Status
Available
Call number
Publication
New York : Broadway Books, 2004.
Description
Travel. Nonfiction. HTML: At age twenty-six, Maarten Troost decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to a remote South Pacific island. The idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better. This book tells the hilarious story of what happens when he discovers that the island is not the paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles with stifling heat, deadly bacteria, and polluted seas in a country where the only music to be heard is "La Macarena." He and his girlfriend, Sylvia, contend with incompetent officials, alarmingly large critters, a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis), and bizarre local characters, including "Half-Dead Fred" and the so-called Poet Laureate of Tarawa, a British drunkard who's never written a poem in his life..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member bragan
Troost shares his experiences of the two years he spent on Tarawa, a tiny island lost in the middle of the Pacific, where his girlfriend was employed by an NGO aid organization, and he was employed not writing a novel. Tarawa, and the nation of Kiribati to which it belongs, is a place with a lot of
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problems: overcrowding, poverty, pollution, bad government, disease. But Troost writes with a real fondness for the place and the people, and with a lot of often self-deprecating humor, making this a delight to read, even if I'm glad not to be the one having lived it. (Because, seriously, nobody should have to dig flies out of their wounds. Nobody.) Show Less
LibraryThing member JTJonesberry
A fun, realistic accounting on life on an island "paradise." If you're headed that way, ready this first.
LibraryThing member belgrade
hilarious story of young graduate who decided to leave his urban life and move to South Pacific Island of the Republic of Kiribati. Moving to the ends of earth was incredibly romantic idea, but he should have known better..
a must read...
a must read...
LibraryThing member blackbelt.librarian
Hilarious! Anyone who has a romantic, wide-eyed notion of volunteer work a la Peace Corps should read this book. You'd think living on a tropical island in the Pacific would be paradise - not so, according to Troost. He & his wife have to deal with the Kiribati culture, food, people using the ocean
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as an outhouse, and a surfer bum who's the self-proclaimed poet of the island. An entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member BoundTogetherForGood
I enjoyed this book though it wasn't quite what I expected. It was fun and light reading and taught about a culture with whom I was not familiar. I just bought the sequel. Getting Stoned with Savages. His writing style is one I enjoy.
LibraryThing member hlselz
This book is hilarious. About a husband and wife who move to islands in the south pacific. The author tells stories of the adventures and mishaps he has while on the islands.
LibraryThing member rayski
Author and his girlfriend run to a south pacific paradise to escape generic America (Kiribati) to find anything but paradise. The book is a memoir of his trip – true story.
LibraryThing member readaholic12
Many memorable, laugh out loud moments in Troost's vivid descriptions of life on a remote Pacific Island. I enjoy his writing style, which weaves daily absurdities and hardships with cultural, historical and political asides. His transition from from shocked newcomer to hardened local is
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fascinating. Show Less
LibraryThing member shawnd
It was hard for me to put this down. I am not a fan of travel books generally; my enjoyment was based on the rare locale being written about and the cavalier attitude and adventures of the author. This really is a mix of travel book - explorer/adventure book - with a bit of political commentary
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mixed in. Although the title is suggestive, I think it's more to attract attention since little or no mention is made of the sex lives of cannibals. There were a couple of chapters I didn't like where the author seemed grudgingly to switch to give a history of the tiny island in the South Pacific he is know living on. Fortunately he put these in single chapters I could skim rather than peppering it throughout the action plot. In a word, fascinating. If you like books about USAID or other American workers in Africa AND books about people being stranded on boats at sea trying to survive, you will love this book. Show Less
LibraryThing member mimiwi
This is a very unorthodox travogue/type story. I laughed out loud several times, and learned a lot about how to survive in a place with no sewage treatment or municipal water.
LibraryThing member mullinator52
This is a travelogue of a couple to go to live on an atoll in the south Pacific. Travelogues are not my usual type of reading but this one was written wonderfully
LibraryThing member sunfi
An entertaining and humorous story about a man and his girlfriend who pack up their lives and move to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific. They moved from Washington DC to a little place called Tarawa. On the atoll, the electricity was sporadic at best but the fish and colorful characters
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were plentiful. It was an interesting travel book and I was wondering if I could do that. Could I survive on a little island in the middle of nowhere. It would take getting used to but the impact that a person can make in that environment, where living is truly self sustaining, would be immense. Then again the impact that the island and environment would have on me would be incredible as well. This was a great first book from a promising author. Show Less
LibraryThing member 391
The Sex Lives of Cannibals was, I found, even more than it promised to be - it was a funny travelogue, sure, but it also contained more serious topics about colonialism, foreign aid and environmental protection. I'm glad I picked it up!
LibraryThing member harperhaven
This book was very entertaining. I chuckled thru much of it. Out right laughed in several places. It chronicled the huge cultural differences between the Islanders and the modern world via the expoits of the author and his wife. This tropical island life is by no means glorified as idylic as many
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other books/movies would lead us to believe. But this book get across the concepts of simple life and survival. No gross consumerism and over abundance of things here...well except perhaps for the Macarena! Show Less
LibraryThing member etimme
While the beginning and end of the book were solid, I thought the story lost focus and had an out of place tone and length with the two chapters about being stranded on a remote island (once due to storm, once due to the shoddy airlines). The author did a good job disillusioning the reader about
It's fitting that the book ends with them returning to Washington D.C. for a two year sojourn, only to relocate to Fiji (presumably a place with electricity, indoor plumbing, and produce) at the end of the book.
This first novel / auto-biography / whatever reminds me a lot of Chelsea Handler's first book: witty at times, unpolished at others, but having a compelling voice that (in her case) was refined in her second novel. I hope that Troost's second entry about life in Fiji sees the same improvements as Handler's.
