27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the easy romance of the exotic, November 30, 2004
As a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Kyrgyzstan - though not in Talas, where Rosenberg's novel is partly set - in the later 1990s, I can attest to the versimilitude of detail Rosenberg brings to his writing. Indeed, it was this uncanny experience of reading a novel akin to looking into my own journal from the period that initially both gripped me and made me wary.
Most interesting from a personal standpoint was the issue of guilt - the 'survivor's guilt' that lingers after one has dipped into and then withdrawn from the pool of hospitable people who invited me into their lives, homes, and families. Two thirds of the way through the novel, after Jeff (the former Peace Corps volunteer) suggests that he 'thinks' he was happy in Kyrgyzstan, the character Nazira replies, "'You were happy because you could come and go. We cannot do that.'"
That would be the crux of the matter, and perhaps also a central issue for the novel: American power (of wealth, of charm, of stability, of easy English-possession,...) allows Americans easy ingress and egress into and out of situations around the world. The individual (whether a volunteer working to 'improve conditions' or a slacker in Goa or Bangkok) and the nation as a whole (via USAID/IMF/WTO coercion or via the U.S. air base that has been built in northern Kyrgyzstan) have the ease that power allows to those who share in or reflect that power among the powerless, the poor, the duped, and the exploited. Indeed, in an interesting twist, an Apache Indian whom Jeff knows from 'the rez' back in his Arizona days gets to experience a bit of what could be called 'white privilege' when he discovers that his, er, native English-speaking can earn him money in Istanbul.
Rosenberg's writing is lucid and occasionally quite funny, if his dialogue occasionally seems a bit stilted (which only makes sense, given the number of languages existing in 'translated' English on the page). The situation in which his characters find themselves is metaphorical without the point being pressed too obsequiously - all of Jeff's 'dependents' gather in Istanbul, city of symbolic meeting of cultures, where Jeff is working as an investigator and processor of refugees... but can help none of them at first with their specific problems - American power as the facade-power of glamour, not terribly efficacious when it comes to complication or subtlety. What the reader is left with, in the end, is far more than some morose travelogue like Colin Thubron's traipses about post-Soviet Central Asia published in the 1990s. Rosenberg is interested in both the metaphorical implications - the political and existential struggles - present in his narrative at the same time that it is apparent that he deeply respects and feels for those whom it might otherwise be so easy to caricature. This respect is felt for the humanity of those 'crazy Kyrgyz' with their felt hats and maddening sense of Time as well as, for that matter, some of the fruit of the U.S.'s own home-grown experience with colonialism: the Apache on their reservations. (Interestingly enough, many of the Kyrgyz whom I knew themselves drew parallels between their own experience with Russia/the USSR and the broken treaties, massacres, and arrogance which characterized relations between Indian nations and U.S. 'settlers' in North America)
Kyrgyz and Apache - vestiges of 'archaic' worlds crowding next to the Brave New World into which they've been thrown.
I highly recommend this book.
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"He felt he would drown under so much guilt.", July 23, 2004
Loosely autobiographical, Robert Rosenberg's THIS IS NOT CIVILIZATION follows the international voluntary efforts of young idealist Jeff Hartig as he works on an Apache Reservation in Arizona, in a remote village in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, and in the bustling city of Istanbul, Turkey. Rosenberg himself engaged in similar voluntary activities similar to his main protagonist thus resulting in his extraordinary sense of details for these exotic locations and populations.
Throughout Jeff's volunteering he became acquainted with many individuals who made a profound impact on him. They helped Jeff create clarity for their culture's circumstances in addition to helping him make sense of his own history. But as time progresses he feels that he cannot stay for long in one location; he is in search to find a cure for his internal restlessness. Jeff has the simple goal of engaging in work that would have immediate and tangible results, work that is good for humankind.
Despite Jeff's good career intentions it is interesting to note that in his personal relationships he fails to convey such noble actions. In fact, there are many instances, especially during the conclusion of the narrative, which Jeff acts selfishly and is arrogant against his friends and acquaintances. But while Jeff acknowledges his poor behavior and feels guilt he fails to effectively make changes. I found this paradox to be frustrating and irritating to absorb. There were many passages in which I wanted to shake him to his senses.
