Facing the Congo: A Modern-Day Journey into the Heart of Darkness

I've never been to the DRC or the Congo, so I have no experience with Tayler's destination. What strikes me about his obviously contrived writing, however, is a tendency to turn tragedy, danger, and despair into some kind of carnivalesque form of entertainment. Tayler is constantly being attacked and hustled by the sweaty native Other, incessantly being haggled for money and favors. In his position of power, what is he to expect? There is an underlying colonial-style theme to his writing which places him as the observer and the Congolese as the observed. Why travel to a war-torn southern nation that is notorious for its poverty and despair because of the stated reason that you are having an identity crisis? I feel like this is purely poverty tourism. All of my travels to Africa (much of West Africa) have surprised me in that they never reek of the horror that is expressed about them in books such as these. Much of Africa consists of small, friendly, and good-willed villages that are founded on subsistence economies. The starkness of Kinshasa and the Congo river in the 1990s is quite a suspicious choice for trying to resolve an identity crisis.

This book is an intense good read. Great mental pictures and WOW the CONGO........Jeff leaves NOTHING to the imagination......His description of the surroundings .....people.............animals..........sadness......pain and suffering...........are fantastic!!!!!!!!!
Another success by this talented author........I thought River of No Reprieve was a tough stint.........this hell makes Sibera look like the Vatican..........

Jeffrey Tayler isn't the first writer to follow in the footsteps of Henry Stanley, but he's penned one of the best accounts of the journey since Stanley himself.

Tayler's trip up the Congo River on a freight barge and then back down in a pirogue--a native canoe--is the stuff of which epics are made. He made the trip during a time when the Democratic Republic of Congo hadn't yet fully devolved into a war-ravaged debacle of a nation, but conditions were anything but peaceful. His life was at times in danger and his tales of robberies, shakedowns, and forceful begging are enough to make the most seasoned traveler cringe.

Facing The Congo is an exciting, instructive tale of travel in a country where modernity has yet to take hold.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

This is an interesting story but it reads like an unfinished story. When Tayler's guide Desi falls ill the trip comes to a screeching halt. Was Desi really ill or was he merely demoralized and if so why? Or was he faking illness(he springs right back as soon as he boards the barge)? No matter. Did the author really have no choice but to abandon his quest after the first sign of trouble and danger - real or perceived? Couldn't he have procured a substitute guide at one of numerous riverine villages or a town? Didn't Henry Morton Stanley warn him enough of the dangers he would face? Was the pull of Tatyana and the crisp air of Moscow so irresistible after so many days of heat, humidity, bugs and hostilities? I was deeply disappointed at the abrupt end to the story. It is one thing for Tayler to paddle down the Congo river or any river on earth but as a reader I expected more after having followed him over 250 pages of his travelogue. Was the story worth writing? Obviously the answer to this question is 'yes' - the book is written. Was it worth reading? Here the answer is also affirmative. There is much to be gleaned from his encounters with the army, security, police and other forms of thuggery for anyone crazy enough to retrace his steps or even go beyond and actually complete it - in person. His description of the beach scene when he first arrives in Kinshasa is memorable if gut-wrenching. There is much to ponder about the glimpse of the welcome and the abundance of hostilities. Is the authhor exaggerating the latter to justify abandoning what he set out to do? And was he too paranoid to see much of the former? If nothing else the book shows the anxiety and trepidation that will surely visit a mere mortal traveler off the beaten path and the toll they take on one's psyche.
Tayler's quest for traveling the length of the river both up and down is no doubt greatly facilitated by an army officer whose motives in lending him help remain mysterious. Whatever the motives, such help may have come at a price even when no money is demanded. Left to his own device Taylor may have been more motivated to reach out and connect with the fellow travelers on the way up the Congo river from whom he may have gotten a better sence of what to expect and how to prepare himself for his trip down.

Tayler's subtitle puts it in perspective.

This is the story of a modern traveler taking on a part of the Congo River in recent times, the bigger story is its comparison with Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness". Conrad's 1890's short novel sets the stage for Tayler's update of conditions in equatorial Congo. Without Conrad's work, Tayler's book is merely an interesting travel adventure. If Tayler makes you uneasy, Conrad will make you gasp.