Something of Value

by Robert Ruark

Book Overview

Something of Value is a novel based on events that took place in Kenya Colony during the violent Mau Mau insurrection of the 1950s, an uprising that was confined almost exclusively to members of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0552083925
• ISBN13: 9780552083928
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Corgi
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Something of Value

I first read this book when a neighbor loaned it to me in 1972. I had difficulty in returning it! This not only made me Robert Ruark fan, it caused me to begin a collection of his first editions. It is a gripping story of a part of our planet that may never find peace. It is also a tremendous piece of writing, the like of which comes along only every few years. Ruark traveled in Africa during this challenging period and as a news correspondent, held pre-eminent qualifications to write the story. I have re-read it several times since John loaned it to me. Along with another borrowed book, Shackleford's story of Anarctica, I could start and end my library!

Ruark's best novel

The late Robert Ruark was mainly noted for his magazine articles and his writing on big game hunting, primarily in Africa, but was more than capable of turning out a "keep you up late reading it" novel such as this one. "Something of Value" takes place in Kenya in the days of the Mau-Mau rebellion and shows that tragic conflict from both sides. Ruark shows the mistakes the British had made in "civilzing" the largest native tribe in Kenya, the Kikyuyu, taking their customs away and replacing them with nothing they could relate to and how this lack of "something of value" allowed the Mau-Mau to grow until it consisted of 90% of the male Kikyuyu population. It is, in many ways, an old, old story of culture clash, but seldom is the story told so powerfully. This is Ruark the novelist at his best and should not be missed by anyone interested in Africa or for that matter, anyone interested in great writing.....

The best true life horor story I ever read and so much more

I spent three of the most impressionable years of my live in Kenya in the early '70's as a State Department dependant. Even then, the Mau Mau uprising had a strong influence on day to day life in Kenya. Gun control laws were among the most strict in the world and for good reason. During my three years in Kenya I heard many stories from people who lived through the emergency. Most of these stories made Stephen King novels sound like childrens' tales. I could not count the times I've read both Uhuru and Something Of Value and each time they have taken me back in time to the Norfolk or New Stanley hotel. Everything about the book, from the safaris, to the uprising, are totally authentic. While this is not a "feel good" book, anyone who has a interest in East African history, or just wants to read on of the great books of this century MUST read this book. Even though this is a book of fiction, it should be required reading for anyone studying the history of Kenya. Make no mistake, most of the things written about in this book, no matter how disturbing, actually happened.

Best Book I've ever read.

This book has something "magical" about it. It's an obscure book today, but it holds a special place in my heart and mind, and has so for nearly my entire life. I first read it in the late 1950's, when I was a young teenager. The adventure and graphic violence was probably shocking to me then, but the book inspired me to make reading about Africa and it's history a serious hobby back then. I read the book the second time when I was an adult in my 30's. I found a tattered paperback edition in a used book store. It was just as exciting to me then as it was many years before. By then I had two daughters, and I told them of my "favorite book." Last Christmas, my youngest daughter, who was then 19, gave me an ORIGINAL edition, which still had the paper jacket. When I opened the gift, tears welled up in my eyes. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS BOOK? Ruark's style was wonderful, and his way of developing a story was terrific. Read this book.

Bloody Africa: No fairy tales in this novel.

This book was so accurate and so brutally honest that Ruark was banned from Kenya by the British and the Native Kenyan goverments. For those of you who don't know; Roberk Ruark was THE defining voice in America for Africa in the 1950's. His columns appeared in Field & Stream magazine when EVERYONE read Field & Stream. He was a celebrity with apartments in New York and a villa in Spain. These were the days when rich men ate red meat, went to Africa to "shoot lions" and were disappointed if it didn't charge! If you love African game stories and you belive in the superiority of Western civilization over shamanist tribalism then this book is for you. When the English colonized what is now Kenya it was a true clash of moderns with the Stone Age. These men (and women) had as rough a time as Americans did taming the West. Really more so because the Africans were more numerous than the American Indians and only one or two of our animals would eat you. After years of carving farms out of the harsh African veldt with the permission and support of the Britsh goverment the farmers suddenly found themselves put "out into the cold" by their goverment. The Socialists in England suddenly decided by vote to modernize the Native African from the Stone Age to the Industrial age overnight. From shamans and chiefs to democracy; brought in by "the Winds of Change". If you ever suspected that you have been lied to about Africa by the Desmond Tutu's and Nelson Mandela's of the world, if you want to know what is going to happen in South Africa in the next 10 years, if you need any more convincing that America's Africa policy caters more to Jesse Jackson than the true "status quo" of Africa, then this is the book for you. Ruark does a brillant job of juxapositioning the issues of tribesman and colonist alike. The politics and violence of MauMau are amazingly similar to the African National Congress. In Ruark's Africa everyone is right; and wrong. All the native born Africans in his book, Black and White alike, believe to the bottom of their soul in what they are doing. I don't think Kipling himself could have captured the essense of Africa any better!