Verdict: carrot
A RADICAL activist in the late sixties and early seventies with links to the Symbion ese Liberation Army (SLA), American-born James Kilgore was indicted for possession of explosives in 1975 but managed to elude the law for 27 years, hiding out in Zimbabwe, Australia and South Africa. Living in Cape Town under the assumed name of Dr John Pape he became a respected academic but was finally arrested in 2002 and extradited to California where he served six-and-a-half years in prison.
While incarcerated he wrote his first novel, We Are All Zimbabweans Now, a book which takes its title from a speech made by President Robert Mugabe.An intriguing blend of fact and fiction, its central character, Ben Dabney, is an idealistic young American doctoral student who, hugely impressed by Mugabe’s seeming magnanimity at the time of independence, decides he wants to write the definitive history of Zimbabwe’s struggle for liberation and reconciliation. By his reckoning Mugabe will emerge as the hero of the book.
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November 13th, 2009 @14:25 #
Nice interview with James Kilgore by Janet van Eeden on Litnet today. Also she gives the book a definite carrot:
"This is a fascinating read. James Kilgore has written a novel which deals with Zimbabwe in its earliest incarnation, mixing actual events with fiction. We are all Zimbabweans Now is one of my three best reads of this year."
http://www.litnet.co.za/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&cause_id=1270&news_id=77476&cat_id=180