In a tale that combines the clash of cultures, the lure of the exotic, and the brutal reality of a refugee’s life into a memorable human comedy, we come to understand what it means to be an american. The saviors of this witty novel set in a Vietnamese refugee camp are a pair of americans who find themselves fomenting rebellion. “Eggers is a first novelist of rare taste and intelligence as well as rare experience” (Jane Smiley).
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Set during the Vietnamese "Boat People" crisis of 1979, Eggers's provocative but problematic first novel bristles with outrage about the suffering of those unfortunage outcasts, which is augmented by the official ineptitude and chicanery of those in charge of their fate. Having lost favor with his UN bosses, outspoken Reuben Gill finds himself stuck in the branch office at Kuala Trengganu in Malaysia. Reuben is desperate to get away from his desk job and earn a posting to Bidong, an island encampment off the coast. It's difficult for the reader to warm to Reuben, however. Apart from his knowledge of Malaysia and his supposedly funny penchant for the cliche "can't tell shit from shinola," this sweating, irascible, six-foot-three hero has few admirable qualities. After he meets his love interest, the excruciatingly named Chicago English teacher Bobbi Porkpie Sortini, Rueben finally makes it to Bidong, where Eggers's descriptions of life in the refugee camp are sharp indeed. Few readers will forget Bidong's Sikh administrator, Gurmit Singh, who sets off petty bickering among the Western refugee officials by confiscating a plank from the mess hall table, claiming that it was intended for the coffin of a dead refugee. But this strong material is soon overshadowed by the behavior of the American characters. Porkpie is given to fey exclamations worthy of a boarding-school Ophelia. Reuben tortures a spider monkey, supposedly to give the Vietnamese?who have suffered rape, pillage and murder at the hands of pirates?some dramatic catharsis. Eggers, who worked with UN relief during the period his book describes, does capture the squalor and desperation of a refugee camp. One feels that he could have written a wonderful memoir of his harrowing experiences in the camps: readers of Saviors may wish he had.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Though principally about Americans Reuben Gill and Bobbi "Porkpie" Sortini, Eggers's debut novel is set in a Vietnamese refugee camp in Malaysia. Working for a United Nations program, Reuben and Porkpie assist the Vietnamese who fled their homeland in the late 1970s after Saigon fell. For those fortunate enough to survive the dangers of high seas, Bidong may be an island oasis, especially since many of them may eventually emigrate to the United States. In wonderful passages, however, Eggers's descriptions accentuate the camp's heat and humidity, the stench of garbage and sewage, and the turbulent emotional landscape of camp residents and workers. The novel's action begins to take shape only in the last third as Bidong residents wait for Year Five, the year Malaysians have elected to finalize the refugee problem. Unfortunately, it may be too late for Reuben and Porkpie to save the Vietnamese?and too late for Eggers to engage his readers fully. [Eggers was a U.N. relief worker in two Vietnamese refugee camps in the Phillippines and Malaysia.?Ed.]?Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Libs., Eugen.
-?Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Libs., Eugene
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-?Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Libs., Eugene
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Compelling, Important First Novel,
By A Customer
This review is from: Saviors (Hardcover)
After the book's first dramatic event, the pace slowed down more than I would have liked. But keep reading, because as the events on Bidong begin to compress and the characters' psyches are put to the test, the narrative is unstoppable and the payoff is well worth all of the novel's pages. The writing is terse and beautiful, and the story Eggers has to tell is a crucial testament to world events that we still try to shuffle under the carpet. I can't compare this to other novels because it is truly unlike anything I've read before. This is a brilliant, compelling first novel that makes me anticipate Eggers' next effort.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remarkable Debut Novel from a Brilliantly Talented Artist,
By A Customer
This review is from: Saviors (Hardcover)
Egger's novel is a superb piece of writing; bleak, humorous, arresting, and engaging all at once. The characters are real and vivid; the prose style carries the reader along breathlessly until the last page. This is a remarkable book, both as a human document, and also as a brilliant, apocalyptic novel that stands with such works as Catch 22 and The Naked and The Dead.
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