Head-spinning

What a reality-challenging overview this gives, in Theroux's signature low-key manner.

For me, sitting comfortably in a relatively wealthy, constitutionally-democratic country, it was eye-opening to see this glimpse into a world where neither law nor order seem to exist in any way I could probably relate to, where everyone shown was on the make, apparently in equal parts for survival and for the mere pleasure of seeing as many as possible on lower pecking-order perches, and where enormous psychic capital is expended on preening self-aggrandisement.

For me, it raised questions of just how much we take for granted, and what we would do if the artifice of order around us, that we assume is the natural way of a decent society, should collapse. I'm what the Americans might term a liberal, though the Americans live in an even narrower political spectrum than my country does; I'm socialist in my leanings, and I suspect my metaphorical belly has been softened by capitalist indulgences.

I don't think I'd last a week in Lagos.



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.