Smith, Wilbur. Men of Men. New York: Doubleday & co., 1983.
Because Men of Men picks up where Flight of the Falcon left off we rejoin Zouga Ballantyne. Now he is ten years older and married to a society girl named Aletta. Despite many miscarriages she has given him two boys, Ralph and Jordan. Somehow Zouga has convinced his family to join him in Africa where he is still searching for riches, only this time instead of elephants and gold it is diamonds. His eldest son, Ralph, is exposed to gambling, violence and prostitution at sixteen, literally coming of age in the bush. It’s Ralph we continue to follow for the most of Men of Men although most characters from Flight return. Robyn, Mungo, Clinton and Charoot, to name a few. In reality, it is everyone’s greed we bear witness to. As with all of Smith’s other books, Men of Men is rich with African history and adventure as well as strong characters, only there are more of them to play with.
Typical quotes, “It was a beautiful stabbing, a glory which men would sing about” (p 291),
Reason read: Men of Men continues the series started with Flight of the Falcon in December. Read in honor of Rhodesia’s Shangani Day.
Author fact: Wilbur Smith’s middle name is Addison. What a cool name!
Book trivia: Wilbur uses the same picture for his photo on the dust jacket. Except this photo has been darkened a little so there is a strange shadow across half his face.
BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Zipping Through Zimbabwe/Roaming Rhodesia” (p 268).
~*LunaSea*~ 