Bad Books Written by Good RPCVs

If the Peace Corps did anything, it turned us into readers and we are better for it. But being a reader doesn't make us writers. That's the rub. Having a great (or not so great) Peace Corps experience doesn't turn us into writers, either, though it might help when it comes to the story told. Being an English major doesn't make one a writer, and it can even hurt an RPCV writer, having read (and then trying to write like) one of those great writers from lit classes.

Then there is the problem of too many books being published. In 2006, there were 42,000 novels published, up 17% from 2005. Altogether, there were 291,000 new titles and editions published in 2006. Add that number to all those POD books (print-on-demand) books that anyone can get published for a few hundred dollars and the dream of being an "author."

What I see at PeaceCorpsWriters are a lot of self-published books that have very limited value and aren't well written. For example, some RPCVs think that they can collect all those letters home, slap them together, add a few grainy black-and-white-photos, and have a book. Rarely, are those Letters Home worth reading.

The other Peace Corps genre, if you want to call it that, are journals kept and published as memoirs. You know, you really have to be a pretty good writer to make a book like that of interest to anyone beyond you and your family. They do have value as historical documents, and might someday be extremely useful to someone researching the Peace Corps, but seldom are they worth reading for enjoyment or information.

I can pick up a 'Peace Corps book' and know within two or three pages if the book is worth reading. It has to be, first of all, stylistically interesting. It needs interesting sentences, a new idea, and vivid descriptions. I need to sense that the writer is in control of his or her language and the story that they are telling.

For example here is an example of a good opening, written with vivid language: "It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon when the train reached Awash station in the fierce African heat. The plain was white with dust. In the distance a few antelope and gazelle grazed on the dun-colored grass growing along the volcanic rock that littered the ballast bed. The steel rails shone like knives in the sunlight and bisected the plain as straight and true as a plumb line."

This writing is something that cannot be taught. If you don't have that gift, you can't learn it.

That said, I have come across examples of self-published books about the Peace Corps that are fascinating in their simple narrative power. They prove the exception to the rule. One was a journal kept by a young, innocent Peace Corps doctor, Milt Kogan, in Ouagadougou, Upper Volta,(Burkina Faso) back in the early 70s. The other book is a collection of letters written home from Gemu Gofa, Ethiopia, by a young couple--Sue and Brad Coady--who spent the first three years of their married life in the remote southern region of the Empire. These letters were collected, edited, and self published by Irma Grigg, the woman's mother, as a labor of love, as a gesture of pride in what her daughter and new son-in-law had achieved, and they were Super Vols in Southern Ethiopia.

Both books came to me by chance and, I realize, that out there in attics and basements, and forgotten in back rooms of local libraries, are more tales by Peace Corps Volunteers or staff, all of them small treasures that someday, I hope, will find an audience. But if not, if they are only read by the sons and daughters and grandchildren, well then, we'll teaching our own about the Peace Corps and what we were doing years before they were dreams in their mothers' eyes.

 

Comments

[Floyd Sandford (Nigeria X, 1964-66)]

Interesting comments albeit perhaps a bit too harsh. Every PCV's story is unique and in that sense interesting. I certainly hope John that my humble self-published book is not one of the plethora you refer to and lump in the majority category of not "worth reading for enjoyment or information"

[mary-ann tirone smith]

Peace Corps volunteers who put together journals, photo-essays, stories--whatever--that aren't deemed publishable by the powers that be have created treasures for their children, grandchildren and those descendents who will be reading our stuff long after we're gone. We're giving them bragging rights, and hopefully, inspiration to follow in our footsteps.

[Tom Hebert]

I have raised these serious questions with John directly.

While Coyne stands by his above critical comments, he does give one PC group an exemption, that "all of the good PC writers went to Nigeria, of course."

Tom Hebert, Nigeria IV, 1962-64

[John Coyne]

Tom--actually I think you are wrong. I'd say that the best writers come from Micronesia (was it the sand or the sun?) and I'd list: P.F. Kluge, Eric Lax, Roland Merullo, Joseph Theroux (brother of Paul), Charlie Smith, David Richards, and Carol Severance. After that, you would have to (I say modestly) Ethiopia with Richard Lipez, Maria Thomas, Kathleen Coskran, William Seraile, Karen DeWitt, Milly Taylor,Phil Damon, Mark Dintenfass, David Wiley,Carolyn Mulford, etc. and lets not forget, Harris Wofford!