Review by Booklist Review
In introducing this unique short-story collection, editor Coyne observes that many people assume that the Peace Corps faded away with the ignoble end of the 1970s. It did not. Peace Corps volunteers continue to do good works all around the world, and the ripple effect of their efforts and experiences is carried forward in literature because an intriguing number of volunteers have been and are writers. Many have turned to short stories to both exorcise and explore the psychological dynamics of what they've witnessed, endured, and achieved. Myriad facets of Peace Corps life and the cultures of diverse lands are examined in stories by 17 writers, including Paul Theroux, who volunteered in Malawi, Marnie Mueller (Ecuador), Bob Shacochis (eastern Caribbean), and Norman Rush (Botswana). And their tales get to the heart of the human endeavor as they write about language, food, custom, social and familial politics, racial differences, sexual decorum, violence, and disease as well as instances of deep confusion and transcendent communion. --Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Seventeen authorsÄsome celebratedÄwho served in the Peace Corps at various times over the last three decades offer, in these unusual, enlightening tales, a startling look into the mostly Third World locales they grew to know. The authors' backgrounds and subject matter varies widely, though the themes most often converge in the clash between Western and native cultural ways. Paul Theroux, who served in Malawi in 1963, starts off the collection with the magnificently taut "White Lies," about a horrific parasitic rash set upon a philandering foreigner by his scorned African lover. Technical writer Leslie Simmonds Ekstom's (Nigeria, 1963-65) "On Sunday There Might Be Americans" is a powerfully imagined narrative about an aboriginal boy's scrounging for subsistence in the shadow of rich white interlopers. Marnie Mueller (Ecuador, 1963-65), an NBA winner for her novel Green Fires, explores in her story "Exile" the possibility of cross-cultural romance between an exiled Argentine writer and an American political activist living in Mexico City. Each short fiction is introduced by the author's explanation, "How I Came to Write This Story," often based on true experience or impression, followed by a brief biography. While these details are interesting, at times they may dilute the enjoyment of the stories as vivid creations in their own right. Other authors represented include editor Coyne (Ethiopia, 1962-64), who founded a newsletter for and about Peace Corps writers, and novelist Norman Rush (Botswana, 1978-1993). (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Sick and tired of the lull in contemporary fiction today, with the same old stories told over and over with the same old characters and settings and far too much focused narcissistically on the petty crises of America's overexposed middle class? Then pick up this anthology, a wonderful collection of stories that take you from Africa to South America to Asia while probing important issues of place, identity, and tension in a world grown closer but still suffering from a huge gap between have and have-not nations. And who better to write such stories than Peace Corps volunteers, bright and idealistic Americans who have gone abroad and come back with radically adjusted vision? The stories range widely, from Paul Theroux's "White Lies," a stinging story of one young man's comeuppance in Africa, to Kathleen Coskran's "Sun," which reveals the dangers inherent in reaching across the cultural divide, to Terry Marshall's witty "American Model," which pokes fun at naive American attitudes about "natives." There doesn't seem to be a clunker in the bunch. A terrific idea; highly recommended wherever good literature is read.ÄBarbara Hoffert, "Library Journal" (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An anthology of short fiction written by Peace Corps veterans, edited by an old Peace Corps hand who has, since his days in Ethiopia as an early volunteer, gone on to publish eight novels of his own (Child of Shadows, 1990, etc.). The contributors vary widely in age and experience, from writers as well-known as Paul Theroux (who served in Malawi in 1963) to people who have never published fiction before. Unsurprisingly, most of the action is set in the countries where the authors worked; as Coyne explains, volunteers typically 'unpack their belongings, they settle down, they set about to do a job. And they write.' Theroux's story ('White Lies') is based on his experiences in Africa, as are a large number of others, but there are portraits of Asia and Latin America as well. Many stories concern the alienation that Americans living abroad for a long time feel both for their host countries and the homes they eventually return to'with difficulty. Others (such as 'On Sunday There Might Be Americans' by Leslie Ekstrom and 'American Model' by Terry Marshall) portray the sometimes difficult relations between volunteers and natives of the countries in which they serve. For anyone interested in the US and its place in the world, this collection will provide a good picture of diplomacy on a personal scale.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
