Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
read: circa 1997
Modern Library #67, Guardian 1000 Novels

I rarely enjoy movies more than the books on which they are based.  One exception is Apocalypse Now, which is loosely based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness.  Francis Ford Coppola moved Kurtz from colonial Africa to the jungles of Vietnam and turned it into an absurdist statement on the Vietnam War.  I remember really liking the last 20% of this book and have forgotten almost all of the first 80%.  But how can you forget surfing amidst falling shells or "I love the smell of napalm in the morning?"