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The Last King of Scotland
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780375703317
ISBN: 0375703314
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: October 26, 1999
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: October 26, 1999
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
No, we're not talking Bonnie Prince Charlie here. The title character of Giles Foden's debut novel, The Last King of Scotland, is none other than Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda. Told from the viewpoint of Nicholas Garrigan, Amin's personal physician, the novel chronicles the hell that was Uganda in the 1970s. Garrigan, the only son of a Scots Presbyterian minister, finds himself far away from Fossiemuir when he accepts a post with the Ministry of Health in Uganda. His arrival in Kampala coincides with the coup that leads to President Obote's overthrow and Idi Amin Dada's ascendancy to power. Garrigan spends only a few days in the capital city, however, before heading out to his assignment in the bush. But a freak traffic accident involving Amin's sports car and a cow eventually brings the good doctor into the dictator's orbit; a few months later, Garrigan is recalled from his rural hospital and named personal physician to the president. Soon enough, Garrigan finds himself caught between his duty to his patient and growing pressure from his own government to help them control Amin.
From Nicholas Garrigan's catbird seat, Foden guides us through the horrors of Amin's Uganda. It would be simple enough to make the dictator merely monstrous, but Foden defies expectation, rendering him appealing even as he terrifies. The doctor "couldn't help feeling awed by the sheer size of him and the way, even in those unelevated circumstances, he radiated a barely restrained energy.... I felt--far from being the healer--that some kind of elemental force was seeping into me." And Garrigan makes a fine stand-in for Conrad's Marlow as he travels up a river of blood from naiveté to horrified recognition of his own complicity. As if this weren't enough, Foden also treats us to a finely drawn portrait of Africa in all its natural, political, and social complexity. The Last King of Scotland makes for dark but compelling reading. --Alix Wilber
Shortly after his arrival in Uganda, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan is called to the scene of a bizarre accident: Idi Amin, careening down a dirt road in his red Maserati, has run over a cow. When Garrigan tends to Amin, the dictator, in his obsession for all things Scottish, appoints him as his personal physician. And so begins a fateful dalliance with the central African leader whose Emperor Jones-style autocracy would transform into a reign of terror.In The Last King of Scotland Foden's Amin is as ridiculous as he is abhorrent: a grown man who must be burped like an infant, a self-proclaimed cannibalist who, at the end of his 8 years in power, would be responsible for 300,000 deaths. And as Garrigan awakens to his patient's baroque barbarism--and his own complicity in it--we enter a venturesome meditation on conscience, charisma, and the slow corruption of the human heart. Brilliantly written, comic and profound, The Last King of Scotland announces a major new talent.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Fantastic
Absolutely fantastic story in my opinion. For the most part I had a difficult time putting the book down, but I must admit there were a couple occasions where I just skimmed the pages. However, do not let that turn you away. The novel is written in an intelligent yet easy to understand way, and provides bundles of fascinating information. Idi Amin proves to be a fascinating and compelling character who I personally found incredibly intriguing. How can a man with a behaviour that is almost child like ... Read More
Rating:  - African monster
The novel tries to blend facts and fiction,e.g. it ' s written as a personal diary by a young Scottish doctor N.Gerrigan,who is after graduation sent to Uganda ,already on the brink of a new catastrophe .Upon arrival , he is faced with the real Africa: humidity , unbearable heat , general chaos , delapitaded buildings ,rickety cars ,and soldiers everywhere .He is sent to the central part ,where he is also soon face to face with medicine at its most basic, where everything is improvised . In the midst ... Read More
Rating: - Mistah Kurtz--he alive again...
In Giles Foden's fictionalized account of a Scottish doctor's experiences as the personal physician to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada, evil isn't banal, after all--it's pompous, unpredictable, oafish, ostentatious, alternately unspeakably cruel and imbued with childlike exuberance, and, perhaps most startling of all, it's often more acutely wise to the ways of human nature than we care to admit. It throbs with the amorality of the life-force itself. Whatever else it might be, evil in the considerable ... Read More
Rating: - Idi Amin rules (this book)
So of course, my title refers to the character of Idi Amin rather than the man himself. In his first novel, Giles Foden tells the story of Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor who becomes Idi Amin's personal physician after the madman's rise to power in Uganda. Garrigan is personally torn between the facts of Amin's cruel military dictatorship, which he gets first- and second-hand, and the charms of the man in the flesh. This novel is told from the point of view of Garrigan writing his memoir of sorts, so ... Read More
Rating: - Great read.
The Last King of Scotland is a first book by Giles Foden. It takes place in Uganda, from the viewpoint of a young English physician. It is an intriguing read and complex enough to almost be a mystery novel but is based on the true story. I saw the movie before reading the book and that sequence just enhanced the reading. The book outdoes the movie, except for Forest Witaker,the "Last King of Scotland." Read it and find out what happens!
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