Customer Reviews

The Volunteer

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

as someone who has been in the peace core, I just couldn't relate to this. I found it trite and poorly written. I don't recommend it.

I am probably biased, as I have worked in Tanzania and I adore the mountain region around Lushoto where the story takes place. The description of the scenery, the people and the places are fantastic. The story that takes place is full of excitement and intrigue. It is certainly something that is in the realm of possibilities for a Peace Corps volunteer. It is a novel and fiction, but it brought back great memories of the place and was a great story to read on vacation.

Having just returned from a brief stay in Tanzania on a volunteer vacation project, I was very anxious to read this book. I think it is excellent for a first book. The story is compelling, the plot and action keep at a pretty good pace, and the characters are colorful and interesting. The author's descriptions of the land and people are straightforward, even gritty, and with the use of Kiswahili phrases throughout, he gives it a very authenthic feel. He certainly does not glamorize Peace Corps work. Jordan's character is an odd mix of altruism (no one in his right mind would sign up for two years to work in a rural Third world country village on a lark) and selfish immaturity. The flashbacks to his failed relationship with his girlfriend in the US (of which I wish there had been less)indicate the latter. His efforts to save and raise a baby Eagle and make life better for a young Tanzanian girl are well intended but again, his motives are far from pure, especially when it comes to the girl. He makes some pretty foolhardy decisions towards the end of the book in his effort to get the girl out of harm's way which make for pretty compelling and dramatic adventures. The ending is pretty gruesome - I could have done without it, but there it was! I kept wondering how much of this book was autobiographical by the author, as he lived and worked in the Usumbara Mountains and started the Tanzania Wildlife Fund referred to in the last chapter. All in all, if you like Africa, different cultures and adventure, I think would you would enjoy this book. I will look forward to another book by Carter Coleman.

"The Volunteer" is much better than it sounds. The improbable plot works much better than I imagined it would, and does so on many different levels. Definitely one of the best first novels I have read in years.

Coleman has captured the magic of Tanzania in this sweeping tale. This book reads like a barn on fire. I figure he's the next Hemmingway.

The Volunteer is a great book about one man's adventure & terror in modern Africa. In an attempt to try and change his ways & right some of the wrongs in his life, Jordan shelves his law degree and career to spend two years in Tarzania teaching the people fishing. He falls for a beautiful African teenager who is betrothed to the Sultan Kimweri. After learning of a customary sexual "circumsision" she's to go through, Jordan makes it his personal mission to send her away to school in Kenya. Jordan had formed a wary, thin friendship with the sultan, but his good natured interference puts his life in danger. The book has wonderful flashbacks of Jordan's life in Tennessee with the woman he betrayed, as well as a great drug run through Zanzibar. Readers won't learn much about the ins and outs of the Peace Corps program, and there's no real explanation as to how Jordan applied, qualified or wound up in it. The horrific ending is not for the skrimish . Hopefully, this will be marketed well.

Though the book contains some unnecessarily explicit sections,the book, overall,is extremely well written. The first chapter grabs you immediately, and doesn't let go.My first thought after finishing,was that I'd like to see it on the big screen. Rumor has it:movie is on the way.

As someone who picked this book up with a personal interest in the peace corps, I still found it utterly unreadable. The prose is flat and dull. This was Mr. Carter debut; let's hope that it was also his last book.

As someone who was born in Africa and went on to be educated in the United States, I find his depiction of the African people to be offensive. I also do not think much of his poor writing talent. Thumbs down.

I thought this was an honest book, one that wasn't afraid to put forth a morally confused and complex main character, not a cardboard hero by any means. The descriptions of Tanzania were certainly vivid, and the eroticism was palpable. My only complaint is with the title, which is flat and generic and doesn't do the book justice.