You just can't help but be thrilled by these fortuitous moments they just make the world seem smaller. There are a few moments in the book where the author either encounters an elderly African who remembers the Greenes' visit or an aid worker who, perhaps, succeeded someone who met the Greenes during their visit. Here's what I appreciate most about Chasing the Devil.

In pursuing the Greenes' footsteps, Butcher hopes to better understand Sierra Leone and Liberia, a region of West Africa that he calls 'fascinating yet unsettling' and to learn about the Catholic writer's 'more earthy' side (25). A vicarious adventure through the jungles of West Africa would be exciting enough, but what makes this book especially satisfying is Butcher's quest to follow the exact trail blazed by Graham Greene and his cousin Barbara back in 1935, an expedition described in Greene's Journey Without Maps, published in 1936. Very good narration.Since this is probably the closest I'll get to trekking through the Liberian hinterlands, I relished every moment of reading this book. A strong interest in travel narrative, or a background in West African history, would come in handy as well. Barbara Greene's book is harder to get a hold of, but I'd recommend (at least) reading Graham's book before tackling this one.

Thus, the author manages to work in the Greenes' experience, as well as his own, filtered by the stories and visual evidence of warfare. swashbuckling, in that Liberia's chaos, while initially directed at the Americo-Liberian elite, quickly became a violent tale of inter-tribal conflict. The second half of the book, through Liberia with a brief cut through Guinea (as the Greenes had done) proved more. Sierra Leone proved a bit tricky to interpret, however, as the Greenes traveled via a railway that hasn't existed for over a generation, leaving Butcher to give impressions as best he could. At first, I felt that the story seemed a bit padded, as the actual trip didn't begin until he and his companions left Freetown almost a quarter of the way through the book. Graham Greene, along with his cousin Barbara and a host of bearers, traveled through Sierra Leone and Liberia in the mid-thirties seventy five years later, Tim Butcher followed their route (as closely as he could) to see what traces of their journey remain.

Chasing the devil tim butcher