Customer Reviews

First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: How a Peace Corps Poster Boy Won My Heart and a Third World Adventure Changed My Life

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had high hopes for this book as a fun and informative read. What I got was a whiny, annoying run-on narrative that left me shaking my head in disappointment. I found it very insulting that the author felt it necessary to dedicate so much wordspace to the fact that her oh-so-sensitive nose could hardly stand the fact that she found most if not all Ugandans too "smelly" for her and that their "BO" made life so difficult for her. Poor baby. She even found it necessary to say this was the first thing she smelled getting off the plane in Uganda. I'm sure they would be thrilled to hear this glowing assessment of their culture from her and that she thinks of their country as one big latrine. And speaking of overusing wordspace, this book could have been ten pages shorter (and better off for it) if she would have left out all the minute details about her two cats, which added absolutely nothing to the story. I found myself yelling at the pages "who cares about the cats,move on!!" Her insults about the clothing choices of Ugandan women came off trite and childish. And a word about her anxiety attacks that got her discharged from the Peace Corps herself after one year - I'm not totally knocking it, because I personally have been there and know how awful they can be, however, to say you are envious of a woman who has a brain tumor and wishing you had that issue instead of panic attacks, that's pretty harsh and unbelievable in my opinion. And I do have to agree with another reviewer who said "how convenient that her panic attacks suddenly ended after she got sent home from Peace Corps." It did appear that Eve just wanted to get home to her boyfriend and make him her husband ASAP. The big love story between them that was supposed to be the theme of the book according to the title escaped me and apparently many other readers as well; this was All About Eve. Hey, that would've been a better title. I found her letters to friends and family annoying and too self-depricating, and the "I'll keep you posted" signature line seriously grated on my nerves after the second usage. Her comment about a Ugandan man having 6 wives seemed exaggerated for story effect; even Muslim men in African countries are only allowed to have 4 wives maximum. I almost threw the book away when she commented on not knowing how to light a kerosene lantern, and this was AFTER a year in Ecuador and a year in Uganda - really?? C'mon. Princess indeed. And her comment about not being able to remain a vegetarian in a third world country was not accurate either. I know this, because I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso several years ago (yes the same one her husband John served in during his tour of duty), and not only did I go a vegetarian and remain one without problem the whole time, but I also learned to light a lantern the first week there; got my water every day myself in a 20 gallon jug on the back of my own bike, swept my own house, and cooked my own meals (all without "servants"); and used a latrine the entire two years in addition to building them for the village I was in. There were no flush toilets in sight, unlike for lucky Eve. There were a very few points in which I give the author kudos and credit for getting right: hiding your personal trash so the local kids don't go through it; the painfully slow mail service; and the "please send" parts of her letters asking friends and family to send chocolate, among other things. I don't know, I just found this story lacking in appreciation and humility I guess, having been there done that. I haven't written a book about my experience, and I'm sure it's not easy, so kudos for giving it a try.

The promotional blurb for this book promises that it will make readers laugh, and while there are definitely funny sections I didn't laugh out loud. I did, however, tear up at the end, when the author describes leaving the village in northern Uganda where she, her husband, and eventually their baby, had spent three years working for CARE. (The Africa assignment followed a year-long stint in Ecuador for the Peace Corps.)

The power of this memoir is its apparent emotional authenticity and the effortless yet deeply felt language through which Eve Brown-Waite tells her story. By the time I had read through the book's 300 or so pages I shared a bit of her attachment to Uganda and the people she met there. What's more, I could perfectly understand the decision of the author and her husband to remain "in country" for an extended term of service, even though Uganda offered plenty of hardships, especially for Brown-Waite when she was pregnant with her first child. Not only was she ill with bacterial dysentery much of the time, but she also contracted malaria; hence the book's title.

Near the end of her narrative, the author writes that, like malaria, Uganda will remain in her blood for the rest of her life, and you firmly believe her. This is an absorbing story about an idealistic young couple that wanted to make the world a better place. Not so remarkable, except that these two actually went off and did it.

Don't miss First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria. And please do make a contribution to fight that disease, as the author suggests. She lists several good organizations to which you can donate in the Author's Note at the beginning of the book.

A funny thing happens at Eve Brown's interview for the Peace Corps - she falls in love with John, her recruiter. And after her time in Ecuador, she comes home and marries him. Of course, she never dreamed of the unlikely direction her life will take with him! Soon after their marriage he gets a job with CARE and is assigned to Uganda!

And that's where the book really gets interesting. Uganda is certainly not the honeymoon capitol in the world now and it sure wasn't then. Electricity 3 hours a day (if they were lucky), no telephone, rebel bombings around the corner are just a few of the things they encounter. Shopping for food in an open air market takes some skill. Hint: you're better off to take the beef (its unwrapped, of course) with flies all over it and there's a very good reason for that.