There is much to critique about the three settings of this book. The first two, the Apache Reservation and Kyrgyzstan, are suffering under their own forms of cultural isolation and desperation. Most notably is how Rosenberg resisted to idolize these locations and cultures, rather, he included their downfalls and stark facts such as bride kidnapping and high rates of suicide.
THIS IS NOT CIVILIZATION is a fast compulsory read that is full of humor and effective cultural insights. I felt as if I really traveled to these locations along with Jeff and I received a mental image of these diverse people and landscapes. Recommended.
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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Safe Journey: Passage to Bold, Broad Horizons, January 13, 2005
A review of
This is Not Civilization
By Robert Rosenberg.
293 pp., Houghton Mifflin Company, $24.00 Hardback
I am a travelogue junkie. No need to waste good bubble bath when I have a book like This is Not Civilization to read - the opening sentence just takes me away. And it is no small away either - the reader is asked to view three far flung civilizations quite as different from each other as they are from our own.
"The idea of using porn films to encourage dairy cows to breed was a poor one."
Thus the book opens and one of the central characters, the manager of a non-producing cheese factory in Kyrgyzstan, is introduced. This opening sentence also establishes Rosenberg's detachment and marked preference for understatement consistent throughout his new novel. Anyone who has spent time in a post-communist society recognizes the stoic belief in A Big Idea. "The possibility of increased productivity based on bovine erotica seemed promising." Thus factory workers are dispatched to film copulating animals and project the film on the factory walls to coax the bull and dairy cows to breed. And all this is on page one.
This book successfully transports the reader to Kyrgyzstan, to an Apache reservation in Arizona and then on to Istanbul. This story is told as a reporter would report facts. The observer's critical astonishment is suspended. This approach creates a sensitivity that allows an unguarded peek into three diverse and distant cultures. With the absence of ridicule, what seems far fetched to a first world citizen is allowed to sink in. The unbelievable is allowed to become believable, and the reader is allowed to see these cultures mired in their ancient existence and watch what happens as they strive to modernize.
Flashbacks reveal a story peopled with today's Apaches, Kyrgyz, ex-pats, and Turks. The main character, Jeff, is the link between all these people. The plot skillfully snakes between their pasts and present, with all the leading characters eventually showing up on Jeff's doorstep in Istanbul.
This is a first novel by a young author. The slightly flat characters are more than compensated for by the richness of the cultural experiences, the outrageousness of the plot, the talent of the teller and the vivid details he uses to tell the tale.
From Kyrgyzstan: "A tablecloth covered the center of the floor, and breads, apples, grapes, raisins, apricots, sauces, candies, jams, nuts, and teacups were spread upon it...They ate with their hands... He lifted walnuts, hard candy, a spoonful of sugar, the dusty raisins..." Also of note is a passage about the national delicacy, boiled sheep's head, the honor of carving the sheep's head lovingly bestowed on Jeff, and the difficulty he had when attempting to carve through the sheep's nostril. The more commonplace even seems unfamiliar as illustrated by the description of the telephone:
It was a red, hollow, plastic device with a single thread of exposed wire that looped out of the top step on the second floor, perfectly situated to trip Jeff and send him flying down the stairs...There was no dial tone. When he picked up the receiver, he could hear the strumming of a kumooz and the high pitched wailing of a Kyrgyz folk song. The telephone picked up radio signals.
Or details from the Indian reservation in Arizona, where he
"avoided the prickly pear, now laden with purple fruit, and the sharp spines of the jumping cholla. He walked slowly, aware of his feet sinking a half-inch into the soft rusted earth. The fire cherry trees with their blackish fruit clusters. The hairy silver leaves of the white oak."
Or from Istanbul, "jostled and spun by the crowds vying for piles of turmeric, hills of saffron, and mountains of almonds. The hawkers shouted from beneath dangling confections of dates."
Importantly, Robert Rosenberg doesn't bang on about injustice, poverty or hardship. He simply leaves it up to the reader to find their own heartstrings. He merely records everyday details with such extraordinary richness that the reader has no doubt as to the veracity of the content. I saw it with my own internal eyes as though he uploaded his verbal photograph into my memory bank. It allowed me to learn while I laughed. He has put together a rollicking good read: exotic, humorous, entertaining, heart wrenching. In many ways, his book beckons with the same warmth and seductiveness of Norah Jones singing "Come Away with Me." I did and I recommend the journey.
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