inhabits; the exposition in the novel is notably good. You share the heat, the dust, the rain, the smells, the primitive conditions, the uncertainty and the injustice with Charles. You also meet the well-meaning charity workers from the vantage point of the people they are supposedly helping. (The novel doesn't go into this, but there is a compelling argument to be made that giving our old clothes, toys, bicycles, glasses and so on to Africa just distorts their economy and hurts African businesses.) Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa.
Nor are there any easy answers in this book, and no resolution to the question: is Charles an evil man or the product of his circumstances? That is left to the reader, which I can respect, but I did struggle with the fact that [spoiler] Charles is unable to articulate why he does the things he does at certain pivotal moments.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted. There are depictions of violence and cruelty. However, the vivid, passionate writing and the dynamic protagonist will remain with me for quite a while.
June 20, 2018
When one thinks of Africa, visions of exotic animal life and remote wilderness usually come to mind. Do you hear the lions roaring, the monkeys jumping from tree to tree? Can you smell the lush forests, the fresh earth? Does it all fill you with a sense of peace?
Good. Because the Africa described in “I, Charles, From The Camps” does anything but.
In his best work to date, Hirst takes us deep into the heart of the continent to Northern Uganda, a country plagued by years of foreign occupation, civil war, and guerilla warfare. Against the aforementioned backdrop of natural, untamed beauty, atrocities occur that you’d like to think are just borrowed from fictional movie scripts. Sadly, this violence is a way of life for citizens. It’s unfathomable to comprehend the horrors they endure daily. Even more frustrating is the fact that they are trapped with limited prospects through no choice of their own, just a matter of chance.
No one curses this fate more than our narrator and guide to such hellish reality, Charles Agwok, who embarks on an ambitious journey to escape the meaningless existence he and his family lead in the refugee camps. As suddenly as opportunities present themselves, they just as quickly force Charles to go in a different direction, every path doomed to lead to a new vice.
There’s definitely an ongoing struggle throughout the narrative – not just between Charles and his oppressors – but between the reader and this character. It’s only natural to root for the underdog and hope he finds absolution. Yet we also can’t ignore that he is by no means a victim who deserves forgiveness or sympathy for his brutality. He even says as much when addressing the reader. However, he does challenge us to consider how we would react in those same circumstances. It’s one thing to be disgusted by his crimes when you’re in a position of privilege, but what would you do if you were a product of his vicious environment? Thanks to Hirst’s vivid and passionate storytelling, it’s easy to imagine ourselves in his place, if impossible to determine what we would, in fact, do differently.
Powerful, compelling, and thought-provoking, “I, Charles, From The Camps” is a remarkable coming-of-age tale that will shake readers to their core and make author Joel Hirst a household name.
Good. Because the Africa described in “I, Charles, From The Camps” does anything but.
In his best work to date, Hirst takes us deep into the heart of the continent to Northern Uganda, a country plagued by years of foreign occupation, civil war, and guerilla warfare. Against the aforementioned backdrop of natural, untamed beauty, atrocities occur that you’d like to think are just borrowed from fictional movie scripts. Sadly, this violence is a way of life for citizens. It’s unfathomable to comprehend the horrors they endure daily. Even more frustrating is the fact that they are trapped with limited prospects through no choice of their own, just a matter of chance.
No one curses this fate more than our narrator and guide to such hellish reality, Charles Agwok, who embarks on an ambitious journey to escape the meaningless existence he and his family lead in the refugee camps. As suddenly as opportunities present themselves, they just as quickly force Charles to go in a different direction, every path doomed to lead to a new vice.
There’s definitely an ongoing struggle throughout the narrative – not just between Charles and his oppressors – but between the reader and this character. It’s only natural to root for the underdog and hope he finds absolution. Yet we also can’t ignore that he is by no means a victim who deserves forgiveness or sympathy for his brutality. He even says as much when addressing the reader. However, he does challenge us to consider how we would react in those same circumstances. It’s one thing to be disgusted by his crimes when you’re in a position of privilege, but what would you do if you were a product of his vicious environment? Thanks to Hirst’s vivid and passionate storytelling, it’s easy to imagine ourselves in his place, if impossible to determine what we would, in fact, do differently.
