Need [Hardcover]

William McCauley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2004

A young development worker gets entangled in the politics of relinquishing his authority to locals when his contract is finished, and sees his two-year project destroyed. A simple-minded black handyman worries himself into committing murder as he tries to find his white master’s stolen trousers. A white accountant overrules his black colleague’s authority in an unexpectedly dangerous situation, thereby precipitating the disaster they are both trying desperately to avoid. Two Peace Corps Volunteers take a sick child from his grandmother and attempt to save his life by treating him, but they fail and must take the child’s body back to his village. A white man, sick with malaria, is drawn into helping a colleague’s wife report a theft to police, and ends up a victim of the police. The idealism of a young white man, who is newly arrived in a remote village in which he is to live and work, is destroyed when a trusted African friend steals from him. These and other stories take one deep into a lush, hot terrain most of us will never visit—a territory characterized by extremes of wealth and poverty, where brutal behavior has become the norm; a world in which need is so great that society is dehumanized; a place where beauty abounds and food grows abundantly, and yet a place of such privation that the social fabric has come apart and murderous civil war looms on the horizon.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Sierra Leone during the final year before the gruesome civil war of the 1990s, this bleak collection of nine short stories draws on the author's experiences as a development worker and demonstrates a keen eye for place. Certain passages convey, in sharp detail, what it is to live in a West African landscape. "A trail from the village to the rain forest skirted the clearing... a barefoot man would pass down the trail from the hills with a log on his head and a cutlass in his hand." A common thread throughout these tales is, as the title suggests, need. The poverty in Sierra Leone is unimaginable by Western standards, as "Mister Henry's Trousers" and "Foday" make plain. But there are other, equally urgent forces at work: guilt, despair, resignation. The author emphasizes the dilemmas faced by white expatriates, particularly men who have been in Sierra Leone for some time. While this allows for a coherent view of Leonian society, it also renders the stories overly similar to one another. White men, prone to feelings of helplessness and racial guilt, are regularly embroiled in deep misunderstandings—sexual, professional and otherwise—with black Sierra Leonians. Africans, more often than not, end up harmed or killed as a result. Despite the restricted perspective, these are evocative, nuanced, tightly written stories.
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Review

A common thread throughout these tales is need...the poverty is unimaginable...these are evocative, nuanced, tightly written stories. -- Publisher's Weekly, October 25, 2005

Nine stories explore the dark years of the 80’s in Sierra Leone, when corruption flourished and the country imploded. -- Kirkus Reviews, September 5, 2004

Nine stories explore the dark years of the late ‘80’s in Sierra Leone, when corruption flourished, the country imploded. -- Kirkus Reviews, September 5, 2004

Set in Sierra Leone just before the gruesome war of the 1990s...these are evocative, nuanced, tightly written stories. -- The Publisher's Weekly, October 25, 2004

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 157 pages
• Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co (December 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579621090
• ISBN-13: 978-1579621094
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,902,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bill McCauley was born in Oklahoma of Depression-era parents who lived some of the migrant life of the Okies depicted in Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," settling in California during the war years. After the war, again looking for work, they took their family of three children to Washington, to Oregon, back to Oklahoma, thence to Kansas, and finally to Seattle, there to stay. Bill, their eldest, had a life in all those places. At the University of Washington he earned undergraduate degrees in Geological Oceanography and Scientific and Technical Communication. From his earliest years he loved the way the language in books discovered new worlds that could be experienced in the mind. He started writing early, but was easily diverted by life. It was only in his middle age that he brought together the experience he'd gained writing all those hundreds of fragments with the discipline to work every day, and developed the writing habit that motivates him now. He lives (and writes every day) in Auburn, Washington.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping Read, February 18, 2007

By 

wallis@large (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Need (Hardcover)

McCauley's short stories about Sierra Leone invoke the palpable heat and despair of that country in the 1980s. Each one is a well-crafted gem that plucks the reader out of his chair and plops him down on the side of the road to watch the action unfold and the characters come to life. His rendering of scenes and places is spot on, so much so that I could taste the dust kicked up by his motorcycle, feel the oppressive humidity, and smell the approaching thunder storm. Superb!

5.0 out of 5 stars Unintentional but inevitable friction, July 5, 2010

By 

Margaret Picky - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Need (Hardcover)

These nine stories mostly deal with the interactions between white people from developed nations and the black people of Sierra Leone during a period of political and economic instability. The effects of these problems intensify the imbalances of authority and power and cause the characters to reveal very interesting aspects of themselves that would not be evident in a more tranquil and prosperous place and time. These are not stories about happy people and some of the best behavior exhibited results from acquiescence.

The quality of the writing is consistently very good and all of the nine stories move along on interesting action and dialogue. They are very convincing and I would not be surprised to learn that they were all based on real events to some degree or another. Together they manage to create something larger, a view of Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

The ability to communicate real insight into the essential aspects of humanity is evident here and I recommend this collection very highly. It is not for everyone but anyone interested in reading it should not be disappointed.