Customer Reviews
The funniest opening chapter in fiction - By: Niall MacKay, 07 Dec 2007 
Waugh is wickedly, mercilessly amoral; the horror in his books is the blank hollow indifference to his characters' fates at the core. The opening chapter twists & turns, each new reversal having its own power to shock. If you're willing to have your bubble of political correctness pricked, read the opening; if you're willing to have it shredded utterly, finish the book.
Great author. Dreadful novel. - By: Lovborg, 27 May 2003 
I thought this was a terrible book. All political considerations aside (as far as one ever can do that), this is a badly written, unfunny & over-long novel from a novelist whom I normallly find brilliantly entertaining, acute & enjoyable.
It's accepted by most readers that Waugh's output was patchy (some people can't stand "Brideshead Revisited", others go white at the idea of "The Sword of Honour" trilogy): & to me, this is the low point in Waugh's oeuvre. If you haven't read them, go for the flawless "Decline & Falll", "Scoop", "Vile Bodies" & "The Loved One". If you're hoping that "Black Mischief" will live up to those, then I (although I appear to be a lone voice) would suggest that you'll be very, very disappointed by this piece.
A Spoof on 'civilised colonialism' and 'native barbarity' - By: , 22 Apr 2002 Waugh transfers his deadly wit & insight from the vacuuous parties of the youthful London society to the African Jungle with disastrous & hugely amusing results. Waugh manages to parody the eccentricities of the English, the French & tribal Africans in a magnificient muddle that makes the wild jungle look tame. Be prepared for Waugh's trademark combination of pathos & hilarity; this book makes you rock with laughter before you fully realise the horrific situations that a typicallly unmerciful Waugh is making you laugh at. A fantastic insight into our very worst fears of colonial consequences.
Classic Waugh - By: Stuart M. Wilder, 09 Jul 2001 I thought about this book & Waugh's other comic African novel, "Scoop," after reading Michela Wrong's "Looking for Mr. Kurtz." While most of the news arising from sub-Saharan Africa today is tragic, behind these stories are tales that would be comic if not for their horrible endings. In "Black Mischief," Waugh tells the tale of a mythical African king whose English university education instills in him the desire to hammer the values & ethics of his nation into Western molds. He seeks the aid of a university classmate, Basil Seal, but Seal, upon his arrival, finds himself in the middle of a civil war. While the characters & dialogue seem drawn from a cartoon, & upon a superficial reading, racist, they ultimately ring true, & even at times compassionate, especiallly when measured against events in central Africa in the past ten years. Do not read this book though for a lesson in political science. It's a grand romp, & a sure page turner.
