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Book Review of Black Mischief

Black Mischief
Black Mischief
Author: Evelyn Waugh
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
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Ostensibly a spoof on modernization in Africa, this novel would probably be criticized, or even banned, as being politically in appropriate. It gets off to a slow start while the author introduces characters and sets the stage for this bureaucratic farce: the modernization of an African kingdom. By mid point he is under full throttle with absurdities rivaled by few. A progenitor of Catch 22? Several satirical episodes are exceptionally biting: the organization of the Ministry of Modernization, boots for the Army, the national museum, handspun currency, the birth control fiasco, animal cruelty, and the vitamin banquet. This is a kingdom won by revolution and finally lost through it.