Book Reviews

  Lips Open and Divine (poetry) by Matthew A. Hamilton  (Armenia 2006–08, Philippines 2008–10) Winter Goose Publishing 2016 107 pages $11.99 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Ann Neelon (Senegal 1978-79) • As the Roman dramatist Terence famously wrote, “I am a man. Therefore nothing human is foreign to me.”  More than most writers, especially young ones, Matthew A. Hamilton succeeds in giving us an authentic sense of this human amplitude. The range of Lips Open and Divine, his second book of poems, is astonishing. Whether it is in “Thich Quang Duc” witnessing the flames crawling up a self-immolating Buddhist monk’s arms like “a tamed cat” or in “Chickamauga” “accepting/the dry-bone shouts/of a lost cause,” Hamilton is on the scene. His originality lies in his ability to go for the jugular in terms of shock value while remaining, essentially, within the realm of prayer. Hamilton is a veteran as well as . . .

  Consulting in International Development, A Primer John Holley (Colombia 1968-70) Infinity Publishing 2014 452 pages $26.95 (paperback), $8.95 (Kindle) reviewed by Russ Misheloff (Ethiopia 1962–64) • DRAWING ON 40 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, Mr. Holley has developed a comprehensive description of the life and functions of international development consultants. The book is organized into three sections covering: the process of entry into the profession, and why one might want to consider it; the “basics,” to use the author’s term;  a discussion of what consultants in the development arena do, and what abilities, attitudes and behaviors the good ones exhibit; and an extensive examination of some tools and concepts. In sum, it presents a “primer,” as the title indicates, but a thorough one, providing a wealth of information and insight into the functions, the life style, the rewards, the drawbacks, and the abilities and disposition needed for success in development consulting . . .

  Death in Veracruz (thriller) Hector Aguilar Camin (author), translated by Chandler Thompson (Colombia 1962–64) Schaffner Press 2015 304 pages $16.95 (paperback), $9.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Suzanne Adam (Colombia 1964–66) • Photos of eight semi-nude cadavers still fresh and bleeding lie displayed on the table before Negro. His onetime schoolmate and friend, Francisco Rojano, asks Negro, an investigative journalist, to help him find the assassin, whom he suspects is Lacho, the powerful leader of a northern oil workers union. Rojano claims that Lacho is after the oil-rich land owned by the assassinated farmers, but Negro is reluctant to get involved with Rojano, an ambitious politician. He learns that Rojano owns an extensive tract of land bordering Lacho’s farm. He guesses that there’s more to the story than Rojano is revealing. To complicate matters, Negro holds a torch for his friend’s wife, Anabela. The story is set in Mexico during the 1970s. . . .

The current July-August edition of the Foreign Service Journal carries a review written by Mark Wentling (Honduras 1967–69, Togo 1970–73; PC Staff/Togo, Gabon, Niger 1973–77) of The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World by Steven Radelet (Western Samoa 1981-83). • The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World  Reviewed by Mark Wentling (Honduras 1967-69 & Togo 1970-73)  “Is the glass half-full or half-empty? Radelet’s ‘surge’ viewed from an African angle.” I applaud Radelet for this fascinating book. I’m enriched by all the information marshalled to support his argument that the number of poor people in the world today is less than at any previous time in history. He quotes all pertinent sources; almost every sentence cites a key statistic or reference. His book is so chock full of facts and citations it’s a relief to read a sentence that puts a human face on the poor. I agree that . . .

  Waveland: One Woman’s Story of Freedom Summer (Fiction) Simone Zelitch (Hungary 1991–93) The Head & The Hand Press 2015 224 pages $18.00 (paperback) Reviewed by Linda Mather • “Once there was a girl who did everything wrong.” Waveland by Simone Zelitch starts with this sentence, which then sets the tone for the book. Most of the novel is set around events in the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1960s including efforts to register black voters in Mississippi, to gain seats at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, to establish grass roots mobilization in Chicago. And much of that is common to most movements — the clash between the whites and blacks both in the organization of the movement as well as in the towns, the motivation of the volunteers (Beth notes that she didn’t join to type letters), to the philosophies of the organizers themselves (short term goals vs. . . .

  Healing The Masculine Soul: How God Restores Men to Real Manhood Gordon Dalbey (Nigeria 1964-1966) Thomas Nelson 2003 (first published in 1988) 244 pages $12.70 (paperback), $ 4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Michael Varga (Chad 1977-1979)  • There’s a tear in the western masculine soul and many men struggle with how to make themselves whole, given this wound. Gordon Dalbey draws on a ritual he witnessed during his Peace Corps tour in Nigeria to suggest potential solutions. Based on the “calling out” ceremony of the Igbo tribe, a male initiation rite, where a boy is required to leave his mother’s hut and join the men of the tribe, Dalbey asserts that in western societies most men never have a clear-cut opportunity to bond with men, often including their fathers. They remain tied to their mothers, and thereby often never mature enough to have satisfying relationships with other adults. In his work . . .

  Why Stop the Vengeance? (A Donald Strachey Mystery — Volume 14) Richard Stevenson [Richard Lipez (Ethiopia 1962–64)] MLR Press 2015 248 pages $14.99 (paperback), $6.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Robert Keller (Albania 2008–09) • Well, I’m hooked. I put down Why Stop at Vengeance? ready to pick up another Donald Strachey mystery novel. And if the others are anything like this one, then they’re perfect summertime, beach reads. The lead, Donald Strachey, is a good-at-heart but slightly ambiguous private detective who rolls around Albany, NY getting into and out of trouble with less than reputable characters. Some are saints, others are down toward the other end of the spectrum. Why Stop at Vengeance? centers around an unholy alliance of right wing Christian zealots who spend millions to terrorize African countries with anti-gay propaganda and legislation. Strachey comes to the aid of a poor African man under political asylum; a man . . .

  Two Pumps for the Body Man: A Diplomatic Noir B. A. [Ben] East (Malawi 1996–98) New Pulp Press March 2016 286 pages $14.95 (paperback), $4.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by John Rouse (Peru 1966–68) • Ben East’s humorous yet deadly serious diplomatic noir  Two Pumps for the Body Man should be required reading for any youngster contemplating a foreign service career along the conflict-torn borders of the vast American empire. It’s a story about Jeffrey Mutton, a diplomatic security officer in charge of strengthening office security at a local consular office in Saudi Arabia in the wake of the September 11 disaster and during the propaganda buildup to the “War on Terror” and the US invasion of Iraq. Mutton and his confederacy of bungling junior political officers and visa stampers find themselves hopelessly caught within the seductive spell of their professionally incompetent, but bureaucratically ambitious, Consul General; the two-faced maneuvering of their . . .

  The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan Laurence Leamer (Nepal 1964–66) William Morrow June 2016 384 pages $27.99 (hardcover), $12.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Martin Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68) • Whatever hyperbole appears on the back cover will not do justice to Laurence Leamer’s The Lynching — The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan. This fast paced factual thriller, with its numerous short, punchy chapters, is better than a John Grisham courtroom novel. It is an account of two dramatic trials: the first, a criminal trial of two members of the Mobile, Alabama Klan for the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald, an innocent black nineteen-year-old, randomly selected and brutally murdered; and the second, the 1984 civil suit, brought by Morris Dees, civil rights attorney and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLA) against the United Klans of America (UKA). That suit, “Beulah Mae Donald, as Executor of . . .