The Red-Eye Fever

Simply stated, The Red-Eye Fever is a well-spun and well-muscled adventure. Its two-fisted prose provides a refreshing respite from the solipsistic meanderings that so often characterize this genre; its cinematic sense of structure plays neatly against its historical backdrop. If you're tired of the current crop of wan contemporary fiction, The Red-Eye Fever may be exactly what you are craving.


Amazing Adventures in the Belgian Congo   February 4, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Ms. Dallemagne-Cookson's latgest book chronicles her amazing experiences in the Belgian Congo just prior to its independence in 1960. As a young American woman sent to the Congo on a Foreign Service assignment, she encounters many extraordinary people, including a refugee from World War II committed to crocodile hunting. She joins him and becomes part of the team that ultimately captures and kills El Diablo, a huge crocodile who has been menacing the area for many years. Her descriptions of this hunt and other subsequent hunts are truly fascinating. The reader is literally spellbound! The accompanying photographs provide further realism. The author also touches upon her personal story, relating how she meets her future husband and moves on to the next phase of her remarkable life. We owe Ms. Dallemagne-Cookson a debt of gratitude for sharing her unforgettable story with us. A must read for people of all ages!


Amazing Adventures in the Belgian Congo   February 4, 2003
Ms. Dallemagne-Cookson's newest book chronicles her amazing experiences in the Belgian Congo just prior to its independence in 1960. As a young American woman sent to the Congo on a Foreign Service assignment she encounters many extraordinary people, including a refugee from World War II committed to crocodile hunting. She joins him and becomes part of the team that ultimately captures and kills El Diablo, a huge crocodile who has been menacing the area for many years. Her descriptions of this hunt and other subsequent hunts are truly fascinating. The reader is literally spellbound! The accompanying photographs provide further realism. The author also touches upon her personal story, relating how she meets her future husband and moves on to the next phase of her remarkable life. We owe Ms. Dallemagne-Cookson a debt of gratitude for sharing her unforgettable story with us. A must read for people of all ages!


An African Adventure   January 18, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

The Red Eye Fever

Elise Dallemagne

This is a well-crafted, true-life adventure story. Read it and be transported to the Belgian Congo in the 1950's, where a nice young American girl gets herself invited to go crocodile hunting. Although she has never killed an animal in her life, she finds herself having to pull the trigger on a huge crocodile that has terrorized the region for years. The story is fresh and convincing because it was written from notes taken at the time. The accompanying photographs, which the author almost lost, are priceless records of the country and the people.


Vivid and Historic Peek into Pre-Independence Africa   December 19, 2002
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Dallemagne's new book about the Belgian Congo rings true in every detail, and particularly fascinating are the many full-page photographs that are all through the book. I especially appreciated the colonial map of the Congo, nearly impossible to find today.
Her descriptions of the Europeans and Americans in Africa are disheartening in their accuracy. These empirialists didn't have a clue how to assist the Congolese into democratic self-governing, and we all know the tragic result. Her adventure down river to slay the Dragon of the Kwango is a "thumping good read," and could even be seen as metaphor.
As in all her books, the characters are utterly believable, and it is almost heartbreaking to read of the instant in time when she is told to turn Patrice Lumumba away from the American Diplomatic offices -- one of those forks in world history when things would have been vastly different if the other road had been taken. If you want to know what went wrong in our relations with the whole continent, this eye-witness account will give some insight into this sad era of the late 1950s. In addition to all that, it's a fast-paced drama with all the elements you need for an entertaining winter evening. Recommended read!