Robert Klitgaard achieves a rare feat: explaining the realities of foreign aid and development assistance while delivering a charming, warm, though ultimately tragic narrative about Equatorial Guinea. It's now an old book -- published in 1990 -- but deserves to be a classic.

Klitgaard is sent to advise the Equatoguinean government (yes, that's the term) on economic reform. The result is an amazing battle against a staggeringly corrupt and uncaring regime. (Although Klitgaard also has little that is kind to say about visiting aid workers.) Somehow, Klitgaard's optimism never seems to waver, even as he is brought down by tropical maladies and his best efforts -- and those of his intelligent, talented, technocratic counterparts in the Equatoguinean government -- are thwarted by a political elite that is corrupt and thoroughly uninterested in development.

Nevertheless Klitgaard is not bitter. At times his hope, and his methods, seem naive. But this tale is funny and personal, of fascinating characters and improbable events, engagingly told. Aside from the readable narrative, the real treat in this book is seeing textbook development theory unravel in the real world, and Klitgaard intelligently but vainly attempt to piece it back together.