Customer Reviews

When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter's Tale

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This book caught my eye recently. Here's my take on it.

First though, some background. As a kid I saw a movie about Genghis Khan and got interested in Mongolia. At the time - many years ago - it was communist and VERY isolated. Of course, it had always been isolated I guess - the word Mongolia used to be a virtual synonym for isolation at one time. (I must confess that I use it that way to make a point in a seminar that I give, but that is another story.) Needless to say, there was not much real information on it that I ever saw until quite recently and even now it seems minimal.

So, we now have this book. The author spent time in Mongolia recently as an English teacher and seems to have gotten immersed into the local situation in a time of great change. He lived in a ger - the circular tent looking house of Mongolia and took up some local habits. It seems winter there is pretty hard to say the least. Many bizarre anecdotes.

One of the local habits he took up was drinking a LOT and getting into at least one very violent fight - the scene with him in the hospital with kidney damage after that tells you how bad it was. A bit shocking, but maybe it tells us more about what things are really like there than we might get in say National Geographic.

Not you standard travelogue although there is some of that too. Give the author some credit for honesty, and he did seem to learn something important from the experience and not everyone might.

Some interesting perspective. Give it a try, but be warned that it is not for the faint of heart.

Whispering Campaign; Stories from MesoamericaDavis describes his surroundings well and also recounts relevant history. He includes many intimate details of his own life: how he drank, loved and fought. Nobody would have confused him with a Mormon missionary. It is refreshing to read a memoir by someone who did not aspire to be a living saint. Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.

This is not to say that the author had no good intentions. Upon returning to his living space, he was surprised to find it clean, bed made. This was quite a change. Before he left, the room had been strewn with filthy clothes, dirty plates, cigarette butts and even a several month old rotting fish. While he had been away, a drunken neighbor broke in with impolite thoughts but was caught. As punishment, he was required to clean the place up. The local police expected Davis to press charges and have his neighbor, a family man, thrown into the Mongolian pokey. "That man," one officer said, pointing outside to where the man was, "entered a foreigner's home. That is not good." Our volunteer, Huck Finn in the Orient, turned the other cheek.

Life in the bush mellows. Whether it be the enormity of nature or being part of the food chain, one cannot help but see things a bit differently. When asked what he had learned in his two years, the author replied, "The Wall Street Journal burns better than The New York Times." No greenhorn would have said that. Five stars. Check it out.

Matthew Davis witnessed a quickly changing Mongolia. His memoir preserves a brief moment in history like a bee caught in amber. This is an honest memoir written in sparse American-lean. His journalism background served him well.

Flown to Mongolia in the year 2000, a twenty-three year old Davis was assigned to teach English in a remote hamlet struggling with change. Only eleven years after the Soviet retreat following nearly seven decades of occupation, the country has been beset by a series of natural disasters that have nearly expunged their livelihood- animals. With dwindling economic means, nation-wide migration to the cities and even foreign lands was underway. Davis found a people beleaguered by the fierce winds of want who found solace in drink. He, far from home, also took to drink.

The landscape and climate are foreboding. Winter temperatures rival those in Alaska. Unlike most of Alaska, there were roads. On one of his trips overland during winter, the jeep in which he traveled stopped, dead. Outside with the driver, he noted that "a gust of wind rattled across the steppe and blew some loose snow on our bodies. The snot in my nose had already frozen."

Like all wild places on earth, Mongolia offered special obstacles. For instance, the marmot (a large ground squirrel) burrowed all over the steppes and was hunted. Unfortunately, it also can carry the Black Plague. "Every summer," explained the author," Mongolian newspapers run the Plague Alert (much as western states in the United States run fire alerts)." His own town was quarantined for several weeks. There were humorous obstacles as well. When trying to agree on a weekend meeting with a Mongolian peer, he bargained for Saturday since Sunday was Christmas Eve. The Mongolian replied, "No, I cannot do it Saturday. Saturday, the hot water comes, and I have lots of work to do."

Davis describes his surroundings well and also recounts relevant history. He includes many intimate details of his own life: how he drank, loved and fought. Nobody would have confused him with a Mormon missionary. It is refreshing to read a memoir by someone who did not aspire to be a living saint. Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.

This is not to say that the author had no good intentions. Upon returning to his living space, he was surprised to find it clean, bed made. This was quite a change. Before he left, the room had been strewn with filthy clothes, dirty plates, cigarette butts and even a several month old rotting fish. While he had been away, a drunken neighbor broke in with impolite thoughts but was caught. As punishment, he was required to clean the place up. The local police expected Davis to press charges and have his neighbor, a family man, thrown into the Mongolian pokey. "That man," one officer said, pointing outside to where the man was, "entered a foreigner's home. That is not good." Our volunteer, Huck Finn in the Orient, turned the other cheek.

Life in the bush mellows. Whether it be the enormity of nature or being part of the food chain, one cannot help but see things a bit differently. When asked what he had learned in his two years, the author replied, "The Wall Street Journal burns better than The New York Times." No greenhorn would have said that. Five stars. Check it out.

