J. Maarten Troost
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in he Equatorial Pacific (2004)
Author: J. Maarten Troost
Genre: Nonfiction (Travelogue)
Book Summary:
Author J. Maarten Troost, having completed graduate school without any clear idea of what he wants to do with his life, decides to follow his girlfriend to a remote atoll in the equatorial Pacific. He convinces himself that, although Kiribati is a Third World country, he is about to enter an island paradise. What he discovers is that, while life on Kiribati is always interesting, occasionally beautiful, and sometimes even magesterial; it is largely a long chain of inconveniences, some of which are small, some large, and some potentially fatal. So, for example, while he is free to spend his days windsurfuing and snorkeling in a picturesque lagoon, he also must boil his water for twenty minutes before drinking it and subsist largely on fish and expired canned meat. Luckily for the reader, Troost endures it all with good humor, so The Sex Lives of Cannibals is a funny recounting of a great many misadventures. The author has also taken the time to do some research on his adopted home, so the reader is occasionally treated to a brief, interesting, educational aside.
Geographical Setting: Kiribati
Time Period: Late 1990s
Appeal Characteristics:
The Sex Lives of Cannibals is an enormously funny book. It also introduces the reader to a lifestyle that is probably extremely different from his or her own. The addition of historical perspective and background make the book an even more worthwhile read.
Read-alikes: Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods tells his travel story with a similar wit and historic insight; Ann Vanderhoof's An Embarrassment of Magoes tells a similar story of disaffection with the modern US leading to a long journey; Aaron Ralston's Between a Rock and a Hard Place is an adventure story of life at the extreme edge of existence; and in Making Tracks Terry Pindell takes a similiarly humanistic look at the people who surround him on his journey.
Red Flags: As the title suggests, Troost is not shy about discussing possibly offensive topics in a light, humourous manner. His observations on island life include references to sex, disease, fighting dogs, human waste, and other such "unsavory" topics.
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