Review: The Sex Lives of Cannibals

I have seriously been trying to write this review for three days. Who knew being unemployed would be so time consuming?

A few weeks ago I posted an author alert on J. Maarten Troost. When I saw my local library this volume, I almost tripped over several small children trying to get it to the check out desk. This light, uproariously funny, and just plain weird travel memoir was well worth risking a few lawsuits over, as it recounts the adventures of one post-graduate loafer and his aid-working, beguiling girlfriend as they adapt to life on The Republic of Kiribati. Don't worry if you've never heard of it before; you're not stupid, it's just that small.

Genre: travelogue/memoir

Plot: Unlike most travel books, which set out to have some spiritual truth revealed to the author while describing the grandeur of Italy at great lengths, this one cuts the bull and strives to tell it like it is. Sort of. With a lot of humorous, I hope that's an exaggeration but I think it probably isn't anecdotes. While there are no profound epiphanies about the state of man, there are some rather insightful thoughts here and there between rants about La Macarena.

Structure: A first person narration segmented into tongue-in-cheek paragraph-titled chapters, of which I believe there was 20. Mostly these focused on grouping a few anecdotes together, which provided both a unifying structure and a brevity feeling to the overall work.

Execution and Style: A little crass and a lot sarcastic, it's sort of what you'd expect if Dennis Leary had to write a travel magazine. A lot of historical/literary allusions, and a lot of cynicism make it appealing to intellectualists, but a lot of almost slap-stick funny anecdotes make it palatable to the masses.

Theme: the pacific islands, traveling, travel humor, la macarena

Read This If: you need a good laugh while recovering from that sunburn on the beach last week, or if you wondered what Gilligan's Island would be like with pot.

4 out of 5 stars.

Other Works:
Lost on Planet China
Getting Stoned with Savages


If you liked this, you might also like:
Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love (it is more serious, but it has funny moments)

Author Alert! J. Maarten Troost

Every once in a while I find myself in a bookstore, idly wandering the shelves and noting books of particular interest to me. I have to say that despite the proverb, I usually do judge my books by their covers.

So you can imagine why someone like me, who is always looking for a laugh and has spent some time in China, couldn't resist peeking into the pages of Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost.

The guy is hilarious. Several times I chortled and chuckled and quoted lengthy passages to my fiance, who I'm sure was half-amused half-annoyed by my persistent interruptions. He soooo well captures the bizarre, almost inexplicable spirit of being in China; the befuddling contradictions and culture confusion that so pervades even the simple(?) act of crossing the street or watching television.

He makes me laugh, but he also makes me smile in fond memory. I can't wait to read more of his stuff, and I think you should too!