Archive - 2012

The Measure of a Dream;  A Peace Corps Story by Lora Parisien Begin (Tunisia 1988–91) A Peace Corps Book $16.96 356 pages July 2012 Reviewed by Kitty Thuermer (Mali 1977-79) When I sat down to read Lora Parisien Begin’s charming Peace Corps/Tunisia memoir, The Measure of a Dream, it was all about the misadventures of Bridget Jones in the Casbah — she who tripped her way through the labyrinthian back alleys of Islam — fueled by mint tea and self-deprecating naivite. The soundtrack, of course, was the crackling call to prayer — deafeningly delivered by loudspeaker at 4 a.m. Yet two days into my read, I was shocked to hear the news that all hell had broken loose in her beloved host country. That Tunisia — famous for igniting the flame of the Arab Spring, yes — was now aflame with a darker anti-American purpose, as evidenced by the carcasses of . . .

Bruce Trimble (Gambia 1979-81) did this YouTube book trailer for his wife’s new book Tubob. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO2qFXiPyTQ&feature=youtu.be Tubob: Two Years in West Africa with the Peace Corps by Mary E. Trimble (Gambia 1979-81) ShelterGraphics $15.95 320 pages 2012

Talking to Eric Kiefer by Larry Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) Lihosit: Why write a novel about the Peace Corps instead of a memoir? Kiefer: Memoir often tends to force a reader into certain prejudgments about what the book needs to be. Memoirs happened. The difference between a memoir and a novel is plot development and this book is about as far as I could push the line. There were experiences/settings/characters I wanted to portray that quite simply, didn’t happen. There’s something to be said about that holy connection between the real and the imagined. That’s the power and beauty of a novel, after all. Lihosit: You have written non-fiction. Did you find fiction more difficult? Why? Kiefer: I’ve always found that writing nonfiction is much more confining and claustrophobic, but I tend to sweat more when I write fiction. When I was working as a newspaper reporter, the stories were always laid . . .

The Soft Exile By Eric Kiefer (Mongolia 2005-06) Gentleman Tree Publishing. $12.94 220 pages 2012 Reviewed by Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-77) Fans of a young Richard Brautigan (Confederate General in Big Sur) and J.D. Salinger (Catcher In the Rye) will appreciate this debut novel told in first-person. Like the former, there are mini-chapters and understated gallows humor. As is true with the latter, the book also includes cynicism by the privileged. It is also a very different fictional Peace Corps portrait than those written by pioneer volunteers years ago which leads to the question: how and why have we changed? For other aspiring Peace Corps volunteer novelists, take note. This is a commercially published book. Mr. Kiefer is among the elite ten percent of former volunteers who found a commercial publisher and I salute him. Hopefully, this is the first of many books that he will write. In this . . .

Peter Lefcourt (Togo 1962-64) takes on the French in his New Novel! If you love to hate the French and/or hate to love show business, this just may be the book for you:  Five Americans on the loose at the Cannes Film Festival. Merde happens. Big time.  The French Ministry of Culture tried unsuccessfully to get a restraining order against the publication of this book.  Now finally available for your Kindle or iPad is Le Jet Lag! What the book is about: As I wrote, five Americans on the loose at the Cannes Film Festival: the ambitious intern resolved to sleep her way to the bottom; the actor who winds up spending seven nights in different beds; the publicist whose job is to make sure the studio’s film does not win an award; the gay head of publicity involuntarily channeling Golda Meir; and, back for an encore (after The Deal . . .

Tubob: Two Years in West Africa with the Peace Corps by Mary E. Trimble (Gambia 1979-81) ShelterGraphics $15.95 320 pages 2012 Reviewed by Barbara E. Joe (Honduras 2000-03) Just what does “Tubob” in this book’s title mean? Author Mary Trimble and her husband Bruce, Volunteers sent to The Gambia in 1979, discovered it means stranger or white person. But they didn’t remain strangers for long, though pregnant women shielded their eyes from them to prevent the birth of albino babies. The two were soon given Gambian names; Mary’s was Mariama. They quickly became valued members of their community, she working in health, he in digging wells. By planting a garden and raising chickens themselves, they showed local people how to augment their diet, also debunking a belief that eating eggs causes stupidity. Reportedly newlyweds, I first envisioned them as a young couple, only later learning they were already in their . . .