Along with all this,she goes through a very difficult pregnancy. Just getting the diagnosis was an achievement.

There are funny parts (she has been compared in reviews to Erma Bombeck but I think Uganda would have tested even Erma's humor) such as her efforts to get a package before the Post Office closed. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy.

And there are frightening parts such as when the police officer who was guarding their house went berserk and threatened them and their dinner party guests with an AK-47!

Eve Brown-Waite has a great website with pictures. She is definitely a person worth reading about. I hope she is writing a book about their next posting which was to be Uzbekistan.

The memoir of a woman who travels with her husband, who is employed by CARE, to rural western Uganda is interesting in the details, but ultimately lacking in depth of character development and plot cohesiveness.

This book is touted by the cover blurb as the story of a Jewish-American princess who nabs her Prince Charming in the form of a Catholic Peace Corps recruiter, and then endures misadventures in her own Peace Corps experience. But this memoir is really about a woman who is sacked mid-mission from the Peace Corps in Ecuador on a "section eight" (extreme anxiety attacks), finally gets her Peace Corps recruiter, John, to marry her anyway, and then follows him to Uganda where she can't find much of anything better to do but birth and nurse a baby.

On the positive side, the narration by author Eve Brown-Waite is upbeat and observant, if rather naive. She keeps complaining about how guilty she feels about all the servants she has in her household on the CARE compound in Uganda, but still employs as many of them as she can. The reader learns a little about the political systems in both Ecuador and Uganda, and a lot about how hopeless Brown-Waite finally feels about the future for change or progress in the Third-World.

On the negative side, the memoir is not any kind of a love story. If you are looking for any character development about Eve's husband (whom she refers to as "Saint John" for his ability to adapt to local Third-World natives and realities) and their enduring attraction and love affair, it is not here. I found all the "Saint John" cracks to be rather tiresome and insulting after awhile. I wonder if her husband does. Actually, the reader really wonders why John married Eve in the first place as she seems so out-of-place in his apparent worldview. The reader also wonders why Eve wanted to marry John so badly when he treats her so casually, even dismissively, for the first half of the book (before their abrupt marriage.) The marriage has apparently worked since they are still married over twenty years later, but the reader doesn't have a clue what the attraction is.

The cover blurb also makes Eve's story seem much more dramatic than it really is. She is not really held hostage. She and her friends are threatened for one night by a drunken police officer who is supposed to be guarding their house from possible insurgents. Her malaria is also never much of an issue, mentioned only in passing.

I do not recommend this book. It is well-written, and you do learn some interesting information about Peace Corps recruiting practices and glean some glimpses into local color in Ecuador and Uganda, but it is very flat. It is certainly not "laugh-out-loud funny," nor is it a "search for love and purpose." All Eve really wants to do ultimately is be John's wife and a mother. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not much of a basis for a memoir. I found myself struggling to finish Eve's story, and wondering what all the fuss was about.

This is a witty, engaging, and always interesting memoir and it is easy to see why the author has garnered several writing awards. I had the book stationed on my kitchen counter intending to read just a few pages each time I sat down for a meal alone or for a coffee break. However, each time I picked it up, I had trouble reading just a few pages and had to keep reading and laughing.

While the book is entertaining and enjoying throughout, the second half is much more interesting than the first half. While it is obvious that the author is very bright, talented, and highly trained, she presents herself with an excessive dose of self abnegation in the opening chapters to the point that you wonder what it was that her Peace Corps recruiter found to be so special about her. However, she begins to emerge as a more multi-dimensional person as the book progresses and becomes a very likable "heroine".

The initial chapters are the least interesting as she focuses on her peace corps recruiting experience. It picks up as she describes her peace corps time in South America, and really becomes fascinating as she describes her 3 years in Uganda while her husband works with CARE. The book is a combination of her descriptions, very witty dialogues, and letters written to the folks back home describing their experiences. It is very well put together and beautifully edited.

I debated a long time on whether to rate this book a 4 star or 5 star and finally decided that it is just a notch below those memoirs that I found to be most outstanding, such as "The Glass Castle" and "Hands of My Father." If I could, I would rate it 4 ½ stars. It is really fun to read, laugh out loud funny at times, always engaging, but just a tad lacking in any in depth character development.

Jan Dahlin Geiger, Get Your Assets in Gear! Smart Money Strategies

This is a neat book. It's not deep, but its heartfelt and honest. Ultimately its strength comes from its authenticity and the authors honesty.

Other reviewers have adequately covered the plot of this book, so I won't bore you with another re-hash of the storyline. What I really liked about this book is that the humor and the drama of the book come from the Eve Brown-Waite's determination to share the totality of her experience. Even when the sharing casts her in a less-than-admirable light, The author shares it all. In too many memoirs, the author tends to color and shade details and incidents to make themselves look good, strong, virtuous, whatever. Some authors strive for victimhood. Eve is, at different points the good, bad, active, passive; she is sometimes the main character and sometimes an observer.

