HORIZONTAL HOTEL
"There sometimes comes a point in point in people's lives when they are more than themselves and, seeing this, others are drawn to them. To some who have watched me in recent weeks I have fallen, to others I have arrived. As for myself, sometimes I have felt almost holy."
In Roger King’s Horizontal Hotel, Africa is both a physical location and “an area of our minds.”… The novel spans only one day, but that day encompasses a long mental journey.
[The narrator John] Meddows has a fever, and King’s writing is intense and feverish, full of the minute observations of an obsessed and prophetic eye: “Outside, a mist of pink Saharan dust loiters oppressively”–the world seems tinted, slightly askew.
King explores the subtleties of the neo-colonial relationship of white men working within a black government, where the rules of the game are less strictly defined. Meddows’ boss Adrian is a typical well-intentioned technocrat, aloof from the society he is trying to plan. His colleague Obi, on the other hand is an African on the make, whose favourite word is “modern.” Meddows’ own response is to experience Africa raw and to dance the night away at the Horizontal Hotel.
—ANURADHA VITTACHI, IN THE NEW INTERNATIONALIST
REVIEWS
“Will appeal to those who like to be kept guessing, who neither expect not want a novel to flag its style, tone and message from the first page. ..The African scene, the human groupings within it, are excellently done. All is trembling on the edge of breakdown, yet the writing stays cool; the effect is of a quiet delirium.”
“A searing invocation of modern Africa.”
“Takes a deliciously wry look at post-colonial West Africa from the point of view of a randy and fever-infected expatriate agricultural advisor.”
“The writing is crisp, the perception notable and the awareness impressive.”