I Was a Peace Corps Volunteer: Lost and Found in Micronesia By Heather Kaschmitter (Micronesia 2002-04) Create Space, $12 286 pages 2012 Reviewed by David H. Day (Kenya 1965-66; India 1967-69) Age 25 and fresh out of college in Washington State, and newly-accepted in the Peace Corps, Heather Kaschmitter found herself in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, a vast string of islands and coral atolls sprawled across tens of thousands of  miles of Pacific ocean. The islands stretch in an arc from Palau in the west, southeast to Kiribati north of Fiji. Today, largely on the margins of our consciousness, it’s an area well-known to the U.S. military, to artists and writers like Melville and Gaugin, and to a slew of anthropologists beginning with the pioneering visits of Bronislaw Malinowski, Margaret Mead and numerous others who have documented island cultures. When offered a chance to review Kaschmitter’s book, I jumped . . .

George Packer (Togo 1982-83) dissects the Republican and Democratic Conventions in “The Talk of the Town” column of The New Yorker, September 17, 2012, issue. Packer writes: “In Charlotte, the Democrats embraced the production values that the Republicans once monopolized: message disciple, clock management, and ego subordination (former Presidents excepted). They staged repetitious, unembarrassed salutes to the military. The Republicans’ allowing Clint Eastwood to improvise like an also-ran at a talent show, on their Convention’s most important night, only heightened the contrast.”  Later, he sums up what struck all of us who endured the events by noting, “In Tampa, the faces were overwhelming white, not young, and surprising impassive. In Charlotte, there was color, youth, and tears.” And this Friday, on The New Yorker Website, Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) now living and writing from Cairo, posted a report on the recent demonstrations against the U.S. government over the anti-Muslim film . . .

Levitate the Primate Michael Thomsen (China & Madagascar 2002-05) Zero Books 255 pages Paperback $24.95 August 2012 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) I’m prefacing this review of Michael Thomsen’s collection of essays on dating and sex, Levitate the Primate, with the warning that if one is offended, made squeamish, or in any way turned off or hoping to avoid base, explicit, detailed, unguarded, gratuitous, and sometimes simply gross discussions of sex, sexual desire, sexual body parts, sexual love, blowjobs, handjobs, footjobs, rimjobs, assjobs, fucking, sucking, fisting, Matures, creampies, BBWs, married, cuckold, MILFs, trannies, hentai, and bukkake, please do not read this review. Now that you are all reading along! When this slender, slick, pink book came across my reviewing desk earlier this week, it rose directly to the top of my long to-do list, and I ended up banging through it in a couple of hurried . . .

Our RPCV Self-Publishing Guru, Lawrence F. Lihosit (Honduras, 1975-77), author of Peace Corps Experience: Write & Publish Your Memoir a How-To book published by iUniverse, has interviewed other Peace Corps writers about “how they did it” and given us a wealth of material here. Read on! HIRE A PAID CONSULTANT? Ninety percent of Peace Corps writers are self-published. There is an incredible array of companies that offer support services to self-publishing writers for a price. Paid consultants offer to edit, format, design and even market. Some of our own Peace Corps writers have commented on their experiences. PLEASED TO USE THEM! Will Lutwick (Fiji, 1968-70) author of Dodging Machetes: How I Survived Forbidden Love, Bad Behavior, and the Peace Corps in Fiji, a memoir published by Peace Corps Writers, utilizing CreateSpace services. Developmental editor: I contracted a woman before signing with Peace Corps Writers. She did a very good job, particularly . . .