Peace Corps Worldwide

Cockeyed by Richard Stevenson [aka Richard Lipez (Ethiopia 1962–64)] MLR Press September 2010 215 pages $14.99 Reviewed by Tony D’Souza  (Ivory Coast 2000–02, Madagascar 2002–03) I HAVE TO BEGIN THIS REVIEW of Richard Stevenson’s Cockeyed, the latest installment of his Donald Strachey Mystery series, by saying that I’ve recently discovered Christopher Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories, those masterful and disturbing looks at gay life in Weimar Germany just before the rise of the Nazis. I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never read Isherwood before this summer — my wife’s taking a Brit Lit course and I’ve been snagging her books — but at the same time it’s been sublime to wallow some weeks in great literature that’s been completely new to me. All right, you know the old reviewing trick, mention the author under review, then the “great” author he or she is most similar to: hence Stevenson and Isherwood in the . . .

Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) has written about China in three lovely books, and lives today in Colorado, where, by the way, he is the very new father of twins! He has now turned his amazing journalistic and literary skills on the southwestern section of Colorado where uranium created a cancer epidemic back in the ’50s. He writes about all of this in the September 13, 2010, issue of The New Yorker. You might want to check it out. It is rather amazing how all the talented RPCV writers have come out of China. I have written about this ‘China gang” before. There is Peter, who published Country Driving: A Journey Through China  to Factory in February, and also Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) and his The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed that was published by Walker in 2008. And other writers as well. These guys are serious and important. You should . . .

 [This article by Mark DiIonno appeared on September 9, 2010, in the New Jersey Star-Ledge.] BERKELEY HEIGHTS – Author P.F. Kluge’s life has been a global travelogue, taking him far from his childhood home in Berkeley Heights. The Peace Corps took him to the Pacific Island of Palau, and among his favorite places are the Austria village of Altausse, and the Island of Mallaca in the Bay of Bengal. His novel “Biggest Elvis” takes place in the shot-and-beer and g-string town outside the Navy base in Subic Bay, the Phillippines. “Master Blaster,” due out next year, takes place on Saipan, where U.S. Marines battled Japanese soldiers in World War II. After a life of exploring other cultures, Kluge, 69, decided to rediscover his own. “A Call from Jersey,” which was released this week, takes place mostly around Berkeley Heights and centers around an immigrant story rarely told: that of the . . .

Mosquito Operas: New and Selected Short Poems Philip Dacey (Nigeria 1963–65) New York: Rain Mountain Press July 2010 73 pages $10.00 Reviewed by Sandra Meek (Botswana 1989–91) PHILIP DACEY’S MOST RECENT BOOK is an unusual one for the world of contemporary American poetry; rather than being organized by thematic arc or by the chronology of their writing, these poems are brought together because of one shared formal trait: simply, they are all short. In his author’s note that begins the collection, Dacey describes the book as “a kind of family reunion,” noting the earliest of these poems dates back to 1970. From the very first page of poems, this book does exhibit a wild diversity of both subject matter and tone not unlike an extended family gathering where, say, an angst-ridden teenage boy in black eyeliner and fingernail polish might be forced into the buffet line next to his back-slapping, . . .

Jason Boog is an editor at mediabistro.com’s publishing Web site, GalleyCat (www.mediabistro.com/galleycat). His work has appeared in The Believer, Granta, Salon.com, The Revealer, and Peace Corps Writers, and he is a contributor to the Poetry Foundation’s  poetryfoundation.org. This piece appeared in the December 15, 2009, issue of Wabash College’s on-line magazine. Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana is a small and very good liberal arts college for men. This article by Jason is one in a series of ongoing conversations about what it means to be a man in the 21st Century. • A Man’s Life: Sad Men by Jason Boog (Guatemala 2000-02) I lost my job in December 2008, unemployed at the beginning of the longest, coldest winter I can remember in New York City. Up until then, everything had been going swimmingly: I was a staff writer at an investigative reporting publication, taught an undergraduate journalism class, and proposed to my girlfriend . . .

