| Congo Kitabu |  | Author: Jean Pierre Hallet
Publisher: Fawcett Crest Books
Category: Book
Buy Used: $2.08
Used (11) Collectible (1) from $2.08
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 487850
Media: Paperback
Edition: Unabridged
Pages: 448
ASIN: B0007FG5TI
Publication Date: 1967
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: THIS BOOK IS A COLLECTIBLE SIXTH PRINTING, FAWCETT CREST BOOKS, MARCH, 1966. DON'T GET TRICKED INTO PAYING MORE, JUST BECAUSE A BOOK IS LISTED UNDER THE "COLLECTIBLE" CATEGORY. Paperback. Cover has wear; bent corners; creases. Is tight. Pages are clean; unmarked. Shipped promptly.
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Customer Reviews:
Action in Africa March 21, 2003
Daniel Loftus (Portland, Oregon United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
If I had to pick the man who had the most interesting life on this planet, Jean-Pierre Hallet would be at the top of my list. As a field agent for the government of the Belgian Congo, he comes to help them grow crops and gets deeply involved in African society. The things he does are amazing-and it's all true.
At different times he:
lives amongst the field pygmies, (he wrote another book just about that)
loses his hand in an explosion, then swims from crocodiles,
kills a leopard with a knife,
starts an animal hospital,
witnesses a revolution,
goes through the Masai manhood ritual, killing a charging lion with a spear.
Those are just the highlights. A big man with a bushy beard and a mechanical hand , he was making the rounds of talk shows when I was a teen ager.
Expanding the boundaries of being human November 19, 2003
Patricia Conroy (Corvallis, OR)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I had just seen Matrix Revolution, which seemed to me a mythical heroic saga, and, unable to sleep, searched my bookshelves for something to read. Little did I know as I began to read Congo Kitabu that I was entering a real-life heroic saga. Congo Kitabu is the story of Jean-Pierre Hallet's life in Africa between 1948 and 1960. To tell the details of those years would be to spoil a breath-taking story, so I will simply talk about Jean-Pierre. This is a man who takes his life as it comes, with humor and a kind of courage few of us know. He becomes part of all he experiences, he cares, he's a practical visionary who sees the possibilities in people and situations and creates ways to bring those possibilities about. He's also a pragmatic realist who never seems to sucuumb to sadness or despair, despite circumstances whcih would make that a great temptation, but deals directly with whatever he faces. His adventures, seeing the Africa of his day through his eyes, makes the book a great read. His heroics, both the everyday kind and the extraordinary kind, expand my understanding of what it is to be human. In an interview Mr. Hallet says he never courted danger for its own sake, but... "it's simply that I refuse to have anything to do with that negative feeling called fear." Conga Kitabu is a great read simply as a story, as the reader scrambles along with Hallet during his numerous and fascinating adventures. It's also the heroic tale of a man who rose above fear again and again as he followed his heart, his passion, his vision. As such it expands its reader into new territory, calling him or her to do likewise.
A real-life hero March 20, 2005
Robert G. Leroe (Saugus, MA USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I first read Congo Kitabu in the 60's while in high school and was in awe of this true-life adventure. I nearly got to meet the author but couldn't get a ride to where he was speaking. This is one of those books everyone ought to read, because it is a page-turner, but also because it talks about a troubled area of the planet. This should be read with Out of America by Keith Richberg, a more current view of Africa. This is one of those books you'll never forget--it'll make a lasting impression and you'll want to read it again.
Best book I've ever read April 25, 2007
Vincent Mazzarella, MD
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had the pleasure of knowing Jean Pierre in his shop in Santa Monica in the 90s. I heard his stories about being captured by Zairean rebels, being rescued by Zairean troops, and some of the stories "behind" Congo Kitabu. This is one of the most amazing men that has ever lived. I read Congo Kitabu for the first time in the 80s, and Jean-Pierre's efforts to save the Efe Pygmies of the Ituri forest in his later life equals that of Congo Kitabu. This book is only part 1 of one of the most amazing lives of our century. There is more to his story, and that of the Efe Pygmies, that has yet to be told.
This is one of the hidden gems of our time. It is a wonder that it has not been reprinted.
|
|
|
|
| |