Powerful, compelling, and thought-provoking, “I, Charles, From The Camps” is a remarkable coming-of-age tale that will shake readers to their core and make author Joel Hirst a household name.
August 22, 2018
The Dark Truth About The Forgotten Consequences of War and Tyranny
’Guilt is an easy emotion for those who sit in comfortable chairs drinking good beer.’
Charles Agwok was a child of the refugee camps in Uganda. He watched the hypocrisy of the Western charity workers who came to ‘help’ those in the camp and saw his father bent down to the point of alcoholism and he made the decision young that crime was the only way he could get the money he wanted to escape. A decision that haunted him throughout his life as petty theft turned to murder and murder to torture and unspeakable brutality.
This is a difficult book to read and hard to review. It is trying very, very hard to rub noses that need rubbing, in the nasty truth about what happens around all those far away ‘minor’ conflicts those in the West see on the news. The author needed to strike a balance between avoiding making the message into a lecture and avoiding making the violence and sick brutality into an entertainment. A very tough gig. I am not sure he succeeded.
It was raw and sharp—my hate—a hate looking for retribution, to find solace in the suffering of others.
What I Really Liked:
- This book shows the real cost of the many ‘minor’ wars which ravage this world. The cost to lives which goes well beyond the battlefields and lingers on where people try to flee and wind up effective prisoners as refugees.
- The realism. This book clearly reflects in stark detail real events that have happened and are happening. Real abuses, real brutality. Not pleasant reading at all, but something that needs to be spoken of more often and in a loud voice.
- The touches of humanity. These shine through the grimdark brutality of the majority of the piece like brilliant beacons, especially the one unselfish love we see Charles demonstrate - that for Dog.
- The writing. This is a well written book in terms of language use.
’So before you judge me too harshly, you who live with plenty, I ask you one last time to examine yourself first. Would you have done any differently?’
What I Struggled With:
- The preaching. This book makes the fatal mistake of having the main character continually harangue the reader - and even other characters, instead of just letting the story demonstrate it’s message through his life. It is a classic case of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ on a grand scale.
- Charles. I found very little I could like about the main character. Admittedly a lot of that was down to the appalling upbringing he was forced to endure, but it made it incredibly hard to want to keep reading about such a profoundly unpleasant individual who engaged wilfully in horrific violence.
- The sense that Charles had no choice. The final question in the book, quoted above, tries to imply that he was not really responsible for his actions and anyone in the same place would have done the same thing. That is patently untrue. He made choices others would not have made and do not make in a similar place. In trying to pursue this false sense of inescapable inevitability, I feel the author weakens the whole book.
- The view of the West en masse. This book makes the same mistake it is accusing the reader of doing and lumps every Westerner into the same basket.
Overall:
This is a book with a vital message and it is a tragedy in my opinion that the way it is written will put many off reading it. I found it more like a bad tasting medicine which the reader is told they should consume for their own good than the stunning wake-up call it could have been.
Star Rating: 3
Who Should Read This Book:
I think those who are the privileged ‘blind’ that Charles continually harangues, who see anyone not of their own national clique as ‘other’, who have never stopped to consider the wider impact of their privilege or what the life of a refugee is really like should read this book. Unfortunately, most never will.
’Guilt is an easy emotion for those who sit in comfortable chairs drinking good beer.’
Charles Agwok was a child of the refugee camps in Uganda. He watched the hypocrisy of the Western charity workers who came to ‘help’ those in the camp and saw his father bent down to the point of alcoholism and he made the decision young that crime was the only way he could get the money he wanted to escape. A decision that haunted him throughout his life as petty theft turned to murder and murder to torture and unspeakable brutality.
This is a difficult book to read and hard to review. It is trying very, very hard to rub noses that need rubbing, in the nasty truth about what happens around all those far away ‘minor’ conflicts those in the West see on the news. The author needed to strike a balance between avoiding making the message into a lecture and avoiding making the violence and sick brutality into an entertainment. A very tough gig. I am not sure he succeeded.
It was raw and sharp—my hate—a hate looking for retribution, to find solace in the suffering of others.
What I Really Liked:
- This book shows the real cost of the many ‘minor’ wars which ravage this world. The cost to lives which goes well beyond the battlefields and lingers on where people try to flee and wind up effective prisoners as refugees.