Name Tagging (Photography) by Martha Cooper (Thailand 1963–65) Mark Batty Publisher $12.95 96 pages July 2010 • Under the Same Moon by Kelli M. Donley (Cameroon 2000) Donley Books $16.00 356 pages May 2010 • The Henderson Memories (Peace Corps novel) by Doug Ingold (Brazil 1964-66) Wolfenden Publishing $14.95 Kindle Edition, $9.75 379 pages 2010 • Lyndon B. Johnson [The American Presidents Series] by Charles Peters (PC/Staff 1961-65) Times Books $23.00 224 pages June 2010 • Becker’s Farm by William V. Timmons (Niger 1965-67) CreateSpace (BookSurge) $18.99 326 pages June 2009 • The Man in the Black and White Dress by William V. Timmons (Niger 1965-67) CreateSpace (BookSurge) $15.99 338 pages 2009 • The Trojan Pony by William Timmons (Niger 1965-67) CreateSpace (BookSurge) $ 14.95 223 pages 2009 • Never Push An Elephant by William Timmons (Niger 1965-67) CreateSpace (BookSurge) $ 15.95 310 pages 2009 To order any of the . . .

Reviewer Reilly Ridgell is the author of the recently released novel Green Pearl Odyssey and the anthology of Micronesian Peace Corps stories Bending to the Trade Winds. He is also the author of the widely used textbook, Pacific Nations and Territories, in print continuously since 1983, and co-author of its elementary level version Pacific Neighbors. Reilly is currently a dean at Guam Community College. • The Henderson Memories by Doug Ingold (Brazil 1964–66) Wolfenden 379 pages $14.95 from Wofenden, $9.75 Kindle version Reviewed by Reilly Ridgell (Micronesia 1971–73) THE FIRST TWO OR THREE PAGES OF A NOVEL need to grab the readers and make them want to continue reading. Also, if a book is really bad you’ll generally know after the first few pages. In The Henderson Memories author Doug Ingold starts off by introducing us to the two characters through whom the story will unfold. While the first pages . . .

Reviewer Mark Brazaitis is the author of three books of fiction, including The River of Lost Voices: Stories from Guatemala, winner of the 1998 Iowa Short Fiction Award, and Steal My Heart, a novel that won the Maria Thomas Fiction Award given by Peace Corps Writers. His latest book is The Other Language: Poems, winner of the 2008 ABZ Poetry Prize. His short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, The Sun, Witness, Notre Dame Review, Confrontation, and elsewhere. He is an associate professor of English and directs the Creative Writing Program at West Virginia University. • Hunting Hemingway’s Trout by Lauri Anderson (Nigeria 1965–67) North Star Press of St. Cloud Inc. $14.95 139 pages 2010 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991–93) IF IMITATION IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF FLATTERY, writing a book in the spirit of an author one admires must be the second highest form. I think Ernest Hemingway would . . .

Naomi Wolf, bestselling author and feminist (in the third-wave) and a political consultant to Clinton, Gore, and others, as well as author of  the international bestseller, The Beauty Myth, is offering an Internet course “that offers participants the key content of the non-fiction workshop” that she has successfully taught in college classrooms. The Internet workshop will focus on key issues for writers of nonfiction, among them are:  1) how to turn an opinion into a publishable op-ed piece; 2) what a really marketable nonfiction book proposal looks like; 3) how to increase the chances that your book-which will be published into an environment full of competing messages-will  attract as much attention as possible; 4) what actually happens in the publishing and book promotion cycle. And more! She is offering sessions in September and October. Each session consists of three live classes, and each class is two hours long. You may register for . . .

Leita Kaldi Davis worked for the United Nations and UNESCO, for Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard University. She worked with Roma (Gypsies) for fifteen years, became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal at the age of 55, then went to work for the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti for five years. She retired in Florida in 2002. She has written a memoir of Senegal, Roller Skating in the Desert, and is working on a memoir of Haiti. • Henry Walters & Bernard Berenson: Collector & Connoisseur by Stanley Mazaroff (Philippines 1961–63) Johns Hopkins University Press $40.00 212 pages May 2010 Reviewed by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) Stanley Mazaroff has written a fascinating account of the relationship between Henry Walters, founder of the legendary Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and Bernard Berenson, the world’s greatest connoisseur of Italian paintings. Walters opened his Italianate museum in 1909, . . .