Customer Reviews
An engaging, sincere and enlightening read - By: E. Lumley, 11 May 2008 
Through this book Butcher neither tries to glamorise or exploit his trip; this earnest account is both sincere & enlightening. This book is travel writing at its best; Butcher is not over analytical & gives his readers space to form their own judgements & opinions. The author does not represent himself as either a hero or a victim; instead this is a humble account of an admittedly courageous & remarkable trip. Despite this reticence the book still retains the absorbing & enchanting qualities of an excellent read; it achieves this in a subtle way which is full of integrity appropriate to Butchers personality & very personal obsession with the Congo.
An eye opener - By: Hitesh Wadhwani, 11 May 2008 Blood River was a painful read because it provided insight into the very real horror that is the Democratic Republic of Congo. The book was about the author's brave adventure to cross the country navigating the mighty Congo river & every other page spoke about the misery that exists in a country where nearly 1200 hundred people die every day. The extent of the suffering & the realities of life in the DRC was very painful to read about & frankly quite an eye opener. You just do not read about this in the newspaper or see it in on television.
Some readers have criticized the author for sounding elitist or not focusing enough about the lives of ordinary people in the Congo, however I did not see it that way. Tim Butcher risked his life with this audacious attempt to cross the Congo & he deserves great recognition for bringing to light the cruelties in the DRC that the world has chosen to ignore. It seems very unfair to harshly judge someone who was brave enough to undertake a journey of this magnitude.
I found the book to be very well balanced & the history lesson plus the documentary overtone simply added more credibility into the message of the book.
A Boys' Own Yarn - with insight. - By: William J. Walsh, 08 May 2008 This is an enthrallling, hair-raising tale of a country in the grip of an exploited past & a gruesomely plundered present; interwoven with the equallly hair-raising story of a man in the grip of an insane obsession.
A calm & measured analysis of Belgian colonial rule counterpoints Butcher's apparently senseless & appalllingly perilous quest - that of following in the footsteps of the explorer Stanley, a newspaper-man whose motives for making that first 1867 trip down the Congo seem to have been pretty dubious; & who, moreover - unlike Butcher - travelled under the protection of a bloodthirsty private army of his own. The author's fascination with his subject, combined with the unseen terrors that lurk round every bend in the river, make this a page-turner; & at a deeper level, his pointless seeking out of danger stands, I think, as a distorting-mirror to the madness that is the Congo today: in this instance, a madness that is both European & self-imposed.
"Blood River" brilliantly conveys the plight of the Congo as a whole; its only defect is a certain lack of human empathy for the citizens of a once-civilized country now slowly being obliterated by fetid jungle - and, indeed, by rivers of blood. I read this book immediately after enjoying Annie Hawes' much more laid-back African tale, "Handful of Honey"; another fearsome thousand-mile journey across the continent - this time amid warring Islamists & their opponents. The themes of post-colonial collapse & of Macchiavellian interference by the ex-colonial powers are heart-breakingly similar in both books; & are something us comfortable Westerners need to hear a lot more about. But compared to Hawes' full-blooded Moroccans & Algerians, people with opinions of their own, Butcher's Congolese often seem mere ciphers. I would recommend reading both books for the fuller picture!
Important book, execution unsatisfying - By: Beatrice Schaer, 22 Apr 2008 
I came across this book by coincidence before a long train journey & having travelled to the DRC (Kinshasa, Matadi, Boma) myself in 2006 I was obviously very curious about this book.
Firstly, I believe that any book which brings the tragedy & the current war-like situation in the East to the forefront of people's mind a very important book. Too long has the rest of the world ignored what is going on in the DRC.
However Tim Butcher tries to achieve too much with this book, part adventurer story, part history lesson, part documentary it does nothing reallly well. Some of it has to do with Butcher's writing style. Not every good journalist can also write a book & reallly carry a story.
What is reallly disturbing when reading this book is when he is lamenting his own plight, the bad food, the mosquitoes, the heat, the sheer boredom of parts of his trip. What was he expecting? It seems he has read numerous accounts about Stanley's trip however has not reallly prepared for today's realities of the Congo. The constant complaints made it difficult to read certain passages in the book.
Overalll, the book even leaves a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth, in places it sounds at times elitist & has passages with what one could consider racist undertones.
The writing itself does not convey much empathy with the Congolese people. A majority of the people Butcher writes about in more detail are white missionaries, UN workers & even an adventurer who is clearly profiteering from the current state of affairs in the Congo. I don't hear the voice of the Congolese people out of this book.
Lastly, the first part of the trip takes up the majority of pages in the book & the last parts of the trip are just glanced over as if he could not wait to finish this book & get out of the Congo as quickly as possible.
This book could have been a very interesting & importnat book, but in the end the subject has not been handled careful enough.
Brilliant and revealing read... - By: Mr. J. P. Jeffery, 10 Apr 2008 
The author managed to keep my attention & alllow me to enter the dark world that is the Congo. He has a gifted ability in writing & a bravery to match to dare to enter such a dangerous place in the world. The end was a bit disappointing as his river trip seemed to end in the back set of a car otherwise I would have given him a 5 star! The book is a good example of what Africa is capable of achieving - absolutely nothing. I expect to see him write another book on the destruction of Zimbabwe in the next ten years time where it'll be in even worse state than the Congo is right now!
