Good God, why isn't everyone reading Thomas H. Cook's book all the time?!?!?!

The weight that Cook's characters bear has brought me to tears, made me gasp, left me with an aching heart, mired me in an unshakeable sadness that ebbs away only when I embrace a new book. A Dancer in the Dust is no exception. In this story, Cook explores racism, sexism, power, & betrayal on a global scale. The death of one woman is bound up in the grand schemes of men, all intent on doing good as they see it.

It's also a tale of globalization versus self-sufficiency, a cautionary tale. Ray is an idealist who goes to Lubanda to "help." He is assigned to a village where he encounters a white woman. But she is local, a native of Lubanda, born in country, and has never left. Her one desire in life is to work the farm her father left her. This should be so easy, to hold on to a few acres in a part of the world no one knows about. But those acres - as much as her fierce defiance of the men who try to lay claim to them - become pivotal in the struggle for Lubanda. And Ray, who is enthralled by her, wants to possess Martine herself, not her land, so he schemes as well. Martine is caught up in it all, as one man after another cannot tolerate her refusals, her defiance, her attempts at self-determination.

As always, Cook apportions blame & responsibility justly & heavily. What also happens here, and I don't think I've seen it in his prior works, is atonement. Ray & Martine once discuss atonement, as he tries to explain it to her. Ray later talks about how rare it is for one to get a chance to right a wrong. Though it isn't enough, it seems Ray is able to do the most he can to atone for his part in Martine's destruction. And like Ray, with that, we must be satisfied.

The beauty of Cook is his prose. If his books were songs, they would be quiet pieces written in minor chords, that tug at your heart with every refrain, and give you glimpses of alternative possibilities at the bridge with an angst and a yearning that make you ache. He uses simple words, simple metaphors, simple phrases. Yet every so often they synthesize so that Cook reveals a simple truth in a stark, but poetic, way. And throughout there is an undertow that you can just detect, signaling that something else is at work, something else is happening. You will find out what it is. And it will leave you wasted when you do. It's a crescendo, a wave that crashes over you, & you need to catch your breath & gain your bearings. For decades now, each of Cook's books have promised this emotional exhaustion. His new releases should be heralded.

The only thing holding this back from 5 stars is that it's missing a sense of time: when did the original events occur, are the current events happening in 2016 (or thereabouts), how old is Ray & everyone involved? Cook touches on some of these, but you don't really feel the answers, & so they distract a bit. But don't let that stop you from picking up this book. It's beautiful. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand I do like the story line but the author bounces back and forth in time too much. Sometimes this format works in moderation but there were times it was confusing.

Ray had been young when he volunteered to work in Lubunda as an aid worker. He knew he was going to help everyone and do good things. Unfortunately, I felt, that he thought he knew what was best for Martine (a white woman born in Lubunda) and turned spy thinking that he could make things so she would come to the states with him rather than stay in a country that didn't want her there.

Martine felt she was native Lubundan and I think she wanted the best for her country which was not in line with what Ray or the current government. She owned her own farm and felt very strongly about her country.

20 years later: There was a murder in New York city that took Ray back to Lubunda to discover who committed the murder.

Like I mentioned the story was a good one but the bouncing back and forth so much between time lines occurred too much. There were also passages that too me were just too poetic for the situation but that may not bother others. ( )

A Dancer In The Dust – An Ode To Africa

A Dancer In The Dark is the latest novel from Thomas H. Cook which is more a literary novel with a message that just happens to have two murders that run through the course of the book. The book is more an ode to continental Africa, no country in particular, and a lesson to ask ourselves in that does foreign aid actually help or hinder a country. This book is so intelligently written the prose crisp and clear that clearly shows an insight and knowledge of people and aid. That it is classed as a crime book is a mistake by those that like to classify what we read.

A Dancer in the Dust should not be marganalised as a thriller as those who love thrillers would dismiss this as not enough blood and guts no clear good and bad guys. This novel is a multifaceted book in that it looks at people, western attitudes, African attitudes, racism and customs amongst many. One of the biggest theme is the unfailing love for a woman and a country.

Ray Campbell is a New York risk assessor helping his clients make money and giving them insightful advice, but twenty years prior he had been a young and enthusiastic volunteer aid worker in the newly independent African country, Lubanda. While there he falls in love with a white Lubandan farmer, Martine Aubert and with the changing winds he makes a fatal error which ultimately costs Martine her life.

A friend and leader of the Mansfield Trust comes to visit Ray to ask him if he can help investigate a murder of their former friend and colleague from Lubanda who was found murdered in a back ally in New York City. Seso had been looking for Bill Hammond as he had some information for him that he need to give him from the murder of Martine Aubert some twenty years prior.

This murder takes eventually takes Ray Campbell back to Lubanda in his search for the truth for both murders. For Ray it is also a visit back to those happier times in Lubanda before the revolution with Martine and Fareem, Seso assisting him and Bill who he reported to. We see these trips down memory lane and how what happened then will affect what may happen in the present. He eventually returns to Lubanda as an envoy of The Mansfield Trust and the question is what sort of aid will he confer on the country he loves or will he listen to the only women he has ever loved Martine.

This is an elegant novel, who once again shows that he is a master of the totally unexpected ending who seemlessly manages to mix love and death together and turning it in to a beautiful story. This book is a beautiful ode to the whole continent of Africa and an instructive and interesting read, that you will not regret. ( )

I had to write a review of A Dancer in the Dust by Thomas H. Cook with a limit of 200 words. Impossible. So, here’s a little fuller review.

Let me start by saying I am an avid Thomas H. Cook fan, beginning with The Chatham School Affair (which I’m planning to read again, one of these days), which is my favorite still. His writing is lyrical and descriptive. His plots are unusual. His characters run the range of likeable to untrustworthy. A Dancer in the Dust is a departure from his norm, if you can actually say he has a norm.

As an idealistic college graduate, Ray Chambers decides to spend a year in the African nation of Lubanda through an organization called Hope for Lubanda. His boss was Bill Hammond. His native assistant is Seso Alaya. On his first day there, in the market, he meets Martine Aubert, a white Lubandan farmer whose father had emigrated to Lubanda many decades ago. Aubert had very distinct opinions as to what these ‘do-good’ organizations were really doing and whether they actually made Lubandan life better–no they didn’t. This was contrary to
Chambers’ opinion and those of the nation’s dictator. She was a thorn in the government’s side. But of course, Chambers fell in love with her.

Twenty years later, Alaya’s tortured body is found in an alleyway near a sleazy Manhattan hotel. He had called Hammond a week prior saying he had important information but they never met and that information was never passed. Hammond asks Chambers to investigate the murder and retrieve the information.

The scene is set. Alaya’s murder is merely the ploy for the rest of the book. The book flips back and forth between the current day and Chambers’ reminiscences about his time spent in Lubanda, especially his relationship with Martine, as well as the political climate of the country. It is also a means for Cook’s diatribe against the Westernization of underdeveloped countries.

A Dancer in the Dust kept my interest but it was certainly not up to the standards of his most recent book Sandrine’s Case or his Edgar Award winning Chatham School Affair. If you’re a Cook fan or you like more political oriented intrigue, then I’d give A Dancer in the Dust a try, but I’m certainly not going to say it’s a ‘must read’ like most of Cook’s other books. ( )