Something of Value, Robert Ruark

Something of Value is a great novel!  It is one of my favorites.  I have read several other works by Ruark and have enjoyed them all, Something of Value stands out to me as an exceptional novel.  In a way it reminds me of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is my favorite of Hemingway’s Novels. 

Whereas For Whom the Bell Tolls was set in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Something of Value is set in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion in the late fifties.  Both are works of fiction, however; they both have a lot of history of actual events woven into the stories.  What I find striking in both novels is the capacity for human beings to be cruel and savage, especially in relation to people that they previously lived in harmony with. 

One of the reasons I enjoyed both novels is that they have well developed characters, there are love stories woven in them, many interesting subplots, and they have a lot of the elements of “adventure” literature that I enjoy while at the same time, in a fictional setting, give understanding and facts surrounding actual historical events. 

I will not give a complete outline of the novel in this review in order not to spoil the suspense of the story for anyone interested in reading it.  Like I mentioned previously the setting is in Kenya in the 1950s before and during the beginning of Mau Mau Rebellion.  The main characters of the story are English settlers in colonial Kenya and the local African tribesmen that served as labor on these farms.  The novel has subplots that include romance and adventure, to include a shooting safari where one of the main characters is a prominent professional hunter and guides a wealthy American man and his wife on a safari.  I find the novel flows well, the prose is excellent, the characters are well developed, and it gives insight to English Colonial Africa better that anything I have read to date. 

If you are a fan of the African adventure genre of literature and you enjoy the prose style of Hemingway and Ruark, I cannot imagine that you would not find this Novel a worthwhile read.