Brilliant - Rated 
Too many reviewers here want a glowing travel brochure out of Theroux. Writing is his vocation, travelling is his muse. Travelling is a way to comment on the human condition as he experiences it, and on his own condition, as he experiences it. It doesn't matter how many people have a good time in Africa, or a bad time in Africa - Theroux has his own devil driving him in his own strange directions, and what he produces are travel books only in the most minimal sense. In the larger sense they are works of literature in which travel plays a part.
I love the complexity of his writing, his honesty in recording moods, enthusiasms, fears, vanities, moments of ill-temper, generosity, meanness. Reviewers point out moments of 'hypocrisy', or 'meanness', or curmudgeonly outbursts, as if he was too stupid to read his own text. Theroux is a writer. He wants you to see that.
I don't seek any kind of objective truth about Africa. I wouldn't believe anyone who purveyed it. What I do find is a writer using his craft to create complex and absorbing works of literature, using travel as a starting point for a succession of events, meetings, conversations, anecdotes, situations, literary digressions, bits of obscure history, polemic, and unlikely destinations.
Dark Star Safari is clever, it is brave, it is fun, it is dark, it is complex. It isn't a coincidence Theroux read Conrad a dozen times as he progressed from north to south. Please don't make the mistake of imagining this book is a variation on 'what I did on my hols'.
Cheer up mate it's only Africa - Rated 
Some things bother me about this book. Firstly, the way he criticises anyone not 'doing Africa' his way, his conceited contempt of anyone holidaying in Africa (a good source of revenue for various African countries) when he himself is an outsider; a tourist. We can't all take a year off work for an all-expenses paid trip down Africa Mr Theroux. His criticism and I have to say over-dramatic account of African cities; I've lived in Nairobi and Kampala and felt perfectly safe if you're sensible and know where to go. Venturing out after dark (unlike Theroux) has never once been a problem for me and my friend (who's lived there most of his life). But he has to sell books. The book's tone was at times depressing and although most countries in sub-saharan Africa have problems many are stable, welcoming and enjoyable for foreigners to visit. The biggest problem I found was with his tone with anything concearned with improving Africa, true it often isn't easy and although his pleasure of seeing subsistance farming doesn't equate to "let's keep them in their place" it did seem apathetic and left me wondering if Mr Theroux simply desires a return to an Africa of 1840 without hospitals, education, propects and security. And 'yes' there is all these things to be found in modern-day Africa, he neglected to mention the sucessful Ugandan-run businesses, schools, infustructure and tourist industries I found in 2006. Things aren't always run perfectly but this is Africa and shouldn't be compared to catching a tube from Hype Park Corner, I'm sure he knows this. But he has to sell books. Finally, his criticism of Aid agencies was upheld in many areas but found his discussion one-sided offering no real solutions, should we stop giving Aid, stop trying to make an impact due to the governing of a predetory elite? It left me asking the question "so what do we do then?" and he supplied no real answers, not that it's his job of course; he is a writer and a very good one at that; he gets 4 out of 5, but like this review he should try to occassionally focus on the positive.
OUTSTANDING! - Rated
What a fantastic book. Will be loved by all readers and a complete must for fans of travel!
Superficial and negative - Rated 
I like the way Mr. Theroux writes. It flows well, and he is concrete and catchy in his choice of words. That is about all good I had to say about this travel book...
I think a travel book should be more than superficial anecdotes and thoughts of a journey across such a vast continent as the African, where diversity, complexity and paradoxes abound for any 500-page book one very single subject. In that regard, I find Mr. Theroux's reflections nothing but the mere reflections anyone travelling to Africa is faced with. And Mr. Theroux seems to have the ideas pre-conceived of the problems of Africa and just lash out at everyone from government officials, missionaries, aid workers, private entrepreneurs, prostitutes, farmers, while he seems too pre-occupied with his "erotic novel" to try to go more in-depth with the problems. He wants to get lost in Africa, but to me it is more a book of a man needing to get lost in himself, and his bitterness spills out over a continent that in spite of its numerous wrongs and problems, simply deserves much better.
Mr. Theroux seems a bitter old man, negatively looking at things, not seeing the potential strengths in some countries, like Malawi, where the specter of disillusion becomes almost explicit, as he reflects at how different things were when he was there as a young man.
Nevertheless, it is provoking and well-written enough to be worth a read.
Describes Africa as it is - Rated
I think Paul Theroux expected to find Africa had deteriorated since he last lived there in the 1960s and he is not wrong, so the book has a feeling of being a fait accompli before you have even got very far into it. Having said that, he does raise awareness of some key points regarding the interaction between trade and aid. Firstly if aid projects are a regular occurance in an area then the area becomes economically dependent and there are no incentives for the local populace to improve their own lives: if an aid project is discontinued they can be pretty certain that another will be along shortly to replace it. The "aid business" also loses sight of its aims: they know the project will fail once they have left so lose the will to come up with anything more innovative than spoon-feeding the local population. Aid projects are doomed to fail anyway if the national government doesn't act to reduce corruption and allow businesses and farms to flourish without confiscating any output they make over a subsistence level. (Tim Haford's "Undercover Economist" describes this in more detail). Throughout this book Theroux is pretty angry: he dislikes the western tourists who come on safari trips for not seeing "the real Africa", though he eventually relents and thoroughly enjoys a game-watching trip; he regards the multi-national charities as leeches and the born again Christian missionaries as dangerous and destructive to local communities. The downside is that he adopts a hectoring tone to repeatadly put the same points across; I agree with him that NGOs and churches are more interested in enriching the Mercedes dealerships of Nairobi than doing anything productive but repeating this point in every chapter reduces Theroux to the level of a fire-and-brimstone preacher. Just give us the facts Paul, and maybe a few ideas on what needs to change to improve Africa rather than just belittling others.
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