- The realism. This book clearly reflects in stark detail real events that have happened and are happening. Real abuses, real brutality. Not pleasant reading at all, but something that needs to be spoken of more often and in a loud voice.
- The touches of humanity. These shine through the grimdark brutality of the majority of the piece like brilliant beacons, especially the one unselfish love we see Charles demonstrate - that for Dog.
- The writing. This is a well written book in terms of language use.
’So before you judge me too harshly, you who live with plenty, I ask you one last time to examine yourself first. Would you have done any differently?’
What I Struggled With:
- The preaching. This book makes the fatal mistake of having the main character continually harangue the reader - and even other characters, instead of just letting the story demonstrate it’s message through his life. It is a classic case of ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ on a grand scale.
- Charles. I found very little I could like about the main character. Admittedly a lot of that was down to the appalling upbringing he was forced to endure, but it made it incredibly hard to want to keep reading about such a profoundly unpleasant individual who engaged wilfully in horrific violence.
- The sense that Charles had no choice. The final question in the book, quoted above, tries to imply that he was not really responsible for his actions and anyone in the same place would have done the same thing. That is patently untrue. He made choices others would not have made and do not make in a similar place. In trying to pursue this false sense of inescapable inevitability, I feel the author weakens the whole book.
- The view of the West en masse. This book makes the same mistake it is accusing the reader of doing and lumps every Westerner into the same basket.
Overall:
This is a book with a vital message and it is a tragedy in my opinion that the way it is written will put many off reading it. I found it more like a bad tasting medicine which the reader is told they should consume for their own good than the stunning wake-up call it could have been.
Star Rating: 3
Who Should Read This Book:
I think those who are the privileged ‘blind’ that Charles continually harangues, who see anyone not of their own national clique as ‘other’, who have never stopped to consider the wider impact of their privilege or what the life of a refugee is really like should read this book. Unfortunately, most never will.
September 22, 2018
There are two things I would like to say before I start with my review of I, Charles, from the Camps by Joel Hirst; one: this book is not for the faint-hearted; two: if you like good books; no, not the formula best-sellers that you can read in a sitting or two, but the real books that you like to read in leisure, the books that make you think about the grim realities of life somewhere far away in other land, the books that fill your thirst for reading, this is the book for you. As I said earlier, this book is not for the faint hearted; it has rape, murder, violence, all of it depicted in an utmost cruel way (not far from reality though!). the book will stay with you for days.
Charles Agwok is a black boy born in Uganda and lives in a refugee camp with his parents and siblings. While the majority of those refugee population is content to live a life of hunger, desolation, and utter poverty, Charles has dreams. Circumstances make him leave his camp, his family behind and what ensues is one man’s journey of becoming someone else driven by hunger, poverty, and greed, making difficult choices and killing his conscience entirely on the way.
I will not talk about the plot, the characters, the flow, the writing style of the author. It is 5 stars. I will not explore the story either. You, yourself have to read the book. I will only talk about Charles. He is the protagonist, the only one. All the other characters are secondary; they just take his story forward.
So, let’s start. Did I feel sympathy for Charles? Of course not; he was twisted; don’t you doubt that, even for a second.
Did I understand his motivations to do what he did under certain pivotal situations? Yes, I did. The evil was there inside him. I admit it isn’t always easy to judge someone on other side of the horizon when you, yourself, haven’t walked in his shoes. But I could understand his transition from Charles Agwok to Okot. Why every Charles born doesn’t end up becoming Okot? Because a vast majority of population are people who daren’t dream big and even if they do they daren’t chase their dreams. They’re not content, but they are just average people with average dreams.
And then, there is this small minority; they possess ability to dream and this raw strength to chase their dreams until they catch them. They are the great men in history we hear about. They have the ability to change the world.
But there is another minority altogether; the people who dream but are too weak to fight against adversity in a righteous way. They choose the easy way; ethics don’t matter; money, prosperity matters. That’s the minority to which Charles belongs. If you understand that, you will understand his motivations.
Not that he, in his own words, cares about what you think of him. He leaves everything to God, aware at the same time that God already knows (he (Charles) being his mere vessel).
A stunningly brilliant, thought-provoking work of literature.
Absolutely… highly… definitely recommended!
