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Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
 
 
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Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu [Paperback]

J. Maarten Troost (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)

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More from J. Maarten Troost
J. Maarten Troost's funny and engrossing travelogues capture the beauty, and quirks, of some of the world's most fascinating locales. Visit Amazon's J. Maarten Troost Page.

Book Description

June 13, 2006
With The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Maarten Troost established himself as one of the most engaging and original travel writers around. Getting Stoned with Savages again reveals his wry wit and infectious joy of discovery in a side-splittingly funny account of life in the farthest reaches of the world. After two grueling years on the island of Tarawa, battling feral dogs, machete-wielding neighbors, and a lack of beer on a daily basis, Maarten Troost was in no hurry to return to the South Pacific. But as time went on, he realized he felt remarkably out of place among the trappings of twenty-first-century America. When he found himself holding down a job—one that might possibly lead to a career—he knew it was time for him and his wife, Sylvia, to repack their bags and set off for parts unknown.

Getting Stoned with Savages
tells the hilarious story of Troost’s time on Vanuatu—a rugged cluster of islands where the natives gorge themselves on kava and are still known to “eat the man.” Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles against typhoons, earthquakes, and giant centipedes and soon finds himself swept up in the laid-back, clothing-optional lifestyle of the islanders. When Sylvia gets pregnant, they decamp for slightly-more-civilized Fiji, a fallen paradise where the local chiefs can be found watching rugby in the house next door. And as they contend with new parenthood in a country rife with prostitutes and government coups, their son begins to take quite naturally to island living—in complete contrast to his dad.

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Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu + The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific + Lost on Planet China: One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Using a format similar to that of his previous work, The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Troost creates another comical and touching travel memoir. Troost and his wife, Sylvia, move from busy Washington, D.C., to Vanuatu, a nation made up of 83 islands in the South Pacific. As Sylvia works for a regional nonprofit, Troost immerses himself in the islands' culture, an odd mix of the islanders' thousand-year-old "kastoms" along with imperialist British and French influences. This really means that Troost gets to live in a nice house while he gets drunk on kava; dodges "a long inferno of magma and a cascade of lava bombs" at the "world's most accessible volcano"; and checks out the "calcified" leftovers from one of Vanuatu's not-so-ancient traditions, cannibalism. At the end of the book, the couple move to Fiji so that Sylvia will have state-of-the-art medical care when she gives birth to their first baby. While modern-day Fiji provides little fodder for Troost's comic sensibilities, the birth of his son enables him to share some deeper thoughts and decide it is "time to stop looking for paradise." A funny travelogue with a sentimental heart, Troost's latest work genuinely captures the search for paradise as well as the need for home. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for The Sex Lives of Cannibals:

“A comic masterwork of travel writing.” —Publishers Weekly

“Troost has a command of place and narrative that puts his debut in the company of some of today’s best travel writers.” —Elle

“A delightful, self-deprecating, extremely sly account of life in a place so wretched it gives new, terrible meaning to getting away from it all.” —National Geographic Adventure


Product Details

  • Paperback: 239 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway Books (June 13, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0767921992
  • ISBN-13: 978-0767921992
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

J. MAARTEN TROOST is an international traveler whose essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and The Prague Post. He spent two years in Kiribati in the Equatorial Pacific and upon his return was hired as a consultant by the World Bank. After several years in Fiji and Vanuatu, he recently relocated to the U.S. and now lives with his wife and son in California.


 

Customer Reviews

61 Reviews
5 star:
 (26)
4 star:
 (18)
3 star:
 (12)
2 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (61 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Nowhere near as good as his 1st book which was great but not bad., July 2, 2006
This review is from: Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu (Paperback)
I stumbled upon Troost's first book in Powell's due to a 'Staff Recommendation' and devoured it within a day: A truly funny and engaging read. The following day I ran out and purchased this expecting more of the same but it ain't. Well, not exactly anyway. Whereas I read his first book in a day, it has taken me over a week to get through this and I doubt I'll finish it actually. What's the difference? Well, to start with the premise is that Troost will write a 'Travel Book' in the vein of Evelyn Waugh, and Paul Theroux around A year that spent living in Fiji and Vanuatu. His previous book revolved around the two years he spent in Kiribati. This latter book was a masterpiece of humor, anecdote, gentle self-deprecation and just pure good will. It was fresh and engaging and a real pleasure to read because of the author's uncanny ability to turn small events into good story fodder and for his willigness and ability to mock himself within the adventures told of. The present book suffers by contrast because I believe the author has slipped from glib and insouciant bonhommie to rather smug and smarmy world weariness as he grinds out his tale of two situses. Whereas in the former book the author took delight in the tiny details which he really used well to make his point, we find in this book these exquisite little details have been replaced by A sort of slapdash broadbrush treatment of large themes such as 'trip to an island dance' or 'month in the city.' It isn't very fulfilling in any event and one feels as though the author may either have been allowing his lack of enthusiasm for the semi-colonial life typical of many expatriate experiences to color his judgment, or perhaps was caught up in writer fatigue as he was writing a very similar story about a very similar place under similar circumstances very close in time to each other.
Anyway, I don't want to shush you away from this book but I would like for you to consider buying the author's earlier effort first so that you can see what A truly fun travelogue reads like. For those of you who loved his first book I'm giving fair warning that this one pales in comparison.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll come away with a new appreciation for the South Pacific, September 8, 2006
By 
This review is from: Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu (Paperback)
J. Maarten Troost's sophomore effort is another travel memoir about a suburbanite displaced to a remote, third-world culture. This time around, he's not merely following his wife's career in assisting impoverished countries. He's not moving around the world for lack of anything better to do; he's moving of his own free will and desire. Maarten and Sylvia, after returning temporarily to the hectic pace of Washington, D.C., make a conscious decision to return to the South Pacific and start a family. They research locations, look for employment, and consider the political unrest in various locales before deciding on their new homeland.

