Archive - March 22, 2016

African Witch: A Modern Tale of Magical Harm By Christopher West Davis (Kenya 1975-78) Create Spack February 2016 418 pages $16.95 (paper), $9.95 (Kindle) Reviewed by Peter Van Deekle (Iran 1968-70) • Christopher West Davis draws upon his Peace Corps service experience in Kenya (1975-78) for his recent novel (2016) African Witch: A Modern Tale of Magical Harm. His career as a journalist also helps to inform his detailed and insightful depiction of characters and place in this suspenseful story of young Americans living and working in modern-day Kenya. On one level Davis creates a story about Westerners new to Kikuyu ways, imposing upon their encounters with native people and their attendant perceptions, a distinctly Western attitude. On the other hand, this novel gains its energy and momentum from the author’s ability to maintain a dramatic tension among the characters and the events that surround and engulf them. Despite its material and . . .