Description

In the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost—who have been pushing the snooze button on the noisy alarms of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling via a number of temperature jobs—decided to pack up his flip-flops and proceed to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the thought of dropping everything and going to the ends of our planet was irresistibly romantic. He must have recognized better.The Sex Lives of Cannibals tells the story of what goes on when Troost discovers that Tarawa isn't the island paradise he imagined. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a number of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, toxic fish—all in a nation where in actuality the only music to be seen for miles around is “La Macarena.” He and his stalwart partner Sylvia devote the following 2 yrs battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food choices (including the Truly Amazing Ale Disaster); and fighting with a weird cast of local people, including “Half-Lifeless Fred” and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who’s never written a poem in his life).With The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Maarten Troost has shipped among the most unique, rip-roaringly hilarious travelogues in years—one that will keep you grateful for basics of American world including espresso, frequent baths, and tabloid media, and that will supply the ultimate vicarious adventure.