Going Up-Country: Travel Essays by Peace Corps Writers

Rating:
Summary: Humor, pathos and connection
Review: Is it the Peace Corps experience or the sort of people who join the Peace Corps that make this anthology such a lively, empathetic and observant collection of travel pieces?

The styles vary - from the humor and poignancy of Mary-Ann Tirone Smith's account of climbing Mount Cameroon and getting Dengue Fever near the end of her stay in the 60s, to the contemplative melancholy of John Givens' half fearful return to mystical Kyoto, where he had gone to lick his wounds and live after his Peace Corps stint in Korea. But the quality of the writing is exceptional - intelligent and engaging throughout.

Thirteen former volunteers and professional writers were asked to return to countries of service and evaluate changes. They accepted the challenge with varying interpretations.

Mike Tidwell opens the collection in the back of an airplane, lost over the Ecuadorian jungle, preparing family messages for the Black Box. He's on the trail of a real-life version of Conrad's Kurtz, a white-American chief of an Indian forest tribe menaced by big oil. And he finds him. Funny, biting and bleak, this is one of the book's best pieces though it has little to do with his service in Peru.

Bob Shacochis revisits his youthful bravado on the beaches of the Caribbean, bringing his ironic, irreverent eye to bear on the attractions of nude sunburning and the juxtaposition of tourists and fishermen.

Susan Lowerre, deeply reflective, returns to Senegal after five years bearing gifts for the village, and fending off pleas for help in emigrating to the U.S.

Richard Wiley, a '60s Korea volunteer, goes to research a novel in Kenya. Disturbed by Western-style corruption in Nairobi, he's dazzled by a photo safari with a guide of mythic competence.

Jeanne D'Haem tells of an encounter with a lion and a bandit in Somalia 20 years ago.

This is a collection brimming with life and wonderfully reflective intelligence. A brief intro before each essay describes contributors' other books - and this anthology should attract new readers to all of them.