Imperator deponitur

Hey book lovers, how is life?

So I recently finished reading The Emperor by Ryszard Capuscinski (probably butchered that but it's Polish and I am not) which explores accounts of the final decades of imperial rule in Ethiopia (and Eritrea which was Ethiopian at the time) in the 1960s and 1970s and the final collapse and immediate aftermath of the downfall.

In his book Ryszard gets ferried around (or claims to) Addis Ababa, the capitol city of Ethiopia, to speak to people hiding in the city who used to work in the emperor's palace mainly as bureaucrats. Much of the book is made of witness accounts by anonymous sources, since Ethiopia was a very dangerous place at the time. Surprisingly even though the nation was starving and imperial rule was not at all effective or efficient, the vast majority of the interviewees are super nostalgic for their past as palace servants and officials that they think the bad things were good. If that statement makes sense.

Unfortunately for this book it does seem that Ryszard employed his author's discretion to the narratives of his interviews because you find them incredibly articulate almost like practiced speeches that it feels like the author is punping his own artistry into the stories to make them better. Which may not be a bad thing.

On the plus side, the way the book was set up gave a real neat before-and-after perspective to the situation (at the time) in Ethiopia as the interviewees are recounting before and during the fall of emperor Haile Selassie, and then Ryszard is giving his account of his experiences travelling through Addis Ababa following the collapse of the empire. Basically it was bad before, although no tinted by nostalgia, and it was bad after.

This book did give me a great look into a genre of history that I didn't get in my public education and gave me some ideas for electives for when I go back to school in 2015, which means I am going to be so bogged down with classes if I really do take all the classes I want to.

Overall The Emperor wasn't my favorite read of the year, not even my favorite history read of the year, had some real drag to it, some grinding, boring stuff to it, but that could be seen as a necessary evil in order to fully portray the situation of imperial Ethiopia. Either way I didn't enjoy that aspect specifically.

As with all books I would recommend it because our history lessons fail to teach us anything about Africa other than Egypt's pharaohs an that slaves came from Africa, it is definitely the neglected continent in history circles.

Coming up soon will be my review of Venice: a new history, which so far is a great interesting account of the history of Venice, and by extension much of Europe.

Please let me know what you are reading and give me ideas of what to read and review next.

Keep reading,

Horace