Archive - April 10, 2014

  Iran – Stories from the Peace Corps by John Krauskopf (Iran 1965-67) Lulu Publisher, $20.00 296 pages 2013 Reviewed by Deidre Swesnik (Mali 1996-98) • “Terry O’Donnell was an elfin man, small of stature, who walked with a limp. An adventurer and a romantic, he had found in Iran the perfect venue for his romanticism.” So begins one of the more compelling stories in Iran – Stories from the Peace Corps by John Krauskopf. Krauskopf seems at his best when he is describing a character or recouting a particular moment in time. There are a number of great stories in this book that do one or the other. “In Some Ways We Are Not So Different” is the story of Terry O’Donnell, the elfin man who is himself telling a story. He tells the story of an American who is bombastically critical of Iranian culture, when he clearly doesn’t really know . . .