Charles Agwok is a black boy born in Uganda and lives in a refugee camp with his parents and siblings. While the majority of those refugee population is content to live a life of hunger, desolation, and utter poverty, Charles has dreams. Circumstances make him leave his camp, his family behind and what ensues is one man’s journey of becoming someone else driven by hunger, poverty, and greed, making difficult choices and killing his conscience entirely on the way.
I will not talk about the plot, the characters, the flow, the writing style of the author. It is 5 stars. I will not explore the story either. You, yourself have to read the book. I will only talk about Charles. He is the protagonist, the only one. All the other characters are secondary; they just take his story forward.
So, let’s start. Did I feel sympathy for Charles? Of course not; he was twisted; don’t you doubt that, even for a second.
Did I understand his motivations to do what he did under certain pivotal situations? Yes, I did. The evil was there inside him. I admit it isn’t always easy to judge someone on other side of the horizon when you, yourself, haven’t walked in his shoes. But I could understand his transition from Charles Agwok to Okot. Why every Charles born doesn’t end up becoming Okot? Because a vast majority of population are people who daren’t dream big and even if they do they daren’t chase their dreams. They’re not content, but they are just average people with average dreams.
And then, there is this small minority; they possess ability to dream and this raw strength to chase their dreams until they catch them. They are the great men in history we hear about. They have the ability to change the world.
But there is another minority altogether; the people who dream but are too weak to fight against adversity in a righteous way. They choose the easy way; ethics don’t matter; money, prosperity matters. That’s the minority to which Charles belongs. If you understand that, you will understand his motivations.
Not that he, in his own words, cares about what you think of him. He leaves everything to God, aware at the same time that God already knows (he (Charles) being his mere vessel).
A stunningly brilliant, thought-provoking work of literature.
Absolutely… highly… definitely recommended!
September 10, 2018
Charles is one of the few novels I truly believe everyone should read.
The narrative is masterfully crafted, and I find it baffling the author is someone other than Charles himself. It is a testament to the author, whom I learned, spent his life raised in foreign lands as the son of missionaries and observed a world from a perspective that third-world travelers (tourists, or short-term service volunteers and missionaries) completely miss.
Akin to Ishmael Beah’s, A Long Way Home, or Girl Soldier, co-authored by Faith J. H. McDonnell and Grace Akallo, Charles describes what life is like (or could be like) for one African boy displaced by war, disease, and famine, raised in refuge camps with his parents, and four of nine surviving siblings.
His account, albeit fiction, is not really fiction at all, but a story well crafted of what is, was, and what for many, could be if the hands of fate drop them situations of opportunity or uncertain peril. That in its own sense is as terrifying as it is tragic.
If I were to describe to the ‘highlights’ of the tale, it would be easy to dismiss the storyteller as a thug, or part of the problem, but when you get to know Charles in the first few pages, you cannot help but root for him. Glimpses of his humanity, his desire to love and be loved, his hope to be regarded as a valued creation of the creator, the aspiration of securing a place for himself to have security and a future - all these things we too want for ourselves and our families - unite us. No matter how bad things get for Charles, or how dark his paths take him, I held hope that he’d find redemption and his happily-ever-after.
With about 10% of the story left, I felt stuck, wadding through a repulsive bog of vile and repulsive muck. While this may sound like a dig to the author, it is quite the opposite. I found myself giving up on Charles. His decisions, his actions, the man he’d become made it hard to look at him with forgiving eyes. The author takes the reader on a dark journey, one that makes it easy to judge…in the way we tend to do when we feel the possibility of rehabilitation has passed. There were many times in that last 10%, where I had to look away.
…And when I did, it forced me to consider my own role in the lives of the boys and girls who would become Charles. An American, with a roof over my head and food at an arms reach any moment of the day. What is my role? Certainly not what it has been.
The story of Charles is not a lighthearted tale and stays with you long after the last page is read. I highly recommend this story to…well, to everyone who considers themselves able to handle a mature read.
I, Charles from the Camps, is by far the best piece of fiction I’ve ever read.
The narrative is masterfully crafted, and I find it baffling the author is someone other than Charles himself. It is a testament to the author, whom I learned, spent his life raised in foreign lands as the son of missionaries and observed a world from a perspective that third-world travelers (tourists, or short-term service volunteers and missionaries) completely miss.
