Uncovering the Truth: A Reporter's Journey Through the Congo

Larry Johnson: Sundaram's story records his perceptions about he reacts to situations and other people without enough context to be as interesting as they might have been in the hands of a more skilled writer. His stay in Congo is recounted, but without much narrative trajectory -- he went to the country, he saw quite a lot, and he felt bad often, whether it was from being jammed into a passenger van or from being robbed, but he didn't seem to learn much, or change. He just sort of records event after event, bouts of dis-ease one after another, and leaves the reader unsatisfied.
This is not a terrible book; neither is it a great one. I really wanted to like it, but ultimately didn't.

United States on Mar 04, 2021

Amazon Customer: Interesting read

India on Nov 09, 2018

Nathaniel: Good book

Canada on Sep 26, 2017

Amazon Customer: As one familiar with a neighboring African country over the past 20 years, I really enjoyed Stringer: it accurately accounted for so many examples of what I have also experienced over a long love/hate relationship with the African country with which I am familiar....

United Kingdom on Mar 03, 2016

J. Hope-Hawkins: I never want to visit but admire those are brave enough to go and see for themselves this tragic country

United Kingdom on Aug 21, 2014

Third Wiley: I have had a fascination with the Congo since I first visited it in the 1960s. I was there roughly the same time as when Belgium missionaries were killed and ritually cannibalized. Over a period of a couple of years I observed conditions that are unchanged today according to this book. For example, on the airport terminal stairwell ascending to the second floor restaurant was a bathroom. When I first saw it the stairwell was pockmarked with bullet holes and blood spatters and the bathroom toilets were non operational and overflowing; two years later nothing had changed but the toilets were in daily use. I needed a Congolese drivers license which necessitated a trip to the outskirts of Leopoldville (now Kinshasa); the army camp where I got the license was patrolled by child soldiers carrying rifles. The tragedy is that nothing has changed in 50 years; in fact they may have worsened. Yet this country and it people fascinate me and it tugs at my heart strings. A sad, memorable and extremely well written book about a people that the world has written off. A great read.

United States on Feb 20, 2014

booknblueslady: In 2006 at 22 years of age, having just graduated from Yale in mathematics and being offered a lucrative career in a financial institution, Anjan Sundaram becomes of aware of the great carnage of the war in Democratic Republic of the Congo (often referred to as Congo) and being young idealistic and unaware of his own mortality decided to embark on a career as a journalist and room with the brother of a woman who worked at his bank. Sundaram bought a one way ticket to Congo without having secured a position for a news agency.

Stringer starts with Anjan chasing a boy through the streets who has stolen his phone. He is unable to recover it and things go from bad to worse. The memoir becomes The Perils Of Anjan in the Congo. I wanted to encourage him to go home and assure him that his parents would welcome him and a life in a financial institution couldn't be all bad. He did however stick it out and he did begin to find success as a journalist even though he continued to find himself in dangerous situations he didn't back away.

I did find his description of life, politics and world dynamics interesting and enlightening:

"We currently live in what some say is the...

United States on Feb 17, 2014

Kristina Wong: I was drawn to reading this book because I was specifically looking for a memoir by a person of color from the West (not of African decent) writing about Africa. This came recommended after Anjan's appearances on TV. While he is not a US citizen, He does lend the perspective of being privileged (educated and having the means to come to the Congo) in this area of the world. I was hoping there would be more detail about how he had to negotiate or learned more about his own marginalized identity in his travels, and there are moments where he meets other Indians living in the Congo and talks about that. And (spoiler) how difficult it was to find an embassy to take him in at the end. I feel that it very much is more journalistic than a memoir as I am really left to react emotionally to what he is experiencing. He has some interesting detail at the top about what he left behind to go to the Congo, but I feel he has missed an opportunity during the more stressful opportunities of the action, to not address regretting having gone there and leaving his old life behind. I appreciate that he talks about how little this region is reported on and paints a picture of exactly what a journalist...

United States on Feb 16, 2014

Jen: An interesting story but narrative was somewhat whiny. Would've preferred more of the events and less of his personal emotions.

Canada on Feb 09, 2014

Constant Reader: I bought this book for my new kindle after hearing Anjan Sundarum on the Jon Stewart show. So glad I did. A few years ago Sundarum, a math student at Yale, of Indian descent and born in Dubai, decided to change his path and immerse himself in the Congo, aka the Belgian Congo under King Leopold and Zaire in the reign of Mobutu, who had assassinated, with CIA approval, Patrice Lumumba, the country's best hope for a real democracy. This is the Congo backstory that Sundarum uses as his touchstone.

Sundarum chose a living arrangement with a family in one of Kinshasa's slums (he had no money for a good hotel room, nor did he want one), slowly developed his contacts, and became a stringer for the Associated Press, traveling to places in the lawless gold and diamond-rich country where important journalists never ventured.

What he produced in "Stringer" is far more than a tale of a young man's adventure. It is an illuminating account of how, and why, one African country blessed with great natural riches has continually failed to lift its people out of poverty. The causes are complex. Occasionally I found Sundarum's reasoning a bit too pat. But he succeeds brilliantly in...

United States on Jan 28, 2014