Archive - May 2013

The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate Safari by Paul Theroux (Nyasaland/Malawi 1963-1965) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27 353 pages May 2013 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) OUR OWN PAUL THEROUX has been on a tear; readers of my reviews know how much I admired last year’s novel The Lower River, and this year’s offering, The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari, is equally good, though a travelogue. The cover image is a lonely railroad track heading off into the dense and engulfing green of the African forest. But that’s a red herring to make his train book fans think that’s what they’ll be getting. Theroux is rarely on trains on this journey from Cape Town to Angola. Now in his seventies, he’s mostly on bush taxis and local transport, slowly banging over ruined roads. Imagine that; an aging writer of rare accomplishment . . .

To Know the Rainforest (Peace Corps Novel) by Paul Mathes (Colombia 1964–66) iUniverse $18.95 (paperback); $22.00 (hardcover); $3.99 (Kindle) 309 pages 2012 Reviewed by Dennis Grubb (Colombia 1961-63) “This was life. This is why he joined the Peace Corps .The could be danger ahead, but the possibility was what made it interesting …..Maybe I am no longer the kid I used to be. Maybe I am becoming a different person ….But what would the Peace Corps brass think about all this-if I they ever found out. No matter, he told himself. I am here to help Colombians; that’s what I am doing.”Colombian settings in books written by former Peace Corps Volunteers, or RPCVs as we are known are few and far between. Paul Mathes, an RPCV , Colombia 1964-66, self-published  “To Know the Rainforest”,  is an action /adventure novel  incorporating  the three well-worn  Latin America and Colombia themes: poverty, land and . . .

The Barrios of Manta: A Personal Account of the Peace Corps in Ecuador by Rhoda and Earle Brooks (Ecuador 1962–64) Untreed Reads $4.99 (Kindle) 324 pages (estimated print length) July 2012 Reviewed by Jeff Fearnside (Kazakhstan 2002–04) Originally published by New American Library in 1965, The Barrios of Manta was republished last year as an eBook in honor of the Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary. It remains not only an important document of the Peace Corps’ first work in Ecuador but also an engaging portrait of a fascinating couple, Rhoda and Earle Brooks, the married Volunteers who lived in one of the poorest barrios in the drought-stricken fishing port of Manta from 1962 to 1964. The problems the Brookses faced, the many resourceful ways they solved them, and the occasional failures they met are all relevant to the work of Volunteers today, and should be of interest to anyone who has . . .

 [According to former Peace Corps Evaluator and historian Stanley Meisler (PC/HQ 1963-65), author of When The World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years the Peace Corps did go to Israel, at least briefly. Stan wrote to me: “To punish India for battling Pakistan over Kashmir, LBJ held up a group of PCVs heading there in 1965. They shuttled from Israel to Guam to the Philippines for six weeks until LBJ gave in to Shriver and allowed them to go to India. Before that event, PCVs in Ethiopia went to Israel. Dick Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64) reminds me that a number of Ethie Is did their 1963 summer project in Israel working on a kibbutz. This was arranged by Harris Wofford (Ethiopia CD 1962-64). In this “A Writer Writes” essay, Bob Cisco writes about his recent trip, last month, to Israel and what he found after all these years.] The . . .

The second of our two Peace Corps Writers at The New Yorker, George Packer (Togo 1982-83), has a book coming out at the end of May. Packer’s book is a massive study of some 432 pages that goes on sale for $27.00 on May 21, 2013. Farrar, Straus and Giroux is publishing the book that, as they write, is: “A riveting examination of a nation in crisis.” The Unwinding: An inner History of the New America journeys through the lives of several Americans, including Dean Price, the son of tobacco farmers, and an evangelist for new economy in the rural South. The narrative combines these intimate stories with biographical sketches of such figures as Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z. The book, according to FSG ” portrays a superpower in danger of coming apart at the seams, its elites no longer elite, its institutions no longer relevant, its ordinary people left to improvise their own schemes for . . .

Recollections of our Peace Corps Service 1963-65: Kick-Off, Life in Guatemala, and Afterwards Compiled by Ramona Whaley, edited by Dave Smits Peace Corps Writers, $13.75 288 pages 2012 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993-96) Recollections of Our Peace Corps Service 1963-65 is a unique compilation of stories and essays written by an entire group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, “Guatemala III,” a “mixed bag” that included an African American, Japanese Chomorro, Jews, and Hispanic Americans.  The book is divided into three sections: (1) Roads to the Peace Corps and the Training Experience; (2) Service in Guatemala; (3) Thereafter.  Each writer recalls being inspired by JFK’s unforgettable “ask not” speech, and they all share the “black anguish” of his assassination.  Several participated in the March on Washington in 1963 and heard Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “mountaintop speech” that filled them with an idealistic, determination to promote justice, equality . . .

Summer Writing Workshop Offers Discount to Peace Corps Writers Anyone connected with the Peace Corps who writes (or would like to write) is invited–at a Peace Corps discount–to attend the West Virginia Writers’ Workshop July 18 to July 21 on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. This program is run by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1990-93). Mark’s books include The Incurables: Stories and The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala. He directs the West Virginia Writers’ Workshop. Over four productive and thrilling days, attendees will participate in intimate (no more than 12 people) writing workshops under the guidance of nationally recognized authors of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and screenplays, including RPCVs Sandra Meek (Botswana 1989-91) and Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1990-93); will engage in interactive craft talks; will listen to and participate in readings of creative work; and will learn how to navigate the sometimes intimidating world of . . .

Peter Hessler: Strange Stones   “Strange Stones” (Harper Collins, 2013), by Peter Hessler (R). (Hessler photo: Darryl Kennedy) Two members of the famous “China Gang” of Peace Corps writers, Peter Hessler and Mike Meyer, will be talking about China and Peter’s new book, Strange Stones at the Asia Society on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Here are the details: ChinaFile Presents: Peter Hessler, author of the recently published Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West, a collection of essays and writing on China and the United States over the past decade. He will be in discussion with author Michael Meyer and Susan Jakes, Editor of ChinaFile. Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Hessler’s best reportage from The New Yorker over the past decade. During this time, Hessler lived in both Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in . . .