I was reading this amazing book: The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost - and though I picked this book up solely because of its title, the content (which admittedly deals little with sex or cannibals) delivers the goods.
Self-described uber-slacker Maarten decides to follow do-gooder girlfriend Sylvia to the remote South Pacific island of Tarawa, where the tiny atoll's natural beauty has been eroded by mountains of dirty Pamper's diapers sent by well-intentioned (?) capitalist countries.
Troost and Sylvia soon learn to savor the simple pleasures of life on a remote oceanic flyspeck: completing the crossword puzzle in a month-old newspaper, discussing which way to prepare the only island food: fish, and attempting to secure a steady source of cheap beer (the chapter entitled "The Great Beer Crisis" should be required freshman reading).
Initially, I was confused by the title, but after reading Troost's follow-up, Getting Stoned With Savages, I realized that these two books probably started as one, but, wait! - there's more money to be made by splitting them up into two separate titles.
Self-described uber-slacker Maarten decides to follow do-gooder girlfriend Sylvia to the remote South Pacific island of Tarawa, where the tiny atoll's natural beauty has been eroded by mountains of dirty Pamper's diapers sent by well-intentioned (?) capitalist countries.
Troost and Sylvia soon learn to savor the simple pleasures of life on a remote oceanic flyspeck: completing the crossword puzzle in a month-old newspaper, discussing which way to prepare the only island food: fish, and attempting to secure a steady source of cheap beer (the chapter entitled "The Great Beer Crisis" should be required freshman reading).
Initially, I was confused by the title, but after reading Troost's follow-up, Getting Stoned With Savages, I realized that these two books probably started as one, but, wait! - there's more money to be made by splitting them up into two separate titles.
2 comments:
From what you've described, I'm a bit interested in reading this for myself. I'm wondering if it's abetter read than the book, "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max?
Haven't read the Tucker Max, but am now on the list for it.
Looking at the Amazon description, Max sounds like the male equivalent of Chelsea Handler, so I'm up for that, Chelsea being a favorite author.
Troost, while heavy on any and all partying description, seems to have left most of the frat-boy days behind. His comic writing is perhaps a tad more low-key.
Thanks for the Tucker suggestion--the list is long!
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