Home | Best Seller | FAQ | Contact Us
Browse
Art & Photography
Biographies & Autobiography
Body,Mind & Health
Business & Economics
Children's Book
Computers & Internet
Cooking
Crafts,Hobbies & Gardening
Entertainment
Family & Parenting
History
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Detective
Nonfiction
Professional & Technology
Reference
Religion
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports & Outdoors
Travel & Geography
   Book Info

enlarge picture

Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia  
Author: P.F. F. Kluge
ISBN: 082481567X
Format: Handover
Publish Date: June, 2005
 
     
     
   Book Review


From Library Journal
In this account of novelist Kluge's return to Micronesia where he once served as a Peace Corps volunteer, he examines how the American presence has ruined an island paradise. Drawn back by the death (an apparent suicide) of Lazarus Salii, the president of the tiny Republic of Belau, for whom he had once written speeches, Kluge finds in Salii's demise an allegory of all the evils that have befallen Micronesia in the past two decades. Unfortunately, Kluge focuses entirely on the island elite. As a result, his conclusions are skewed because he fails to reflect everyday life in present-day Micronesia. His vivid, moving prose notwithstanding, he does not do justice to his subject. For travel and international affairs collections.- Glenn Peterson, Baruch Coll . , CUNYCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Book News, Inc.
Paper edition reprint of a 1991 publication (Random House). The author, a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia in 1967, recounts his journey back a generation later, providing an intimate view of the paradox of cultural imperialism. No scholarly trappings. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.




Edge of Paradise: America in Micronesia

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In 1967 the Peace Corps sent P. F. Kluge to paradise - or so the American possessions in Micronesia seemed. His assignment was as noble as it was adventurous: to help the people of those half-forgotten Pacific islands move from old to new, so that paradise would have prosperity and freedom as well as physical beauty. He immersed himself in the lives of the diverse peoples of the islands. He composed speeches for their leaders. He wrote a stirring manifesto that became the Preamble to the Constitution of Micronesia. He began a friendship with a man who would one day be president of Palau. And then, a generation later, P. F. Kluge went back. . . . The result is a book the New Yorker called "remarkably effective," the Economist deemed "terrific"; a book Smithsonian Magazine found to be "written from the heart." The Edge of Paradise shows the impact and ironies of America's presence in an undeveloped part of the world, how perhaps there's no way "a big place can touch a little one without harming it."

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

In this account of novelist Kluge's return to Micronesia where he once served as a Peace Corps volunteer, he examines how the American presence has ruined an island paradise. Drawn back by the death (an apparent suicide) of Lazarus Salii, the president of the tiny Republic of Belau, for whom he had once written speeches, Kluge finds in Salii's demise an allegory of all the evils that have befallen Micronesia in the past two decades. Unfortunately, Kluge focuses entirely on the island elite. As a result, his conclusions are skewed because he fails to reflect everyday life in present-day Micronesia. His vivid, moving prose notwithstanding, he does not do justice to his subject. For travel and international affairs collections.-- Glenn Peterson, Baruch Coll . , CUNY

Booknews

Paper edition reprint of a 1991 publication (Random House). The author, a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia in 1967, recounts his journey back a generation later, providing an intimate view of the paradox of cultural imperialism. No scholarly trappings. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

     



Home | Private Policy | Contact Us
@copyright 2001-2005 ReadingBee.com