Peace Corps writers

Jack Kennedy, Elusive Hero by Chris Matthews (Swaziland 1968-70) Simon & Schuster 496 pages $27.50 (hardback); $26.39 (audio cd) November 2011 Reviewed by Don Schlenger (Ethiopia 1966-68) I WAS A SENIOR in a suburban,New Jersey high school when John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. Staunchly Presbyterian and Republican like my parents and many of my classmates, I was sure that the White House would soon become Vatican West. Six years later, my wife, Jackie, and I were on a charter flight to Addis Ababa to begin our two year service as Peace Corps Volunteers in Ethiopia.  As I made my way through Chris Matthews’ new book, Jack Kennedy, Elusive Hero, I was able, after almost five decades, to formulate answers to Matthews’ questions, ‘What was he like?” and “How did he do it?”  I’m not sure why, after five decades, these questions were important to me,  but I do know, . . .

In the mid-sixties, the Peace Corps as an agency realized that they had a lot of Volunteer stories that they could use for Recruitment so the Office of Public Information, as it was then called, began its own publications. In September 1968 they published The Peace Corps Reader with the declaimer, “The opinions expressed in the Peace Corps Reader are those of the authors and may or may not coincide with official Peace Corps policy.” Ain’t that the truth! This Peace Corps book, which, by the way, was given away free as a government publication, republished several copyrighted pieces including Jack Vaughn’s “Now We are Seven” published in 1968 in the Saturday Review; and Sargent Shriver’s 1966 essay, also published in the Saturday Review, “Five Years with the Peace Corps.” There was “The Quiet-mouth American” by Donald Lloyd, published in 1963 in Harper’s Magazine. Lloyd was the founder of Resources Development . . .

This isn’t the Christmas Season or the Holiday Season as much as it is the Season of Big Books by RPCVs! Having received last week: War of Hearts and Mind: An American Memoir, which comes in at 618 pages and written by James Jouppi (Thailand 1971-73), this week in the mail came: Reports of My Death: Beyond-the-Grave Confessions of North American Writers by Girard R. Christmas (Thailand 1973-76; Western Samoa 1976-78).  This tome is 660 pages! Both of these books are self-published. And, by the way, what’s with these Thailand RPCVs? Do they have too much time on their hands and that is why they are writing such long books? Reports of My Death, aka, ROMD, is the labor of love of Gerry Christmas. It took him twenty years to research and write. “As a teenager,” he wrote me, “I always hated the way authors were presented in textbooks. Reports of . . .

Before there were Returned Peace Corps Volunteers there were books about them. In the very early days of the agency everyone was caught up with enthusiasm for these young Idealists going off on their own to do good in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To the best of my knowledge, the first book–paperback, of course, and selling for .50$ (those were the days)–was published by Paperback Library and done with the ‘full’ cooperation of the agency.  It is entitled simply, The Peace Corps. Sargent Shriver wrote the Introduction and the photographs were taken by Rowland Sherman and Paul Conklin, the first two great photographers of the Peace Corps. There is one photo in particular that I remember. It was taken of my roommate, Ernie Fox (Ethiopia 1962-64). He is with children of whose parents who were in the leprosarium outside of Addis Ababa. We would go out of town on Saturday mornings to play games . . .

Running in Flip-flops by Abigail Fay (Senegal 2007–09) A Peace Corps Writers Book $12.75 (paperback) 299 pages 2011 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) THE TITLE, RUNNING IN FLIP-FLOPS, CAUGHT MY ATTENTION because it indicates doing something improbable, if not impossible, as does the title of my own memoir, Roller Skating in the Desert. In this novel Fay captures the classic Peace Corps Volunteer experience of trying to fit into a very foreign culture; tolerating the tedium of daily village life that includes rituals of long greetings and strange social mores. The protagonist, Shannon, suffers the discomforts of unrelenting hot weather, lack of sanitary comforts, unfamiliar foods, physical illnesses and irritating behavior from unwitting locals. She is frustrated when she visualizes  beneficial projects that people in her village cannot seem to implement.  Her counterparts, Ibou Diop and Ndey Sekk, however, help her win some victories, such as building latrines . . .

War of Hearts and Minds: An American Memoir by James Jouppi (Thailand 1971–73) might not be the best Peace Corps memoir, but it certainly will rank as  the biggest, coming in at 618 pages, which includes a half dozen glossary pages on Thai terminology (for example: kiat — a small white frog considered very tasty by Northeast Thai villagers). Maps. Photographs. Plus a timeline! Jim Jouppi writes that his memoir “offers a compelling look into both the politics of Nixon-era America and that of staunchly anti-communist Thailand as it fought a shadow war adjoining the one that was raging in Vietnam and Laos, before projecting into the present and providing insights for new strategies in the future.” (It’s no wonder that this book is lengthy.) Jim self-published an earlier book with iUniverse, and then combined it with his next one. This new book tell the whole story of being a PCV civil engineer working with Thailand’s Community . . .

NPR’s All Things Considered runs a popular program called “Three Books” where authors are asked to describe three worthy books on a single subject that may have been overlooked. This past Friday, Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) contributed, “Three Criminally Good Reads.”  The segment is four minutes long, and you can hear him discuss crime novels by John Dos Passos, Magnus Mills, and Christopher Isherwood. D’Souza is the author of his own crime novel, Mule that recently was sold to the movies. Listen Now: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/25/140804657/black-market-value-three-criminally-good-reads

WHAT DO I DO NOW? by Phillip L. Peters (Guatemala 1962–64) and Kathleen Peters National Information Services $16.95 (paperback) 169 pages September 2011 Reviewed by Leo Cecchini (Ethiopia 1962–64) READING What Do I Do Now? is akin to watching one of those 4 am TV shows with a self-made millionaire pitching his plan for how to make a fortune. The pitch always starts by promising that you will make lots of money, and ends with selling you a program or system for selling a product or service. The author tells the story through a character, Luke. based on his personal life starting as a Peace Corps Volunteer through becoming a successful “social entrepreneur” selling “wellness” products. Luke in turn tells the story in the form of reflections on his life as he prepares to go to the Peace Corps’s 50Th Anniversary Celebration in Washington DC this past September. Luke recalls . . .

