Finished reading on: April 21, 2009
A coup d'état
Title of the original version reviewed: «Un colpo di Stato»
AI Translation Notice: This review was translated from the original Italian using artificial intelligence. Book quotes and excerpts are translated interpretations and will not match the author's original English phrasing or official published translations.
This is a short story, set in Benin, describing several episodes of a coup d'état.
The author finds himself in the African country and is captured, along with a Frenchman, by military forces whose allegiance—whether to the regular army or the putschists—remains unclear.
Throughout the narrated events, a general confusion prevails regarding the origins of the coup, the roles played by the military forces, and the very figures encountered.
A sense of frustration predominates in the author: he is interrogated, held in captivity without food or drink, struck, and then released with profuse apologies for the misunderstanding.
It seems an unreal affair, as if fabricated, and precisely for this reason emblematic of a collective madness.
It is Africa unraveling, and the author is its stunned, incredulous spectator.
Why not read it? It is a story too slight to prove interesting and engaging.