In his first memoir, Troost's reluctant adoption of his new culture is the core of the story. Heck, he wasn't even sure why he agreed to go there! His writing drew the reader into a foreign culture, bringing a higher level of appreciation for a dirty, poor, unconventional village that the average American wouldn't survive a day in. This time around, Troost has a goal of actively exploring his settings and writing a second book. The premise doesn't succeed quite as well as his fish-out-of-water basis for the first memoir.

Troost spends days bonding with natives over the psychedlic high providing by kava, but in the end, he appears to be just another man trying to escape with alcohol or drugs, only now it is conveniently packaged as a cultural experience. He is on a quest for a message and a purpose for his book, running around trying to find cannibals and other interesting characters to interview. The action seems forced. He's lost the innocence and reluctance that made the first memoir so wonderful. Is this still a great travel book? Absolutely! It is leagues above most anything else on the market. Unfortunately, Troost just set the bar really high with his first success.

I especially enjoyed the story of the Troosts' search for proper pre-natal and natal medical care for their first child. The end up moving within the region to begin their family, providing even more humorous material for our author (ever imagine paying for deluxe cable only to get three channels--the national station, a Bollywood station, and a sport channel which focuses on "Korean ping-pong and Malaysian high school basketball?").

Troot is a talented humorist who will open your eyes to an amazing world on the other side of the planet. Again and again, his tales serve to remind Americans how much danger and disease they are protected from every day. This will remain my second favorite of his efforts to date, but I welcome his third travel memoir!
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars engaging, but not up to sex lives of cannibals, June 17, 2006
By 
David W. Straight (knoxville, tennessee United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu (Paperback)
Back to the South Pacific, but this time to Vanuatu and Fiji.
Curiously, cannibalism is much more relevant in this book than
in Sex Lives of Cannibals--maybe he should have saved the word
for here! Once again we escape from the structured life of
suits-and-ties and commuting to visit exotic places. You'll
read about visiting active volcanoes where tourists had been
killed a few weeks before, foot-long poisonous centipedes, the
joys of drinking kava, which is best if you don't think about
how it's made, and cannibalism, which last occurred in Vanuatu
within the author's lifetime.

Troost is a very engaging and humorous writer, frequently poking
fun at himself. And yet....and yet..there seemed to be
a difference between this book and Sex Lives--something that
gave his first book a full 5 stars, something that maybe wasn't
exactly missing here, but something that didn't quite captivate
you as his first book had done. It's been a year since I read
Sex Lives, and there are scenes that stand out in my mind from
that book--the lagoon where you would like to swim filled with
used disposable diapers, for example. Having thought things
over, I think that the problem is that in Sex Lives, there was
so much that seemed totally alien to most of our lives--such
as the lagoon with diapers. In Getting Stoned with Savages, a
lot of what we see is not as alien--you can get hurricanes and
transvestites in New Orleans or Florida, volcanoes in the
Caribbean and Central America, corrupt politicians everywhere.
The difference bewteen the idyllic view of the South Pacific
and reality in Kiribati is great, the difference in Vanuatu and
Fiji is substantial, but not as great. Still--a fine read!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ash plain, kava bowl, chiefly system
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Getting Stoned, Maarten Troost, Port Vila, South Pacific, Chief Jamino, Captain Cook, New Caledonia, John Frum, Indo Fijian, Rose Marie, Chief Fred, George Speight, Twin Otter, World Bank, Viti Levu, Port Resolution, Roy Mata, Beachcomber Island, Vanua Levu, World War, Lonely Planet, New Hebrides, Big Namba, Amarendra Nath Ghosh, Reverend Baker
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