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life in the tropics, paying plenty of attention to the way "civilization" does more harm than good to these small islands, and to the lacks of a small atoll in the middle of the Pacific. Yet, despite the avarice and incompetence by local leaders, the apathy of everyone in positions of authority, the lack of utilities and any modern conveniences, Troost and the missus still find that a simple island life is more satisfying than the one we live every day in America.It's fitting that the book ends with them returning to Washington D.C. for a two year sojourn, only to relocate to Fiji (presumably a place with electricity, indoor plumbing, and produce) at the end of the book.
This first novel / auto-biography / whatever reminds me a lot of Chelsea Handler's first book: witty at times, unpolished at others, but having a compelling voice that (in her case) was refined in her second novel. I hope that Troost's second entry about life in Fiji sees the same improvements as Handler's.
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LibraryThing member queencersei
What do you do when you are on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and half way through your stay all the beer is mistakenly miss-routed far, far from the people who need it most? Read this book and find out! A highly amusing account of the authors stay in the tiny island atoll of
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Kiribati. Show Less
LibraryThing member jennyo
I don't know if I'd like Troost in person or not, but his book sure is funny. He's like a younger, snarkier Bill Bryson. And Kiribati sounds like a beautiful but horrible place to live.
If you like to travel vicariously, especially with someone who has a pretty good sense of humor, I'd definitely
If you like to travel vicariously, especially with someone who has a pretty good sense of humor, I'd definitely
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recommend Troost's books. I started his second one, Getting Stoned With Savages, last night, and it looks to be more of the same funny, clever stuff. Show Less
LibraryThing member meggyweg
A very amusing literary journey to the island nation of Kiribati (pronounced "Kee-i-bash"), which most people have never heard of, which isn't even a member of the UN. I read Troost's book about Fiji and Vanuatu first and I'm pleased to say I liked this book almost as much. I wish he had written
I look forward to reading his book about China. And now I know I will never go to Kiribati. I'm sure I would be driven insane in a week.
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more about his girlfriend Sylvia's job promoting nutrition and sustainable living, though. Troost himself wasn't working, just trying to write a novel and generally idling. He only wrote a few details about Sylvia's work but it sounded really interesting and I wish I knew more.I look forward to reading his book about China. And now I know I will never go to Kiribati. I'm sure I would be driven insane in a week.
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LibraryThing member llasram
Light non-fiction. Enjoyable and harmlessly diverting, with a few mind-broadening facts thrown in.
LibraryThing member Tom_D
This is the first and best of the 3 books.
LibraryThing member randomarbitrary
This book made me laugh repeatedly. The author follows his girlfriend to a small island apparently populated by an insane asylum. Makes you laugh and also makes you really glad to live in a "civilized" country...
LibraryThing member Niecierpek
This is Maarten Toost’s first book, but the third one for me. It is about two years Troost spent with his wife on a really remote island in the Pacific- Kiribas. It’s a tiny island, a part of an independent country with the population of less than 10,000 belonging to the British Commonwealth,
With Makarena and death of Princess Diana being the most popular events on Kiribas, I can’t help but think that everybody was watching the Royal Wedding there, even though electricity and TV’s are quite hard to come by.
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which faces numerous environmental and economic challenges. Written with humour and enough of social and political bite and critique, it’s a great read- honest and compassionate. You definitely become an instant advocate for meaningful aid and the idea of Pacific cleanup after reading it.With Makarena and death of Princess Diana being the most popular events on Kiribas, I can’t help but think that everybody was watching the Royal Wedding there, even though electricity and TV’s are quite hard to come by.
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LibraryThing member coffyman
Fascinating and funny! Well written.
LibraryThing member lkernagh
I am a firm believer that true stories are wilder than any fiction the highly paid minds in Hollywood can come up with and Troost proves this, in an entertaining way, as he takes the reader through his metamorphosis of a stunned 20-something American from Washington DC trying to fit in and
A read/audiobook well worth experiencing for Troost's delightful wit and uncanny ability to capture the "what the ......" nuances of trying to assimilate into island life, with the hope of not always being the complete laughingstock of the natives.
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understand the local population of a small atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean into an islander. I had to look up the location of Kiribati on the map and, thanks to Google, I now know that this tiny chain of islands is due south of Hawaii and couldn't be more smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, almost as if someone had picked them islands up and placed them there. I like travelogues to be informative, witty and detailed enough to really give the reader an insight into day-to-day life. Troost does this in spades. I will admit that I struggled with the first couple of chapters when I thought I was in for, you know, one of those cheap "I don't know what to do with my life beyond aimlessly drifting from job to job and country to country" kind of drivel writing, but once Maarten and Sylvia had reached Tarawa and Maarten started to investigate where they had chosen to move to, it opened up into a more insightful read with segues into nuclear and chemical testing conducted in the South Pacific, that childhood dysentery is what first world aid should focus on (and not AIDS counseling) and the sad irony that garbage was never a problem - although sanitation was - until first world items like plastic bags, tinned corned beef, beer in cans and disposable diapers found their way to the region. Where exactly does one create a landfill - a first world solution to the problem - on an atoll? A read/audiobook well worth experiencing for Troost's delightful wit and uncanny ability to capture the "what the ......" nuances of trying to assimilate into island life, with the hope of not always being the complete laughingstock of the natives.
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LibraryThing member mattrutherford
Quite enjoyable, lively, great descriptions, a few laugh-out-loud moments.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2004
Physical description
265 p.; 21 inches
ISBN
0767915305 / 9780767915304