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

Diana made it back from Oregon just in time to host our September book club lunch meeting.  We enjoyed a platter of fish surrounded by colorful vegetables accompanied by delectable crackers.  The dessert was the highlight of the island-style meal.  Diana had managed to procure sorbet served in coconut shell halves, pineapple rinds, large lemon rinds, and orange rinds.  The frozen treats weren’t just creatively served, they were delicious, too!  Throughout our time at her home, Diana managed to sneak in her background music of “La Macarena”!  I think she got her 69 cents worth out of that song ;) 

Synopsis:

Maarten Troost and his girlfriend, Sylvia, make a radical move from the urban life of Washington, D.C. to an atoll in the middle of the expansive Pacific Ocean.  The expected culture shock aside, Maarten’s sharing of their experiences during their two year tenure in the Kirabati islands is filled with humor, eccentric characters, and unbelievable adventures in shark-infested waters and duct-taped airplanes.

Comments:

We got a kick out of Diana’s choice of music because it played a major part in this story.  At the local Tarawa store one could find seven different audiotapes featuring the “La Macarena.”  The native islanders absolutely loved “La Macarena”…enough to play it everywhere, non-stop and loud enough for all the neighbors to hear.  Maarten was about driven mad by the constant barrage of this song.  We discussed the many uses of music whether to soothe or to aggravate.  It was noted that the quote, “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak” [William Congreve] does not always hold true.  Actually, sometimes it can drive one so insane as to relent to any demands in exchange for cessation of the song.  Music has been used in psychological operations including interrogations.  We were also reminded of the instance where loud rock-and-roll music was played non-stop in order to get the dictator Manuel Noriega to surrender.  What was most entertaining about this part of the story was the author’s discovery, through trial and error, that the islanders could not stand the Miles Davis music he played!  And, so he found his weapon of choice to fight the “La Macarena” assault.

The odd and humorous names of the many islands and atolls in the Pacific were entertaining; almost as much as the reputations of some of the islands! 

We were surprised by the lack of WWII reference until the very end of the book, especially since the author himself says, “The Battle of Tarawa is an inescapable part of daily life on the island.”  (p. 220) This bloody battle took place on the islet of Betio and resulted in the deaths of over 5,500 men, including 1,113 U.S. Marines.  The remains of that battle today include corpses found when digging wells, unexploded ordnance, antiaircraft guns, small tanks, bunkers, and reefs polluted with the rusting carcasses of ships and planes.  Maarten expressed dismay that among his American friends and acquaintances only one had any knowledge of the Battle of Tarawa.  “Perhaps it’s because I had been to Bosnia.  Once one sees a park transformed into a cemetery, one understands that battles ought to be remembered.” (p. 200)

Tarawa may have been modernized through machinery or shopping choices, but the people of the island still had some very primitive practices including the biting off of a lover’s nose when displaying your jealousy, the kidnapping of your bride as a form of courtship, the use of the bubuti system where one must hand over your belonging if asked for it by another person, and the belief that disposable diapers could not be burned for fear of burning the baby’s bum!  The lack of safe hygienic practices was alarming and literally sickening for the author and his wife.  The void of current news events was a minor annoyance for Maarten, at least until the Clinton affair was exposed.  At that point, Maarten’s need to access up-to-date information about drove him mad as he only received snatches of news broadcasts on the radio which enigmatically relayed words like “a cigar and a stained blue dress” followed by the static of the radio!

It was disappointing to hear confirmation of how governmental bureaucracy can be so wasteful and corrupt.  Not having governmental watchdogs in these smaller, more primitive places just increases the opportunities for governmental agencies and officials to misuse funds, oppress people, and waste taxpayers’ monies.  The worst example of wasted funds came from the $800 million dollars the Marshall Islands had received in American “aid” over a ten year period.  The result was corruption, inefficiency, and a dependency mentality in the government there.  The citizens now have a serious problem with hypertension, diabetes, and high blood pressure due to their local diet being supplanted by food imported from the USA.  Alcoholism and suicide have taken root.  What Western culture sees as a helping hand can actually be a crushing heel to their more stable, traditional way of life.

The author, whether intended to be humorously self-deprecating or painfully honest, portrayed himself as selfish, unmoored, and irresponsible.  None of us felt that he endeared himself to us.  His most damaging statement for one of the FAB ladies was in reference to his job at the World Bank: “And so, to the Third World countries who had the misfortune of working with me on their infrastructure projects, I wish to apologize. I was just kind of making it up as I went along.  I hope you understand.  I needed the paycheck.”  His wife, Sylvia, was such a minor character in his writing so that we did not get to know her at all.  Probably the most we learned of Sylvia could be summed up with these facts plucked from various chapters of the book:  studied international relations; good with spiders, indifferent to snakes, and unmoved by mice.  Hates cockroaches; she lost not a pound while living on Tarawa; and it was her job with the FSP which took them to Kiribati.  Unfortunately, that really is the most we could glean about his partner.

Maarten and his wife had trouble assimilating back into modern society once they returned from the island.  The trappings of materialism, the constant barrage of media, the modern technological devices, and such became a burden for a couple who had managed to exist with only the basics.  Sometimes those advancements which are intended to make our lives easier, have actually managed to weigh us down and fill our down time with active leisure instead of stopping and truly resting and soaking in the beauty which surrounds us.  Therefore, it was not so difficult to understand their desire to return to the simplicity of island life.

Memorable Quotes:

Regarding his foray into journalism: “The written word presented in a journalistic fashion is regarded by most as the indisputable truth and this just left me dumbfounded with a fear of being wrong.” (p. 14)

“I obtained press credentials through The Prague Post and soon found myself in Mostar, where I was deeply, deeply in over my head and utterly dependent upon the kindness of English mercenaries, and I learned there that the distance between civilization and savagery is exceedingly small and this has scared me ever since.” (p. 16)

FAB Rating:  *** (3 out of 5 stars)

We did learn about islands and areas of the Pacific we had little or no knowledge of before we read this book. Unfortunately, that new knowledge did not create any desire to ever visit these Pacific islands!  We could not connect with the author on a personal level and felt that much of the time his humor was contrived.  As he himself admitted regarding his style of writing, “I favor the ditches of digression.” (page 14)  Perhaps it was those rough rides through the ditches that caused us to lose our focus in the storylines so often and ultimately feel a great disconnect from this book.