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It is in Vanuatu that Troost discovers the wonders of kava, a local intoxicant, and regales his reader with stoner stories (Chapter 3 cracked me up). In his follow-up to The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Troost seems to have found his voice and rhythm. His encounter with giant centipedes left me giggling and his experiences with mudslides and cyclones were highly entertaining.What sets this travelogue apart from its predecessor is Troost's foray into fatherhood. He picks up where he left off, overwhelmed by the constraints of the corporate life in Washington DC, until he decides that he and his wife Sylvia are ready for another sojourn in their beloved South Pacific. This time, instead of landing on a desolate atoll, they spend time in Vanuatu and Fiji. His contemplation of his impending status, his son's birth in a Fijian hospital, and the island method of childrearing are humorous without being overly sentimental. Considering I don't typically read the genre as popularized by Paul Theroux (whom Troost venerates at the start of Chapter 3), I find Troost's writing amusing and engaging
It is about him and his wife's life in Vanuatu and Fiji. And that must have been not nice. Getting Stoned with Savages is the second book written by J. Reading about people going through hell makes for good reading. There were some parts that were cool (the descriptions of getting drunk on kava and him talking about the birth of his son) and there were parts that were not very good, the rest of the book. This book is nowhere near as good as his first book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals. Yes, Troost moved there after a coup.
That does not make for good reading. Maarten Troost. But he smeant (leaving this typo) his days getting wasted off of kava and writing. That book is about Kiribati, which is an island that sounds like hell. Reading about people living in Fiji does not make for reading. That makes me pretty jealous.All in all, GSwS is a decent read. I feel like I should give this book 2 stars, but since I enjoyed TSLoC so much, I will give Troost the benefit of the doubt, and it had a rather nice ending, and rate this one 3 out of 5 Netflix starsRecommended for: People who have read The Sex Lives of Cannibals.
Troost's first book ,"The Sex Lives Of Cannibals", was a hoot- well written, funny, and great material. The quality of the writing also suffers a major drop off (minus another star). "Stoned" is a purely commercial endeavor, meant to ride the coat tails of "Cannibals". The material just isn't there( minus one star). In fact, Troost acknowledges this fact on page 239, stating that his editor "prodded the book to life under incredible time pressure." When an author makes excuses, consider yourself warned. If you liked "Cannibals", I suggest you check out "Holidays In Hell" by O'rourke, or "Rock Jocks, Wall Rats, And Hang Dogs" by John Long.
I read The Sex Lives of Cannibals, JMT's first book about Kiribati, years ago on a Palm Handheld. This second book, which I read from a conventional paperback is as good as the first.I enjoyed both stories immensely. It is books such as these, which recount personal immersion into local cultures, that give us what television and tourist-travel books cannot.I think that many a reader has learned more about these remote parts of Oceana from Mr. Troost than from any other source.
Although other reviewers did not like this book as well as his first, I feel that some of the humorous episodes are even better written than in the first book. This is my favorite book by Maarten Troost. Perhaps this is because our family lived in both Vanuatu and Fiji (only a couple years before Maarten and his family), and so I can relate to almost every one of his adventures. In fact, his description of the effects of Kava is the best I have ever seen. Highly recommended.
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