Getting Stoned with Savages
A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
April 24, 2006
Using a format similar to that of his previous work, The Sex Lives of Cannibals
, Troost creates another comical and touching travel memoir. Troost and his wife, Sylvia, move from busy Washington, D.C., to Vanuatu, a nation made up of 83 islands in the South Pacific. As Sylvia works for a regional nonprofit, Troost immerses himself in the islands' culture, an odd mix of the islanders' thousand-year-old "kastoms" along with imperialist British and French influences. This really means that Troost gets to live in a nice house while he gets drunk on kava; dodges "a long inferno of magma and a cascade of lava bombs" at the "world's most accessible volcano"; and checks out the "calcified" leftovers from one of Vanuatu's not-so-ancient traditions, cannibalism. At the end of the book, the couple move to Fiji so that Sylvia will have state-of-the-art medical care when she gives birth to their first baby. While modern-day Fiji provides little fodder for Troost's comic sensibilities, the birth of his son enables him to share some deeper thoughts and decide it is "time to stop looking for paradise." A funny travelogue with a sentimental heart, Troost's latest work genuinely captures the search for paradise as well as the need for home.
June 1, 2006
Those who enjoyed Troost -s account of living on an atoll -a ring of closely spaced small coral islands -in Kiribati in the South Pacific in his previous travel memoir, "The Sex Lives of Cannibals", will not be disappointed with this follow-up. After a two-year stint working as a consultant for the World Bank in Washington, DC, Troost began yearning for the adventure of the South Pacific. So when his wife, Sylvia, was offered a job in Fiji, the two jumped at the chance to return to the far reaches of the world. This time they set up camp in Vanuatu and Fiji, where the author discovered the delights of kava, attempted to find a cannibal, and experienced the joy of parenthood. For those readers sitting in offices, yearning to break free and live on a tropical isle, this book provides a wonderful, witty view into the experience -the good and the bad. Recommended for all libraries with travel collections." -Louise Feldmann, Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins"
Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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