Concord ePress has republished John Givens (Korea 1967–69) novel,  A Friend in the Police. Originally published in 1980 by Harcourt, Brace, you can now buy the ebook version at Concord ePress: http://www.concordepress.com/a-friend-in-the-police/  Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WOG6DE  The plot goes something like this: A middle-aged American businessman arrives in an unnamed Southeast Asian country to retrieve his wayward son. George Bates finds himself confronted by a climate and culture more bizarre than he could have anticipated, and by the mysterious Detective Sergeant Xlong, whose own background is even more tangled than the Americans and whose fecund language reflects the lush ambiguity of the tropical rain forest. Bates is soon lost in a complex, hallucinatory world that resembles a rewrite of The Heart of Darkness by Franz Kafka. A Friend in the Police is often spoken of by veteran authors as the book they wish they had written. Newly revised by the author, this . . .

Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) who conceived and also edited with other RPCVs four volumes of Peace Corps literature will be at the  Tattered Cover Book Store on Friday, December 2, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. She will be signing books. The Tattered Cover is at  2526 East Colfax in Denver. It is famous as an independent bookstore that has survived much chain competition. In the ‘days of e-books’ this is an amazing store with millions of real books! Jane, who earned a master’s degree in English, taught freshman composition at Southern Methodist University, then served as the writing specialist for the SMU School of Law created in 1980 Tiger Enterprises, a company for writing, editing, and instruction. Several years ago, she came up with the idea of publishing stories from the Peace Corps. All the books are published by Travelers’ Tales, an Imprint of Solas House, Inc. in Palo Alto, California. They are: Africa-One Hand Does Not Catch A Buffalo edited by . . .

The Lima Bear Stories Thomas Weck (Ethiopia 1965–67) and Peter Weck Illustrated by Len DiSalvo $15.95 (hardcover) • The Megasaurus 40 pages May 2011 • How Back-Back Got His Name 32 pages July 2011 • The Cave Monster 32 pages September 2011 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02, Madagascar 2002-03) THOMAS AND PETER WECK, along with illustrator Len DiSalvo, have created a series of children’s books for 4–8 year olds called The Lima Bear Stories, three of which, The Megasaurus, How Back-Back Got His Name, and The Cave Monster, I have had the pleasure of reading to my two and three-year-olds over the past week. The stories, about a kingdom of lima bean-sized bears and a number of regular-sized animal friends of the bears, are based on stories Thomas told his children. The books are handsome and beautifully illustrated, and knowing what my children would do to the books . . .

Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders is a live one-hour weekday global cultural affairs program with a focus on the future. It is broadcast from Wisconsin Public Radio and hosted by Jean Feraca. Its mission is described on the website (http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/aboutus.cfm). Yesterday’s broadcast focused on Peace Corps writers  Sarah Erdman (Cote d’Ivoire 1998-2000), author of Nine Hills to Nambonkaha,  and Peter Hessler (China  1996-98), who wrote River Town and two other books on China. To listen to the program, go to:http://wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_111115k.cfm This program is an hour long and several RPCVs ‘call in’  so the discussion goes beyond books to the Peace Corps experience, and what has happened to all of us! It is terrific show. Sarah and Peter did a great job talking about their books and their tours. In true Peace Corps spirit, Sarah calls in to the program from Brussels where she is at the moment,  and Peter was on his cell phone from downtown . . .

Thirty years ago P.F. Kluge (Micronesia 1967-69) published a novel entitled Eddie and the Cruisers about a New Jersey rock band. The book was turned into a cult movie. (Kluge also wrote the WSJ article(s) that were the basis of  the movie Dog Day Afternoon.) Cruisers was (is) a terrific book, published by Viking in 1980. Now comes another ‘rock band’ novel by an RPCV! This one is the first novel by  Tyler McMahon (El Salvador 1999-02) who served in Palo Grande, in the Rosario de Mora municipality, and who is now an Assistant Professor at Hawaii Pacific University. His novel, How the Mistakes Were Made, was published in October by St. Martin’s Press. The story is about Laura Loss who comes of age in the hardcore punk scene of the 1980s, the jailbait bassist in her brother Anthony’s band. Now, a decade after tragedy destroyed Anthony and their iconic group, she finds herself serving coffee in Seattle. While on a reluctant . . .

Ashley Hardaway (Ukraine 2006–08) has never been able to sit still. It progressively got worse. Far away universities. Backpacking trips. Solo vacations. It wasn’t any big shock when she announced she was joining the Peace Corps – leaving for Ukraine a month after graduating from college. Afterwards, upon moving back to America, Ashley would continuously find herself saying “In Ukraine this one time…” To everyone’s great delight and/or horror she got a publishing deal for a travel guide to Ukraine — Ukraine: Discover the Real Ukraine. Traveling around the county again and writing about it would either rid her of all her thoughts regarding this country, or provide her with even more stories to torment people with at Christmas time. So far, all signs point to the latter. Ashley Hardaway now lives in Florida where she continues to write – about other things besides Ukraine. However, for our site, she wrote a piece on . . .