It is interesting to note that two other recently published books by former Peace Corps volunteers describe Uzbekistan after the Soviet retreat (Taxi to Tashkent by Tom Fleming and Chasing the Sea by Tom Bissell). They also describe abhorrent alcoholism rates. In addition, when recounting history, there is very little about the seven decades during Soviet occupation except mention of drab Soviet style buildings, the remnants of a secret police, stories about the suppression of religion and a population that speaks Russian. I suspect that the Soviets had other major influences upon culture: a great topic for a follow-up book by someone.

Having lived in Mongolia for nearly 11 years including during the time this book covers, I have to say that Davis is very accurate in his portrayal of countryside life and of the state of the country. He's brutally honest about his experiences, not all of which paint a good picture of him, yet still comes out looking good at the end, mainly because he just truly seems to love Mongolia and the friends he made here. I kept thinking how he must have cringed to have his mom and dad read it after describing their visit to the country and admitting all he hid from them.

I've heard the history portions of the book described as boring and filler, but I actually felt it was the most accessible book on Mongolian history that I've read, because he connects everything with real life. That said, his experience will most probably not mirror that of other ex-pats living in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar, or even tourists visiting the countryside. Tourism is becoming sophisticated here. I would not, however, recommend visiting in the winter. Come in the summer when it's gorgeous! If you can brave the cold, come in the fall.

A definite read for any Peace Corps volunteer coming to Mongolia. No, actually, you should read it even if you're just interested in Mongolia. It's well written, a good book.

I have to say that I was quite surprised by this one. After reading many reviews on the book I finally got it not really having high expectations for it. It was a great book though. Very well written. I even enjoyed the historical sections and wished for more. This is much more than just a story about a drunk guy getting into fights in Mongolia, as many reviews would lead you to think. It's a story that involves the author, and what he was going through during his stay in Mongolia. I almost thought that I would be reading some badly written book by some stupid kid, but was pleasantly surprised at the writing style and content. Highly recommended for those interested in Mongolia or looking for a "real" peace corp story or travelogue. A great read and a great story from someone who has an opinion and something to say, and isn't scared to say it.

The author writes with wonderful restraint never falling into the trap of over-dramatizing a situation that for a 23 year old guy - even an adventurous one like Matthew Davis - was pretty dramatic. I'll be curious to see what else he comes out with.

This intimate and engaging memoir touches on dark, difficult issues with little melodramatic flourish. Admittedly, it was somewhat odd to enjoy reading about long-term culture shock and immersion, depression, domestic violence, development, etc.

You may not fall in love with Mongolia. You may never visit Mongolia. You may never even meet a Mongolian person in your lifetime. Even so, this memoir is worth reading for its quality and its glimpse into a narrow window in the history of an Asian nation standing in the shadow of globalization, poised somewhere between the longing for a glorified past and the rocky trajectory to democratization.

In fact, this book introduces several themes of pan-Asian significance. (I particularly appreciated the insight into the role of Buddhist clergy in legitimizing the rule of past Mongolian leaders, as well as the author's suggestions for further reading.)

A totally enjoyable read.

I think this book will really resonate with foreigners living in Mongolia and English teachers working in foreign countries. As someone who has done both, I enjoyed this book a lot. It touched on many of the issues foreigners find difficult to deal with in Mongolia, including drinking, fighting, and hate crimes. It also didn't sugar coat English teaching as a Peace Corps assignment. If you had any naive views about English teaching in developing countries, this book generally dispels them.

I enjoyed the author's writing style, however I wasn't a big fan of the history sections throughout the book because they were a little overly long.

In the Kindle edition there were some weird typos. Words would have spaces in them so the word "organization" would be "org aniza tion". There were a lot of these typos and It was a little distracting.

Overall a very enjoyable read about how life in Mongolia really is.

As a parent of a former Peace Corps worker in Mongolia and having made a visit to the country, I believe Davis gave an accurate account. During my three weeks in the country, it seems that I was able to cover some of the same territory that he did in the book. Of course Ulaanbaatar and Kharkhorin, but also a couple of days in Sukhbaatar and Altanbulag, a night in his town of Tsetserleg. (I can attest to the dog problem in Tsetserleg, more wild dogs than anywhere I visited in Mongolia). I think I stayed at the Sundur in Tsetserleg. But also traveled to Uliastay, Moron, Khatgai and Lake Khovsgol mostly overland by jeep. Albeit the experience was from a tourist point of view and also in summer but I believe his observations and experiences ring true.

In his discussion of Mongolia and some of the population shifts and trends, the political chalenges, and the enironmental and growth problems in UB, I feel that Davis left out any mention of how the country is dealing with its mineral wealth and how that is impacting the country. This whole dynamic and how Mongolia works out this issue could be critical. Other than that I would reccomend this book. I would also suggest an addition to his further reading list: "The Lost Country" (Mongolia Revealed) by Jasper Becker.