THe great strength of the book comes from its honesty, from the heart of the author. I hope to read more from her soon.

In First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria, Eve Brown-Waite writes about her experiences abroad, first with the Peace Corps in Ecuador and later (no longer with the PC) in Uganda. The woman starts off on the wrong foot in her attempt to join the Corps by falling in love with her interviewer. Soon she's sent to Ecuador, worrying all along that the boy back home will find someone new. A year in, Ms. Brown decides to break her (two-year commitment) and return to the States. Fortunately, the gal gets the guy and accompanies him, working for CARE, to Uganda. She humorously recounts her experiences abroad including efforts to find work, hanging out with other expats, interactions with the locals, and having a kid on foreign soil. Although I enjoyed Ms. Brown-Waite's ability to share the lighter side of life, the constant lightheartedness sometimes felt forced. But in my book, she earns back all the points she lost from bailing on her Peace Corps commitment and overthinking herself really hot by having a baby abroad. In summary, First Comes Love is a light, funny read about the adventures of an expat. Better: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller and Fever by John G. Fuller.

I have often wondered how urban people cope when they travel to far-flung rural areas to do development work. This book attempts to explain the journey a Jewish woman from New York experiences when traveling first with the Peace Corps, then with her husband. Primarily, the story is autobiographical, with minor creative liberties the author explains in the introduction.

The book has eye-opening events along with tear-jerker moments. A bit too much time is spent mooning over her husband-to-be (not a spoiler, since it is revealed in the introduction), and it makes the story tough to get through the first chapters. Once the overseas work enters the picture, the story becomes more personal and connects better.

Eve Brown had always said that she wanted to go into the Peace Corps. Two years out of college, she figured it was time to take the plunge. With a boyfriend, she hardly expected to fall for her Peace Corps recruiter, but fall she did, and spent most of the months before her assignment trying to get him to love her so much that he begged her to stay. Of course, he did not, and off Eve went, if only to satisfy John's expectations of her. She fled a year later, unable to cope with Ecuador, only to find herself heading to Uganda as John's bride before very long, set on changing the world just a little bit.

This memoir is basically a joy to read. Eve's life is spectacularly eventful and she writes about it with the proper touch of humor while somehow still conveying how different and difficult life in third-world countries is. In Ecuador, for example, Eve lives in the city and manages to see her friends quite frequently and gets luxuries sent from her family at home. Her life seems almost normal, until she interacts with the little lost boys, taking them home and giving them toothbrushes, or travels to one of the villages and sees all the rundown shacks without running water or toilets. Until the event which leads to her departure, Eve writes about everything with a light-hearted voice which makes her experience simultaneously scary and entertaining.

Similarly, her love story with John is serious but also hilarious. There is very little as funny as her Jewish mother asking her newly minted boyfriend if he'd shtupped her daughter yet, or Eve's determination to get him to marry her. Somehow she even makes the stupidly hard separation of long distance relationships entertaining, which impressed me because I know how terrible it is and I could never write about it with any sort of humor.

I loved the book even more when Eve and John got to Uganda. I really felt like they were making some sort of little difference in those people's lives and it was fascinating to read about a totally foreign culture; even more so to learn how they became completely accustomed to it and realized they couldn't really feel at home again in the United States. It's just so outside my experience but this memoir made me feel as though I could have been there too.

In short, I really loved this memoir. I love reading about women who are changing the world and accomplishing goals in their own ways, no matter how big or small the goals are. Eve tries to educate people about AIDS and even though she doesn't always succeed, she does achieve many of her other goals throughout the book, as does her husband. It's inspiring to read about them and I really recommend this to everyone.

There is absolutely no reason for any reviewer to give this book a poor review. This is a well written, well edited, professionally crafted book. But what is more, it is entertaining and informative.
I was interested in reading this book because I am one of those old fuddy-duddy guys who was around when this Peace Corps stuff first started. When I was finishing my college experience, all the cute girls and conscientious boys were talking about joining the Peace Corps. The Vietnam war sidetracked me and I have always wondered what I miissed. Well Eve Brown-Waite has provided me with a vicarious adventure.
Her story is mostly that of the bride of a Peace Corps volunteer but her honest, real life portrayal of her experiences was good enough for me. Her characters are real and they paint a vivid picture. She slips in the positive as well as the negative and in a sensitive unobtrusive manner.
Her writing is humorus and satirical but not mean. Most of her jokes are self-effacing. She gives the reader the impression that she is a light-weight and her hubby is the hero of the family. But anyone who has ever written a book knows what she is doing and how cleaver she has been in doing it. Very good Eve Brown-Waite. I liked your story and the way you told it. You get a A+ from this critic. I am sure we will all be seeing more from you in the future. Very good job!

Richard Edward Noble - The Hobo Philosopher - Author of:

"Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.."