When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa

I agree that the author exposes the terrible Mugabe regime.
Yet he seems to be a sort of professional ex-pat Zimbabwean...as much as he excoriates the regime (rightly) - he also needs it, as it is his professional bread and butter. What would he do for a living if Mugabe wasn't there? There is more than a whiff of opportunism here.
In addition, his portraits of white settlers with ludicrous names like Dubble and Jacaranda who, because they played polo on their front lawns, are, I suppose, emblems of class and culture, leave me cold. A lot of the whites loved living there so that they could have a status and a quality of life - waited on hand and foot - that they could never have had in Britain, end of story. They don't deserve what's happening now but neither do they deserve to be feted as Godwin does.
Moreover, the "shock" revelation that his father was Jewish seems really forced..I suppose we are supposed to equate Mugabe with Hitler.

Peter Godwin picks up where he left off in his great coming of age memoir, "Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa." In "When a Crocodile eats the Sun", he writes of the further disintegration of Zimbabwe under the corrupt and brutal tyranny of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU(PF): Not only the descent of the once prosperous Rhodesia, but the personal toll it takes on his family, his friends, and his neighbors regardless of race. Peter Godwin's discovery that his father was a Polish Jew who lost his family in the Holocaust sheds light on aspects of Peter's childhood and his relationship with his father that allow him to better understand his life growing up in Rhodesia. This memoir is a fascinating and poignant read. BTW, if you haven't read Mukiwa, then I would highly recommend reading the two together in chronological order: Mukiwa and then Crocodile.

The author was born in Rhodesia ( Zimbabwe). His parents had emigrated there from Europe after WW II and created a wonderful life, as did many other Caucasians. At one stage Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Africa and an example country. Then came Robert Mugabe and his thugs. This is a reflection on 20 yrs of Mugabe after four years of civil war. It is a tale of wonderful country and chilling facts. I could not put the book down.

Being a "White African" who has since moved to the States I completely appreciate Peter Godwin's perspective on current day Africa. This book is written with tremendous feeling however the author maintains a sense of objectivity that also makes for an extremely informative read. The story of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe is heartbreaking and Godwin parallels the sharp degradation of the countries economy and infrastructure with his fathers' health and his parents struggle to adapt to their rapidly changing environment. The book flows beautifully, the descriptions of the people and country of Zimbabwe are on point and vivid. The book touches on a wide range of issues such as cultural identity, racial integration and economic policy as well as the larger issues of power, money and democracy. I highly recommend the book to anyone however people who have experienced Africa will truly appreciate the writing and the emotion that it evokes.

This was a wonderful memoir. Oh Africa! The complexities, the beauty, the paradox's. The writing made one feel as if we were hearing the night sounds, feeling the heat, smelling the aromas of this complex country. A hard-to-put-down memoir which made me hungry for more. Unforgetable.