The Blood Latitudes

by William Neal Harrison

By the time his son, Buck, arrives in London, Will Hobbs has settled into the quiet and solitary routines of retirement with the grace and self-sufficiency he carried through his years as a reporter... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1878448978
• ISBN13: 9781878448972
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly Good Read

I picked up this book just looking for something with Africa in it, never having heard of William Harrison. I was very surprised to find excellent writing and a very good story. Other reviewers have covered the story, so I won't go into that here. They also stated that they liked the Papa Ngiza character -- I found him to be the only partial flaw in the book. His complex rants sometimes seemed contrived, and not always essential to the story. A bit too over the top, even taking into account the fact that the character is supposed to be over the top. Other than that unimportant personal opinion Harrison has an excellent voice, creates vivid, interesting characters, and has written what I consider a much better read than what most "best selling" authors can stitch together these days. A surprising gem. I have since ordered several other Harrison novels. Anyone who can put together something like this has a voice that I'd like to hear more of. Can't find much information on him on-line, which is surprising given the talent he displays here. A quick, worthwhile read.

Good meaty tale of foreign horrors.

I picked up Blood Latitudes to look for some ideas for my own novella of exotic places & enjoyed it immensely. Harrison seems to've taken a cue from Conrad & Bowles: white folks stuck in foreign cultures are an endangered species, especially when folks in foreign cultures have learned just enough stray facts from the white folks to be dangerous. Here, pop goes in search of son who's disappeared on assignment. Will Hobbs knows what to expect: the detritus of colonization. Everything Will sees is a burlesque of Western intent: weird combinations of Marxism & voodoo, teenage armies, perverse respect for philosophy, & utter disregard for human life. The intensity increases with each turn of the page. Harrison is best known by his terseness of phrasing & his surprise, occasionally ironic, twists in short stories. That he can sustained his Spartan use of language & our attention for a novel is a credit to his talent.

Excellent

William Harrison deserves high praise for this gem. I am still stunned and haunted by its vivid images. Harrison has drawn complex and unpredictable characters that will remain with you long after you finish reading this book. One character in particular, Papa Ngiza, presses under your skin with his twisted philosophies about life and religion. No matter how hard I resisted, I had to admit that his philosophies are somehow horribly true. The harsh and strangely beautiful world of Africa lives within these pages.

Complex, intense, thoroughly literate novel.

By the time his son, Buck, arrives in London, Will Hobbs has settled into the quiet and solitary routines of retirement with the grace and self-sufficiency William Harrison's The Blood Latitudes he carried through his years as a reporter in Africa. Buck brings along his beautiful wife Key, and the news that he's now covering Will's old territory -- the incendiary part of Africa that once was the core of his father's life. Then Buck disappears on assignment and Will sets out to find him in an Africa that is swept up and over with violence, fear, passion, and indomitable hopes. William Harrison is a writer of great and imaginative accomplishment who, as showcased by The Blood Latitudes, is clearly a master of the complex, intense, unexpected, and thoroughly literate novel. Also highly recommended are Harrison's early novels: Three Hunters; Burton And Speke; Savannah Blue; Africana; Lessons In Paradise; Into A Wild Sanctuary; and The Theologian.