Book Review: The Lucky Man Bar

Abstract

The action of The Lucky Man Bar is set in both Zambia and Nepal. There are also snippets of action that occur in Congo and Greece. In Zambia, the action vacillates mostly between the city of Lusaka and the small town of Kafue. The descriptive narration of the Kafue area suggests that the author is very familiar with the geography of the area in and around Kafue. A good example is the description of the physical features of the area where the drive takes place in the prologue. This is indicative of the fact that the author actually worked in the area for Sino Hydro, a Chinese construction company. Some of the similarities between the author and the narrator, as a matter of fact, invite questions regarding whether or not the novel is a palimpsest of part-fact and part-fiction.