16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Story That Needed To Be Told, July 6, 2004
By A Customer
I enjoyed this book, though it was quite painful to read about how the Peace Corps as an institution failed the Gardner family. I served in the Peace Corps in the late 1970's in the South Pacific (though not in Tonga), and, like many former volunteers, I consider my time in the Peace Corps to be one of the seminal experiences in my life. I still have great respect for the Peace Corps and its mission, but in 1976 and 1977 the agency sadly put preservation of its image above achieving justice for Deborah Gardner. Gardner's killer-who can have any doubt that it was fellow volunteer Dennis Priven-was, to my mind, a very disturbed individual who brilliantly manipulated the Tongan legal system. The author makes almost incontrovertibly clear, however, that Priven would likely not have succeeded without the complicity (and, sometimes, active effort) of Peace Corps' officials. If you have no other reaction upon reading this book, you will be left with the feeling that a serious miscarriage of justice took place, and that our government facilitated Priven's release back into American society.
The book brought back many memories of Peace Corps training and day-to-day volunteer life. (I also did "staging" at the Hotel Californian, and it was uncanny how the author captured the essence of the place and the overseas pre-departure activities.) The author does a good job of conveying those details, and he is quick to acknowledge the wealth of PCV/Tonga diaries, letters, and journals that were available to him. He also conducted numerous interviews with returned volunteers and others for what appears to be a very well-researched book.
I didn't mind that the author injected himself into the story at times. It was interesting to follow how he conducted his research and how he overcame obstacles while investigating events that took place almost three decades ago. I also didn't mind the several asides, usually involving Wayne Gardner, Deborah Gardner's father (e.g., Wayne Gardner's moose hunting trip in Alaska). The extra material almost always shed light on key relationships in the book, especially the pivotal relationship between Deborah Gardner and her father.
So why not 5 stars? I agree with other reviewers who criticized the author's writing style. At times he is quite eloquent, but at other times he mangles syntax and uses run-on sentences. One newspaper reviewer also described him as "comma happy," and I'd have to agree. More colons, semi-colons, and, especially, periods would have helped. The author mentions that there may be other books published about these events, and I couldn't help thinking that there was a rush to publication of this book without the benefit of a good edit by the publisher. Grammar and punctuation problems aside, however, the book tells a powerful if supremely sad story and is well worth the read. The killer got away with murder, and there seems little that can be done legally after all these years about obtaining justice for Deborah Gardner. Though of little comfort to her family, a governmental investigation into how the Peace Corps handled the matter would ensure that the same thing never happens again. As a former Peace Corps volunteer who is proud of his service, I think this blot on the Peace Corps' record needs to be finally and fully brought out into the sunshine and that apologies are long overdue the Gardner family.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Murder in an Exotic Location, August 16, 2004
If I had to pick one word to describe American Taboo, it would be "compelling." Weiss shows us how far a professional reporter can go in creating scenes from a place that was long ago and far away. The book would be worth reading just to gain a sense of day-to-day Peace Corps life, when exotic gets overwhelmed by mundane.
But what fascinates Weiss is the old story of justice denied. A smart but geeky volunteer murders a beautiful girl. Everyone knows he's the killer.
But ironically, as Weiss points out, Deb the victim was always a private person who hadn't made close friends. Dennis, her killer, had a circle of close friends who supported him through pre-trial confinement and trial, even bringing him food and gifts.
And ironically the Peace Corps wanted to save its reputation. In defiance of the Agency's own rules, bureaucrats descended from Washington and a top-flight lawyer was hired to defend Dennis. Dennis was ultimately released to the US with a promise of long-term confinement in a mental institution. However, through legal loopholes, Dennis was allowed to go free. He ended up working for another US government agency, the Social Security Administration, in computers.
As in many true crime stories, there's some ambivalence about assigning blame. True, Dennis is a murderer. But he was doing everything but wearing a sign saying, "Danger! Get this man out of here!" He didn't like Tonga and didn't fit. His colleague had tried to report concerns to the Peace Corps country director, only to be turned away.
And this Director was hardly blameless. A political appointee, Mary had been an executive secretary and modeling agency director. She lacked management skills and cultural awareness. She created tension and resentment among volunteers, including both the inept Dennis and the competent Deborah.
Ultimately the story is about what happens when people feel they've hit bottom, as Dennis would. Denied a re-enlistment and spurned by Deb, he fell deeper into his own darkness. He was unable to feel and return the friendship that others generously extended. An Australian family allows him to use their washing machine each week; he cuts off the wife's hair while she's sleeping.
From all accounts, Dennis suffered a situational descent into paranoia. By Tongan justice, he should have been locked up for life.
Recent op-ed articles have raised questions about the function of imprisonment, and Weiss inadvertently presents the case against harsh sentences. Dennis never harmed anyone else, as far as we know, and went on to serve society as a useful citizen. Ironically, American Taboo offers a natural experiment: What happens when a murderer goes free?
In summary, American Taboo is a great page-turner, as gripping as any mystery or adventure novel. It's hard to put down. Yes, it's a bit long, and there are too many details, especially with regard to the trial. But in the end, the details are necessary to make the exotic setting seem real. And we can learn from this book, on many levels.
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25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, especially to someone who's been there., June 26, 2004
I had high hopes for this book, as I am former Peace Corps Tonga volunteer just three years removed from my time in the kingdom. The story of Deb Gardner's murder and the Peace Corps' role in essentially freeing her killer is a gem of a story, which makes it that much more of a letdown that Weiss couldn't do more with it. As I read through the sloppy text, eventually coming to the most anti-climactic confrontation one could imagine, I kept wishing that Jon Krakauer had gotten a hold of this story instead of this author. I also wished Weiss had dealt fully with the weirdness of his own attraction to the deceased Miss Gardner, or left it out completely. Would he have pursued this project at all had she been homely rather than the "most beautiful girl in Peace Corps"?
Former PC volunteers, especially from the Pacific, will probably enjoy the book for its ability to remind us of the islands and a few aspects of life as a volunteer. And the story itself is a good lesson in how the vaunted Peace Corps doesn't send only the best and brightest to represent America and give aid to the developing world. Some real nutcases are out there. I give Weiss some credit for a difficult task: writing about the Peace Corps without actually being a former volunteer.
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