The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe
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Product Description
Thrilling, heartbreaking, and, at times, absurdly amusing, The Last Resort is a remarkable right tale about one family tree in a country under siege and a tribute to the like, perseverance, and resilience of the human spirit.
Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Douglas Rogers is the son of white farmers living through that country’s long and tense transition from postcolonial rule. He escaped the dull future mapped out for him by his parents for one of adventure and excitement in Europe and the United States. But when Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe launched his violent program to reclaim white-owned land and Rogers’s parents were caught in the cross fire, everything changed. Lyn and Ros, the owners of Drifters–a legendary game farm and backpacker lodge in the eastern mountains that was one of the most well loved budget resorts in the country–establish their home and resort under siege, their friends and neighbors expelled, and their lives in danger. But as a replacement for of leaving, as their son pleads with them to do, they haul out a shotgun and choose to stay.
On returning to the country of his birth, Rogers finds his once orderly and progressive home transformed into something resembling a Marx Brothers romp crossed with Heart of Darkness: pot has supplanted maize in the fields; hookers have replaced college kids as guests; and soldiers, spies, and teenage diamond dealers guzzle beer at the bar.
And yet, in spite of it all, Rogers’s parents–with the help of friends, farmworkers, lodge guests, and residents–among them black political dissidents and white refugee farmers–continue to hold on. But can they survive to the end?
In the midst of a nation stuck between its stubborn past and an impatient future, Rogers soon starts to see his parents in a new light: unbowed, with passions and purpose renewed, even heroic. And, in the process, he learns that the “huge tale” he had relentlessly pursued his entire adult life as a roving journalist and travel writer was really happening in his own backyard.
Evoking fundamentals of The Tender Bar and Absurdistan, The Last Resort is an inspiring, coming-of-age tale about home, like, hope, responsibility, and redemption. An edgy, roller-coaster adventure, it is also a deeply moving tale about how to survive a corrupt Third World dictatorship with a small innovation, humor, bribery, and brothel management.
From the Hardcover edition.
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What do you really reflect of the fact that 4660 white farmers owned 30% of the total land in Zimbabwe and 70% of the PRIME farming land? and that while there was a land redistribution program in place after independence- based on a willing buyer-willing seller basis- it had small effect because most white farmers occupying productive tracts of land didn’t want to sell, while few of the peasants had the resources to buy any land? Ok, while you dispute the 70% figure in your NYT article, dont you reflect that having 50% of the commercial land in a country (as you note in your article) controlled by a group of 4660 farmers in a country of 12 million is simply ridiculous??? i guess not.
Again, as you note in your article, the fact that your father waited until his land was taken from him so that he can participate in the political affairs of that country, by joining MDF tells me that before Mugabe’s land redistribution business started, white Zimbabweans never cared where the country was going, never cared about the plight of millions of peasants lacking land nor jobs, to consider joining in the struggle against a corrupt government. They only became involved in the politics of a country they call home when they became victims, but before then…i guess they never really cared what “persons” Africans did.
Well, that is what happens when you buy an attitude of indifference in a place you call home.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
I’ll confess this isn’t a book or theme matter that I would normally be attracted to – I establish the book left in a hotel room in D.C. but Douglas Rogers made a seamless delight.
He makes a tale that requires no prior knowledge of the politics or Zambabwe and spins personal family tree experience and national politics into a wonderful brew. The ridiculousness of some of the situations is right out of Douglas Adams and yet it is all too real and right.
Thank you for a wonderful read
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this book back in December 2009, and loved reading it. I wrote an email fan letter to the leader. Imagine: he responded in five days — with his thanks! (Only William Styron — who sent me a postcard from the Vineyard — ever answered a note of mine.) Now I am trying to get my book club to pick The Last Resort for this fall. A wonderful tale on many levels, written just perfectly. “Not since Out of Egypt and The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit,” I wrote, “have I loved a book so much, and been so stirred. Thank you for allowing me to visit Drifters, and get to know you and your incredible parents…” No one who reads The Last Resort will not be stirred and inspired by their bravery.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
It was my pleasure to be able to review the book The Last Resort, by Douglas Rogers. Simply place the book is about the struggles and perseverance of the white farmers and people of Zimbabwe in a time period that should have nonstop to lead them back into the best times of their lives, but before continuing one must have a small more background about the tale. The time period this memoir takes place in starts in the year 2000, just before the elections that included the first viable challenger party, the MDC, and continues on to present day. The place is Mutare, and to be even more point, the Drifter’s, a backpacker’s lodge that advertised legendary game walks and affordable stays, and with a lead the way’s will and determination. As a side note the Drifter’s is still there today. In his early twenties and thirties the leader, Douglas Rogers, has left his parents and Zimbabwe for what he feels is a more exciting life in Europe and the Americas as a travel writer with a residence in London. It was only when he heard of the murder of the first white farmer that he returned to check on his parents. It was this trip into and then through the new and ever changing world of what was now Zimbabwe that sparked the book.
From the very first chapter the writing grabbed me as being very human, very real, and well worth continuing. It was both refreshing and disheartening to read something that was written about the trials of today’s Zimbabwe as seen by a name who has lived in both worlds. This has agreed Douglas Rogers a unique view of what happens from both sides of the political debate and even from a more personal angle. He approaches this tale with humor, sadness, and even humor in this absurd reality. He relates the history of the people and times in a way that draws one in and makes them a part of this uniquely weird time period in Zimbabwe’s history. This book is certainly worth the read even though there are a few parts where the language and the topics may offend some, but are easily overlooked because it is what has happened. The last sentence on the inside jacket take in sums it up best, “An edgy, rollercoaster adventure, it is also a deeply moving tale about how to survive a corrupt Third World dictatorship with a small innovation, humor, bribery, and brothel management.”
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I establish this an brilliant book. The writer describes the adventures and struggles of his parents as they survive in Zimbabwe. He also gives a excellent overview of the situation in all-purpose. This book (and additional similar ones) is a reminder to me that we in the west played a part in pushing Rhodesia into a rigged election, which brought Robert Mugabe to power. Many of us here bought the speechifying that Mugabe and his comrades were freedom fighters. We ignored warnings that they violently coerced support from black natives. No, the previous white government was not ideal and changes undoubtedly were needed. But Mugabe has nearly ruined that nation, while driving out many of its business leaders that made it a successful economy in the past. Blacks can be tyrants just as well as whites; the world needs to know this.
David
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5