Akin to Ishmael Beah’s, A Long Way Home, or Girl Soldier, co-authored by Faith J. H. McDonnell and Grace Akallo, Charles describes what life is like (or could be like) for one African boy displaced by war, disease, and famine, raised in refuge camps with his parents, and four of nine surviving siblings.
His account, albeit fiction, is not really fiction at all, but a story well crafted of what is, was, and what for many, could be if the hands of fate drop them situations of opportunity or uncertain peril. That in its own sense is as terrifying as it is tragic.
If I were to describe to the ‘highlights’ of the tale, it would be easy to dismiss the storyteller as a thug, or part of the problem, but when you get to know Charles in the first few pages, you cannot help but root for him. Glimpses of his humanity, his desire to love and be loved, his hope to be regarded as a valued creation of the creator, the aspiration of securing a place for himself to have security and a future - all these things we too want for ourselves and our families - unite us. No matter how bad things get for Charles, or how dark his paths take him, I held hope that he’d find redemption and his happily-ever-after.
With about 10% of the story left, I felt stuck, wadding through a repulsive bog of vile and repulsive muck. While this may sound like a dig to the author, it is quite the opposite. I found myself giving up on Charles. His decisions, his actions, the man he’d become made it hard to look at him with forgiving eyes. The author takes the reader on a dark journey, one that makes it easy to judge…in the way we tend to do when we feel the possibility of rehabilitation has passed. There were many times in that last 10%, where I had to look away.
…And when I did, it forced me to consider my own role in the lives of the boys and girls who would become Charles. An American, with a roof over my head and food at an arms reach any moment of the day. What is my role? Certainly not what it has been.
The story of Charles is not a lighthearted tale and stays with you long after the last page is read. I highly recommend this story to…well, to everyone who considers themselves able to handle a mature read.
I, Charles from the Camps, is by far the best piece of fiction I’ve ever read.
August 26, 2018
Charles Agwok asks "would you have done anything different?" -- a relatively simple question with profound implications for the reader.
This story is recounted in a first-person narration by Charles, an old man looking back at his life; born into a war-torn village in Uganda, his camp, and his life coming full circle. In the midst of a decades-long civil war where it's sometimes difficult to tell the terrorists from the freedom fighters -- perhaps this is a universal conundrum mediated only by one's perspective -- poverty, famine, disease, death, hopeless, violence, and death weave the fabric of his life.
Rejecting the white man's religion and filled with righteous contempt for the humanitarian workers that bring with them food rations, books, and hypocrisy, young Charles rejects the advice of his defeated and drunken father to stay in school and try to achieve some stability; to possibly be able to move out of the camps one day.
Along the way of his journey into adulthood, the protagonist is driven by anger and hopelessness for his lot in life that becomes glaringly uncomfortable as he occasionally mingles with other Africans of wealth or relative privilege. And perhaps for me, the most basic message of this story was that we are all animals -- driven to survive and making difficult choices that leave no room for conscience when one has to eat or starve. Indeed, one "friend" the protagonist briefly encounters on the savannah is an isolated giraffe that mirrors Charles' struggle: each with no tribe or protection, both beaten and bruised by their struggle to stay alive and find food, both understanding one another. Only one one of them lives through this scene. But whether human or nonhuman, animals we all are with the same drives and instincts.
So when one is immersed in a culture where a parent has to choose which child to feed or which one will die, rape and AIDS are commonplace, and children are routinely abducted to serve as child soldiers or their sex slaves, who among us is above murdering someone if it was our best means of securing food and shelter. I think that those who instinctively want to believe they are above such violence can only do so because they'e never been hungry and can read about such struggles from a nice recliner in an air-conditioned home; this belief that there is such a thing as non-violence in an inherently violent world is the domain of pure privilege.
This story is recounted in a first-person narration by Charles, an old man looking back at his life; born into a war-torn village in Uganda, his camp, and his life coming full circle. In the midst of a decades-long civil war where it's sometimes difficult to tell the terrorists from the freedom fighters -- perhaps this is a universal conundrum mediated only by one's perspective -- poverty, famine, disease, death, hopeless, violence, and death weave the fabric of his life.
