Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures) [Paperback]

Kenneth Cain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2005

In the early 1990s three young people attracted to the ambitious global peacekeeping work of the UN cross paths in Cambodia. Andrew strives for a better world through his life-saving work as a doctor. Heidi, a social worker, is in need of a challenge and a paycheck, and Ken is fresh from Harvard and brimful of idealism. As their stories interweave through the years, from Rwanda, Bosnia and Somalia to Haiti, the trio reveal a world of witnessed atrocities, primal fear, desperate loneliness and base desires. They fend off terror and futility with revelry, humour and sex; ask hard questions about the world order America has created, the true power of the UN, and whether there is any possibility for change. This is a startling celebration of the power of humour and friendship, of the limits of human compassion, and the need for a warm body and a cold beer during a Condition Echo lockdown. A book that shows the human cost of global politics and the tragic truth that wars are much more avoidable than our governments would ever admit. A brilliant, provocatively funny and fast moving book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'These three voices from the world's front line are personal, these three characters from global ground zero are fallible; their youth and idealism, faults and failures, and triumphs and tears, all work to humanise recent history and ring it home for a reckoning.', Saturday Times .'Vividly told and this book is all the more engaging because its perspective is personal before it is political', Daily Mail .'It is impossible not to admire the authors both for doing their work for so long, and being able to find strength and vision to recall the happiness and the horror. This is a powerful, humane and important book', Waterstones Books Quarterly .'This is in every sense a hell of a good book, a powerful testament of the limits of peacekeeping in today's war zone - acutely observed, and told with astonishing immediacy', Philip Gourevitch author of, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families .'Heart wrenching stuff', Metro

About the Author

Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain & Andrew Thomson served in peacekeeping operations through the 90s. All are now based in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ebury & Vermilion (February 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0091901642
• ISBN-13: 978-0091901646
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,365,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disconcerting, unsettling and most horribly true, October 1, 2005

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures) (Paperback)

The UN tried to punish the three authors of this book after it was published. Unfortunately the wirting was just too close to the bone for them, clearly, it is too much to think of instituting changes to their procedures. And when you read this book you can see why. It is in institutionalised bureaucracy, just like any other large amorphous institution. And its faults are writ large by Heidi, Andrew and Ken.

This is ultimately one of the most disturbing reads I have had all year. It covers these three UN workers through various postings all over the world including places like Cambodia, Mogadishu, Haiti and Rwanda - and the disturbing part is what they have to deal with both externally and internally from the UN. There are blood thirsty riots outside the compound gates, random shootings, sheer inertia, entrenched bureaucracy of endless futile filing and death, constant death and pain.

I didn't really like the style of writing, the story jumps between the three of them who contribute a page or so intermittently following a clear time frame of when they meet in Cambodia in the first free elections. At time the disjointedness of the telling I felt distracted from what was actually happening. This is also a very personal account and the authors don't set out to be personally likeable themselves at all times. It really is a warts and all.

Given the subject they have taken on, it is not surprising. The failure of the UN is very much in the people it uses to do its work, and that is at all levels, inertia and poor judgement stem from them and their implementation of the system. The problem is as deep and as wide as the people.

The shocking failure of the UN has meant terrible consequences for local populations - in Rwanda, and Haiti massacres occured. And while the UN did not cause it, they did not prevent it happening as they were supposed to do. Unfortunately I cannot imagine this bookwill have the effect it is meant to, that is highlight the problems and rally change. Here's hoping.

Disturbing reading

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Character study - trying too hard, August 16, 2006

By 

Matt (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Emergency Sex (and Other Desperate Measures) (Paperback)

What motivates people to work in the humanitarian field is an interesting subject and these three different people demonstrate that remarkably well. You have the hard-working and likeable Kiwi doctor who genuinely cares, the idealistic American student and the self-serving person trying to find herself. Let me cut to the chase: Heidi was obviously the reason this book has its particular title. Her stories and motivation give humanitarian workers a bad name and it's thanks to people like her that the UN has developed a name as a money-spinning employer. Her self-described behaviour smacks of an inferior woman who needs to define herself through sex because she has nothing else going for her. Her exploitation of a number of young African men is appalling. This book would have been more interesting if it had focussed on the experience and almost jaded doctor, intertwined with the young American who is striving for knowledge and acceptance in this bizarre and draining world. Anyone can have sex in strange places, but these two men show that it takes a special sort of brain to survive observing some of the worst atrocities the world has seen.