Martin Troost’s life wasn’t going much of anywhere, so he lucked out when his girlfriend got a job in the remote Pacific island nation of Kiribati, where he spent his time learning to surf, drinking with other expats, and trying to write a novel. He never succeeded – from the superficial depictions ...
I read this because my friends back in PA decided they wanted to give a book club a shot and I knew I'd be visiting the weekend that they wanted to hold their discussion. So here you have it: the first installment in the (Un)Official Chestnut Hill Gang Book Club. Maarten Troost and his girlfriend (w...
Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) was an unknown place to me before I listened to this book. Just getting there was an adventure, with pigs on the runway and museum-quality airplanes. Once there, the culture shock hits on so many fronts.While the beginning of the book lagged a bit for me, starting off i...
Funny account of life in one of the remotest places on earth. The author and his girfriend go to live on Tawara, a tiny atoll which is part of the country of Kiribati. Kiribati, as he tells us, has the land mass of the Baltimore metro area, broken up in 33 pieces, and scatter across an expanse of oc...
The only thing this book did for me was to convince me to stay the heck out of the South Pacific. It's truly amazing that those people survive with their complete lack of hygiene. I thought the parts were the author was swimming in the ocean waters only to come ashore to people actually shitting in...
Kiribati.A placeholder, I hope.No sex, no cannibals, but Troost is certainly adrift. While his girlfriend does work, which I'd actually like to read about, Troost hangs around, surfs, makes minor repairs, doesn't write a novel, misses beer when the shipment doesn't come, complains more than admires,...
A dangerous title. Why? Because it's misleading. Go to Youtube, find a video with a hyperbolic title - one that promises the BEST, MOST EXCITING, FUNNIEST of whatever the content is - watch it and if it doesn't live up to the billing see what the viewers say about it in the comment section and check...
A rather overeducated but under ambitious type moves to the island of Tarawa with his girlfriend and relates how living on an atoll in the middle of the Pacific changed his life.
I'd give it 3.5 stars, really. Although it did make me actually laugh out loud several times--quite rare for a book--it just... it didn't really compel me to keep reading. Like others have mentioned, he puts out an air of superiority. There wasn't really any narrative thread that held it together...
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