Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu [ペーパーバック]

I stumbled upon Troost's first book in Powell's due to a 'Staff Recommendation' and devoured it within a day: A truly funny and engaging read. The following day I ran out and purchased this expecting more of the same but it ain't. Well, not exactly anyway. Whereas I read his first book in a day, it has taken me over a week to get through this and I doubt I'll finish it actually. What's the difference? Well, to start with the premise is that Troost will write a 'Travel Book' in the vein of Evelyn Waugh, and Paul Theroux around A year that spent living in Fiji and Vanuatu. His previous book revolved around the two years he spent in Kiribati. This latter book was a masterpiece of humor, anecdote, gentle self-deprecation and just pure good will. It was fresh and engaging and a real pleasure to read because of the author's uncanny ability to turn small events into good story fodder and for his willigness and ability to mock himself within the adventures told of. The present book suffers by contrast because I believe the author has slipped from glib and insouciant bonhommie to rather smug and smarmy world weariness as he grinds out his tale of two situses. Whereas in the former book the author took delight in the tiny details which he really used well to make his point, we find in this book these exquisite little details have been replaced by A sort of slapdash broadbrush treatment of large themes such as 'trip to an island dance' or 'month in the city.' It isn't very fulfilling in any event and one feels as though the author may either have been allowing his lack of enthusiasm for the semi-colonial life typical of many expatriate experiences to color his judgment, or perhaps was caught up in writer fatigue as he was writing a very similar story about a very similar place under similar circumstances very close in time to each other.
Anyway, I don't want to shush you away from this book but I would like for you to consider buying the author's earlier effort first so that you can see what A truly fun travelogue reads like. For those of you who loved his first book I'm giving fair warning that this one pales in comparison.

J. Maarten Troost's sophomore effort is another travel memoir about a suburbanite displaced to a remote, third-world culture. This time around, he's not merely following his wife's career in assisting impoverished countries. He's not moving around the world for lack of anything better to do; he's moving of his own free will and desire. Maarten and Sylvia, after returning temporarily to the hectic pace of Washington, D.C., make a conscious decision to return to the South Pacific and start a family. They research locations, look for employment, and consider the political unrest in various locales before deciding on their new homeland.

In his first memoir, Troost's reluctant adoption of his new culture is the core of the story. Heck, he wasn't even sure why he agreed to go there! His writing drew the reader into a foreign culture, bringing a higher level of appreciation for a dirty, poor, unconventional village that the average American wouldn't survive a day in. This time around, Troost has a goal of actively exploring his settings and writing a second book. The premise doesn't succeed quite as well as his fish-out-of-water basis for the first memoir.

Troost spends days bonding with natives over the psychedlic high providing by kava, but in the end, he appears to be just another man trying to escape with alcohol or drugs, only now it is conveniently packaged as a cultural experience. He is on a quest for a message and a purpose for his book, running around trying to find cannibals and other interesting characters to interview. The action seems forced. He's lost the innocence and reluctance that made the first memoir so wonderful. Is this still a great travel book? Absolutely! It is leagues above most anything else on the market. Unfortunately, Troost just set the bar really high with his first success.

I especially enjoyed the story of the Troosts' search for proper pre-natal and natal medical care for their first child. The end up moving within the region to begin their family, providing even more humorous material for our author (ever imagine paying for deluxe cable only to get three channels--the national station, a Bollywood station, and a sport channel which focuses on "Korean ping-pong and Malaysian high school basketball?").

Troot is a talented humorist who will open your eyes to an amazing world on the other side of the planet. Again and again, his tales serve to remind Americans how much danger and disease they are protected from every day. This will remain my second favorite of his efforts to date, but I welcome his third travel memoir!

Back to the South Pacific, but this time to Vanuatu and Fiji.

Curiously, cannibalism is much more relevant in this book than

in Sex Lives of Cannibals--maybe he should have saved the word

for here! Once again we escape from the structured life of

suits-and-ties and commuting to visit exotic places. You'll

read about visiting active volcanoes where tourists had been

killed a few weeks before, foot-long poisonous centipedes, the

joys of drinking kava, which is best if you don't think about

how it's made, and cannibalism, which last occurred in Vanuatu

within the author's lifetime.

Troost is a very engaging and humorous writer, frequently poking

fun at himself. And yet....and yet..there seemed to be

a difference between this book and Sex Lives--something that

gave his first book a full 5 stars, something that maybe wasn't

exactly missing here, but something that didn't quite captivate

you as his first book had done. It's been a year since I read

Sex Lives, and there are scenes that stand out in my mind from

that book--the lagoon where you would like to swim filled with

used disposable diapers, for example. Having thought things

over, I think that the problem is that in Sex Lives, there was

so much that seemed totally alien to most of our lives--such

as the lagoon with diapers. In Getting Stoned with Savages, a

lot of what we see is not as alien--you can get hurricanes and

transvestites in New Orleans or Florida, volcanoes in the

Caribbean and Central America, corrupt politicians everywhere.

The difference bewteen the idyllic view of the South Pacific

and reality in Kiribati is great, the difference in Vanuatu and

Fiji is substantial, but not as great. Still--a fine read!