Compagnon's book provides an account of elite politics for the tumultuous 1999–2010 period in Zimbabwe, covering political violence, the rise of an opposition to the ruling ZANU-PF, the subsequent attacks on the media and judiciary, the land reform ‘charade’, the ‘plunder’ of the economy by the state bourgeoisie, and the failures of the international community to respond effectively to the crisis. In one of the strongest sections, ‘Factionalism and purges in ZANU since 1980’ (pp. 15–22), Compagnon describes how Mugabe has kept the two main competing factions in the ruling party's succession struggle on their toes and at each other. Compagnon is equally clear on the factionalism within the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), such as the divide in 2005 over whether or not to participate in elections, and the factional violence that followed in Zimbabwe and South Africa within the MDC. Compagnon is sceptical about the ability of Morgan Tsvangirai's faction of the party to overcome its differences with the smaller faction led by Welshman Ncube and Arthur Mutambara. The author also describes the violence within the MDC, providing examples of undemocratic decisions made by Tsvangirai and his ‘kitchen cabinet’ (pp. 113–16) and the difficulties the MDC has encountered more recently in the negotiations for a government of national unity (GNU) in 2008–10. Compagnon's careful reading of newspapers and the reports of many informed Zimbabwean civil society groups, and his listening to the views of key political observers such as Brian Raftopoulos and Norma Kriger, has allowed him to present a compelling chronicle of the past ten years.

Compagnon is a gifted writer, particularly in his ability to use vignettes and mini-biographies to illuminate his point. The case of elite businessperson Strive Masiyiwa and his failed attempt to fight ZANU-PF corruption in the telecommunications industry is one such story (pp. 205–7). Students will find this and other vignettes highly illuminating and instructive. Compagnon's well-crafted portrayal of the ruling party, as a self-serving, greedy, political elite who use the state and the crisis to enrich themselves in what he calls ‘asset grabbing by every possible means’ (p. 207), is very useful for those seeking a concise treatment of Zimbabwean politics. This book fills an important gap in the existing literature, bringing together details and behind-the-scenes negotiations previously only known to Zimbabwean participants and Zimbabwean specialists. Over the course of the book readers will become convinced of the ruling elites use of the state's repressive laws and of their mafia-style manipulation of the economy to create a situation that eventually spiralled out of control. Predictably, those at the top benefitted from the crisis and had no real interest in ending their use of the Reserve Bank and other institutions for personal profit.

With a title that implies a link to classic Greek theatre, it is worth noting that there are many tragic heroes in this story. The oppositional parties are either complicit with the tragedy through their own self-serving agendas, or tragically unable to overcome their own inherent weaknesses and factionalism in the face of ZANU-PF's wide range of repressive measures. The international actors, from the British and Americans to the South Africans, lack sufficient will or means to move beyond their own self-serving agendas, which allows Mugabe to manoeuvre between South Africa's ‘African solutions’ and the old ‘anti-imperialism’ argument used to discredit the opposition. Members of ZANU-PF elite, many of whom are unable to escape their own murderous pasts, remain locked in logic of authoritarianism and violence that tragically cannot be broken. In a classical sense, then, no one in this story can escape the tragic dimensions of this recent struggle. Compagnon goes to great effort to argue against Mugabe as the lead or only tragic hero, and leaves no political elite untouched by the misfortune that is the Zimbabwean tragedy, and the book succeeds in creating the requisite amount of pathos.

If there is any weakness to Compagnon's approach, it is that his decision to write the narrative as a ‘predictable’ tragedy missed an opportunity to explore the possibilities for alternative and non-elite political trajectories. The support for an oppositional movement originated from the grassroots and continues to come from the urban high density areas (former townships), small towns, and rural villages where people endure beatings, torture, and the killing of their loved ones to stand up to corruption and greed. The stories at the grassroots, along with the role of the many Zimbabwean churches in providing support and care for the thousands of Zimbabweans who risk their lives for a better future, are left off the stage in this narrative. By focusing on interpersonal rivalries among leaders, the grassroots origins of opposition politics and ‘militant civil society’ introduced in Chapter 3 falls to the wayside in the later chapters and the predictability of the tragedy of elite politics becomes the overarching theme. These grassroots efforts did not end with the formation of the MDC, nor with each successive stolen election, so shining more light on these non-elite actors in recent years might offer a less predictable, and hopefully less tragic, analysis of participatory politics that may not always be confined within previous patterns of political violence and factionalism.