Rejecting the white man's religion and filled with righteous contempt for the humanitarian workers that bring with them food rations, books, and hypocrisy, young Charles rejects the advice of his defeated and drunken father to stay in school and try to achieve some stability; to possibly be able to move out of the camps one day.
Along the way of his journey into adulthood, the protagonist is driven by anger and hopelessness for his lot in life that becomes glaringly uncomfortable as he occasionally mingles with other Africans of wealth or relative privilege. And perhaps for me, the most basic message of this story was that we are all animals -- driven to survive and making difficult choices that leave no room for conscience when one has to eat or starve. Indeed, one "friend" the protagonist briefly encounters on the savannah is an isolated giraffe that mirrors Charles' struggle: each with no tribe or protection, both beaten and bruised by their struggle to stay alive and find food, both understanding one another. Only one one of them lives through this scene. But whether human or nonhuman, animals we all are with the same drives and instincts.
So when one is immersed in a culture where a parent has to choose which child to feed or which one will die, rape and AIDS are commonplace, and children are routinely abducted to serve as child soldiers or their sex slaves, who among us is above murdering someone if it was our best means of securing food and shelter. I think that those who instinctively want to believe they are above such violence can only do so because they'e never been hungry and can read about such struggles from a nice recliner in an air-conditioned home; this belief that there is such a thing as non-violence in an inherently violent world is the domain of pure privilege.
June 28, 2018
A Moving Story of a Native African's Journey Through Hell.
This is a very personal and deeply felt novel about life of tribal destitution in Africa. The suffering of the poor people, their simple acceptance of their fate, their hidden wishes and dreams. It is tragic, but throughout the story, there is hope – a shining light.
The author has studied his subject well, and has captured the hopelessness of life of the poor in a poverty-stricken country, awash with corruption, civil war, and ruled by a few super-rich tyrants, power-seekers, who work hand in glove with ruthless businessmen to rob their lands of their mineral wealth and who have nothing but contempt for the destitute masses of their countrymen. The story is sad. It is raw. It is violent. The characters are well-developed, the atmosphere compelling. The story-telling passionate. Owing to its realism, it is nothing for the faint-hearted.
Although hard going at times, the prose is excellent but, for me, it has one (major) shortcoming. The voice! The story is written in the first person, that of Charles, a poor and impoverished native who is forced to leave his tribe and to find shelter in the refugee camps. He has only a tribal upbringing and hardly any schooling yet his speech and thoughts are pure European – they are those of a man with a good education and a middle-class background. There is little in his "voice" which would identify him as a black, tribal African and reveal the warmth and simplicity of his own native tongue. As I have spent many years in Africa, this structural deficiency makes Charles, as the lead character, unbelievable in my eyes although, I must add, the descriptive elements and settings of the story are very well done and ones I could relate to.
All told, this book is a good read and can be highly recommended.
This is a very personal and deeply felt novel about life of tribal destitution in Africa. The suffering of the poor people, their simple acceptance of their fate, their hidden wishes and dreams. It is tragic, but throughout the story, there is hope – a shining light.
The author has studied his subject well, and has captured the hopelessness of life of the poor in a poverty-stricken country, awash with corruption, civil war, and ruled by a few super-rich tyrants, power-seekers, who work hand in glove with ruthless businessmen to rob their lands of their mineral wealth and who have nothing but contempt for the destitute masses of their countrymen. The story is sad. It is raw. It is violent. The characters are well-developed, the atmosphere compelling. The story-telling passionate. Owing to its realism, it is nothing for the faint-hearted.
Although hard going at times, the prose is excellent but, for me, it has one (major) shortcoming. The voice! The story is written in the first person, that of Charles, a poor and impoverished native who is forced to leave his tribe and to find shelter in the refugee camps. He has only a tribal upbringing and hardly any schooling yet his speech and thoughts are pure European – they are those of a man with a good education and a middle-class background. There is little in his "voice" which would identify him as a black, tribal African and reveal the warmth and simplicity of his own native tongue. As I have spent many years in Africa, this structural deficiency makes Charles, as the lead character, unbelievable in my eyes although, I must add, the descriptive elements and settings of the story are very well done and ones I could relate to.
All told, this book is a good read and can be highly recommended.
