The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific | J. Maarten Troost

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific | J. Maarten Troost | A great escape

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The Sex Lives of C...

	The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific J. Maarten Troost Broadway, 2004 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 103 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Hilarious and Poignant

Maarten Troost's The Sex Lives of Cannibals is many things: educational, poignant, unbelievable at times, and always hilarious. Troost tells his tale of moving to a very remote island in the Pacific when his girlfriend accepts an aid job on Kiribati; to say they didn't precisely know what they were getting into is a bit of an understatement. Maarten goes along, planning on writing the world's greatest novel and instead finding out how the twentieth century has dumped on this beautiful atoll, leaving its citizens trying to make lives out of very little and making the incredible the norm. Along the way he experiences pigs on runways, sharks, sailing between islands amid 25 foot swells, native dancing, an abundance of dogs, World War 2 relics, fish to eat everyday, body surfing, and the Macarena.

Troost has a wonderful way with words, and he pulls you in immediately. His style makes you feel as though you're sitting in the room with him as he recounts stories sometimes so fantastic you find yourself not believing them. He intersperses the book with chapters of actual facts about Kiribati, an area of the world that apparently I'm not alone in knowing almost nothing about. I found myself laughing out loud so often at his descriptions that I know I was bothering my husband as he tried to sleep.

This is a relatively short, fun book that is way more than just a memoir or a piece of non-fiction. While it is indeed hilarious, it's also packed with situations that are just unbelievable for the twentieth and twenty first centuries. In the last few chapters, Troost and his girlfriend move back to the States and have trouble readjusting to the fast-paced life, and I'm afraid I'm going to have trouble readjusting to my narrower view of the world since Troost has introduced me to the gorgeous culture of an isolated Pacific island. Give yourself a treat and indulge in this one. Highly recommended!

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A great escape

I am well known among my friends as someone who is bored with any book that is not, often painfully so, educational about the world around me. I don't read to fall asleep, I read and then cannot sleep. This is one of the first books in ages that not only kept my attention without stabbing pains of guilt and dispair but literally had me laughing out loud. It was a nice break from my books of Rwanda, Burma, the U.S. Economy etc etc...

Drifting through life

I read this book on two separate levels: a travelogue by someone for whom life in this part of the world was a complete culture shock, and as a sad reminder of the legacy of colonialism in the Pacific. I enjoyed much of the writing: Mr Troost combines good observational skills with an ability to see humour in much of what he observed. Importantly, Mr Troost can laugh at himself and this is what saves this book from being a self-indulgent memoir.

There are some wonderful anecdotes of life in Kiribati, from the perspective of an American visitor, and some poignant reminders of life and culture prior to colonial exploitation.

The book is worth reading - especially by those who entertain romantic notions about life in the Pacific. For those who seek to understand the people or the politics of the region, other sources will be needed.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

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Except For The Writing, It Was A Good Book

The story starts slow, then gets interesting, then falters, then hits it's pace. Not bad, not great.

Not so good

I thought the book was boring and didn't even finish it. Something was lacking there to draw the reader along through the story.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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