The Emperor
Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Elect of God, Lion of Judah, His Most Puissant Majesty and Distinguished Highness the Emperor of Ethiopia, reigned from 1930 until he was overthrown by the army in 1974 While the fighting still raged, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Poland s leading foreign correspondent, traveled to Ethiopia to seek out and interview Selassie s servants and closest associates on how the Emperor had ruled and why he fell This sensitive, powerful.history The New York Review of Books is Kapuscinski s rendition of their accounts humorous, frightening, sad, grotesque of a man living amidst nearly unimaginable pomp and luxury while his people teetered between hunger and starvation. New Read [ The Emperor ] author [ Ryszard Kapuściński ] – kino-fada.fr The author is a Polish journalist and in this book he Chronicles the downfall of Haile Selassie, the longtime ruler of Ethiopia The book is divided into three sections, and in the first he interviews those who worked in the palace There is some tongue in cheek humor here as we learn many of the jobs they did and took do seriously were quite strange.a human cuckoo, whose only job was to bow on the hour, a functionary with a collection of pillows, so he could be sure to use the correct size to The author is a Polish journalist and in this book he Chronicles the downfall of Haile Selassie, the longtime ruler of Ethiopia The book is divided into three sections, and in the first he interviews those who worked in the palace There is some tongue in cheek humor here as we learn many of the jobs they did and took do seriously were quite strange.a human cuckoo, whose only job was to bow on the hour, a functionary with a collection of pillows, so he could be sure to use the correct size to prop of the feet of the emperor Much stuggling for positions, favor, who is closest, who did he speak to the most Everything revolved around his majesty, nothing could be fixed, built without his approval.The ...A 3.5 star rating perhaps This book contains accounts from those close to Ethiopia s last emperor, Haile Selassie It chronicles Selassie s opulent lifestyle and his subsequent downfall It speaks to the undoing of African leaders I ve always been intrigued by Selassie and was interested to knowabout him.The Emperor is a very dramatic account of Selassie s and I did get a slightly clearer idea of who Selassie was He was very progressive in many ways, and he was quite eccentric as well A 3.5 star rating perhaps This book contains accounts from those close to Ethiopia s last emperor, Haile Selassie It chronicles Selassie s opulent lifestyle and his subsequent downfall It speaks to the undoing of African leaders I ve always been intrigued by Selassie and was intereste...From the waning Gomulka regime forward, Kapuscinski fashioned a journalistic career out of exceedingly subtle swipes at the pretenses and tragicomic self deception of Soviet style Communism The Emperor is aimed at Haile Selassie, who Kapuscinski paints as a vapid, self important ignoramus.How much of this is actually Selassie and how much is carefully picked in ord... The Emperor baffles any ready description A Polish journalist, Ryszard Kapuscinski, renders an account of the last schizophrenic years of Ethiopia s ancient kingdom and the demise of it emperor, whose ways are not our ways, to say the least Reviews may not suffice to say exactly why or how the book works, but I ll add mine anyway to the others that have noted its mystique The book s structure takes a straightforward path The author interviews courtiers, associates and servants of the Emperor The Emperor baffles any ready description A Polish journalist, Ryszard Kapuscinski, renders an account of the last schizophrenic years of Ethiopia s ancient kingdom and the demise of it emperor, whose ways are not our ways, to say the least Reviews may not suffice to say exactly why or how the book works, but I ll add mine anyway to the others that have noted its mystique The book s structure takes a straightforward path The author interviews courtiers, associates and servants of the Emperor Hail...A little lesson in the blurred lines between reportage and fiction a detailed account of the fall of Haile Sellasie given by the ministers and servants who once waited upon him Not, of course, that you d ever believe these are direct transcriptions of interviews, or that Kapuscinski hasn t modified and tailored these accounts as he sees fit, unless you believe all of the ministers speak in an identical fantastical ironical language I suppose if you have narrow ideas of what constitutes A little lesson in the blurred lines between reportage and fiction a detailed account of the fall of Haile Sellasie given by the ministers and servants who once waited upon him Not, of course, that you d ever believe these are direct transcriptions of interviews, or that Kapuscinski hasn t modified and tailored these accounts as he sees fit, unless you believe all of the ministers speak in an identical fantastical ironical language I suppose if you have narrow ideas of what constitutes nonfiction you might find this sort of thing offensive, but if you ve already signed on to the concept that monkeying with the truth a little is the soul of all...This book was a gift to me from a friend who is a former Guardian journalist During the Communist era Ryszard Kapu ci ski was foreign correspondent for the Polish Press Agency, and reported on civil wars and revolutions from all over the Third World The introduction by Neal Ascherson reveals that after reporting on the coup of 1974 ...His Majesty, His Venerable Highness, His Revered Highness, His Peerless Majesty, His Most Exalted Majesty, Our Distinguished Monarch, His Venerable Majesty, His Most Virtuous Highness, His Distinguished Majesty, His Supreme Majesty, the King of Kings, His Magnanimous Highness, the Supreme Benefactor everyone appearing in Mr Kapu ci ski s work seems to have a different form of address for Haile Selass...Fascinating book an oral history of the last days of Haile Selassie s empire told by his palace servants It most reminded me of the second half of Murakami s underground, when the brainwashed former cultists still adhered to the Aum Shinrikyo ethos There were sections here where I lost interest mainly as a result of repetition , but what will always stick with me are the little absurdities the revolution starting at a fashion show the Swiss calisthenics instructors appearing days before Fascinating book an oral history of the last days of Haile Selassie s empire told by his palace servants It most reminded me of the second half of Murakami s underground, when the brainwashed former cultists still adhered to the Aum Shinrikyo ethos There were sections here where I lost interest mainly as a result of repetition , but what will always stick with me are the little absurdities the revolution starting at a fashion show the Swiss calisthenics instru...The Emperor is a bizarre and at time grotesquely comic portrait of the last Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie It is also a detail and evocative exploration of tyranny Kapuscinki in a muchimpressionistic mood details the rule and fall of another tyrant the last Shah of Iran in the Shah of Shahs By focusing on tyrants of U.S client states he uses a trick employed by other Iron Curtain writers Ex Kadare to critique autocracy in genera,l as in general most dictatorships are the same The Emperor is a bizarre and at time grotesquely comic portrait of the last Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie It is also a detail and evocative exploration of tyranny Kapuscinki in a muchimpressionistic mood details the rule and fall of another tyrant the last Shah of Iran in the Shah of Shahs By focusing on tyrants of U.S client states he uses a trick employed by other Iron Curtain writers Ex Kadare to critique autocracy in genera,l as in general most dictatorships are the same whatever the ideological coloring Both these texts are brutal, but starkly beautiful with fabulous impressionist writing that for all its dreamlike imagery and angular occurrences is filled with a passion for the innocents caught in the whims of brutal leaders and rebellions Arguments can be made against these books as history and reportage, but as literature they remain luminous masterpieces, fluttering torches from the da...Great historical book describing the mood of the palace in Ethiopia under the rule of Haile Selassie Excellent in its description of mood You actually see the insanity and chaos that Selassie created and nurtured in his pala...
- English
- 09 June 2018 Ryszard Kapuściński
- Paperback
- 167 pages
- 0679722033
- Ryszard Kapuściński
- The Emperor