July 23, 2018
Powerful, Unsettling, Magnificent
If you're like me, sometimes when you stray off the beaten path and read something by an up and coming novelist, somewhere before the tenth page, one of two things will happen. You will either: 1) Sigh gently, acknowledge the error of your choice, and set the book aside, or 2) Ask yourself, "Who the heck is this guy (or gal)?"and feverishly research the author's bio. Trust me, with "I, Charles," it's absolutely the latter.
Upon researching Mr. Hirst's bio, I guess it should come as little surprise that he's written such a brilliant book. He was a visiting Fellow in Human Freedom at the George W. Bush Institute and a visiting International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is now leveraging his impressive education and experience, and writing terrific novels.
"I, Charles" is a tremendous accomplishment from the first page to the last. It deals with suffering and man's inhumanity to his fellow man, and as such, it's occasionally unpleasant. It tells the first-person tale of Charles, an impoverished young man struggling to persevere in the refugee camps of Uganda. He takes us through the compelling tale of his life, and it is spellbinding. I suspect Mr. Hirst may have some manner of first-hand experience with the social and geopolitical landscape of Uganda.
The reader should be prepared for incessant lecturing and haranguing, as Charles bitterly contemplates his lot in life compared to that of the white westerners. While occasionally excessive, it's a very necessary part of the protagonist's character development. If I had to complain (and I always do), I really dislike this cover. It looks far too dystopian and sci-fi for the real-life tale within.
I highly recommend this book, and commend the author for tackling difficult topics with passion and sincerity.
If you're like me, sometimes when you stray off the beaten path and read something by an up and coming novelist, somewhere before the tenth page, one of two things will happen. You will either: 1) Sigh gently, acknowledge the error of your choice, and set the book aside, or 2) Ask yourself, "Who the heck is this guy (or gal)?"and feverishly research the author's bio. Trust me, with "I, Charles," it's absolutely the latter.
Upon researching Mr. Hirst's bio, I guess it should come as little surprise that he's written such a brilliant book. He was a visiting Fellow in Human Freedom at the George W. Bush Institute and a visiting International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is now leveraging his impressive education and experience, and writing terrific novels.
"I, Charles" is a tremendous accomplishment from the first page to the last. It deals with suffering and man's inhumanity to his fellow man, and as such, it's occasionally unpleasant. It tells the first-person tale of Charles, an impoverished young man struggling to persevere in the refugee camps of Uganda. He takes us through the compelling tale of his life, and it is spellbinding. I suspect Mr. Hirst may have some manner of first-hand experience with the social and geopolitical landscape of Uganda.
The reader should be prepared for incessant lecturing and haranguing, as Charles bitterly contemplates his lot in life compared to that of the white westerners. While occasionally excessive, it's a very necessary part of the protagonist's character development. If I had to complain (and I always do), I really dislike this cover. It looks far too dystopian and sci-fi for the real-life tale within.
I highly recommend this book, and commend the author for tackling difficult topics with passion and sincerity.
July 15, 2018
This was one of the more interesting books I've read. I wasn't sure what to think of it at first, as the book is sorta out of my comfort zone. It is definitely a coming-of-age novel, and very powerful. I was reminded of the television series Roots, in how this book portrays such a powerful message, and does it well. I think the dialogue could have been improved, and the first page monologue didn't really grab my interest, but I continued reading and the book turned out marvelous. I highly recommend.
July 17, 2018
Wow. I, Charles is a novel that is uncomfortable but so compelling and beautifully written that I couldn't put it down. There is so much grit and realism behind the poetic and the lyric. This is Africa as I can imagine it. This is the world as it has been for centuries. I would call this a coming-of-age novel and it should be required reading for a high school or college social studies course. Highly recommended and I will be reading more from this author. His blog is also worth a visit: https://joelhirst.wordpress.com/
September 22, 2018
I, Charles, from the Camps is a compelling and heart-wrenching tale whose realism and emotional palpability is something all authors wish their books had but only few achieve to the degree of Joel Hirst. Along with this dramatic story, Hirst displays his talent at character development as well as making every scene’s setting as detailed and real as if you were right there with Charles and Dog. I love a good spin on the iconic Hero’s Journey, and I, Charles is just that. Well worth the read!
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