The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific,” by J. Maarten Troost

One of the things I like about being in a book club is reading books I would not discover on my own. The travelogue “The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific,” by J. Maarten Troost” is a good example of such a book. It was an interesting read, though somewhat frustrating and not entirely satisfying.

To begin with, the cheap gimmick of a misleading sensationalist title sets the tone for a book ripe with embellishment. (“The Sex Lives of Cannibals” has nothing to do with sex and less to do with cannibals. Rather, it is the story of a young American couple that spends two years on one of the poorest and remote islands in the world.)

Quite simply, too much of this book is written in a way that strains credulity. Do I think that the author had difficulty re-adjusting to American life after spending two years on a tiny Pacific island? Yes. But, I’d gladly wager that he is full of it when he writes that upon their return to America, he “made a foray to the supermarket around the corner for provisions. Two hours later, when I had failed to return, Sylvia went out to look for me. She found me staring blankly at a display of maple syrup. My shopping cart was still empty.”

Yeah, right.

This type of thing happened over and over in the book and made reading it frustrating because that type of exaggeration was unnecessary: The tale of the author’s time in Kiribati was often riveting and quiet eye-opening.

The detailed descriptions of life on the island were the best part of the book. It is hard to believe that people live in such poverty and deprivation. The book was so long and was mostly so well written that I almost began to develop island fever myself.

The discussion of government corruption was disheartening. Such self-interest and corruption seems sadly embedded in the human fabric.

The descriptions of the animal life on the island were eye-opening. Especially the survival of the fittest amongst the dog and cat population.

What may be the most important concept in the book was a bit buried in this line: “I soon learned that the greatest beneficiaries of the [foreign] aid were the [foreign aid workers] themselves, and I was excited to finally get a piece of the pie myself.” The author does a nice (if too brief) job of showing how much foreign aid accrues to the benefit of those who dole out the aid.

I find this to be very similar to the American non-profit scene generally, where many non-profit organizations are remarkably inefficient at helping those they are putatively chartered to assist. Too many non-profits take money from the public and then spend it paying full time “staff” to administer programs, when that money can/should be used to help the needy, directly.

I believe that most non-profits should be run the way our founders suggested that our government should be run – by part-time citizen volunteers. Having a permanent ruling class of politicians has not done us well (overall), nor has having a huge number of people working full time for non-profits. But that is a post for another day.

All in all I am glad I read this book. I’d give it four stars but for the exaggerations and the needlessly misleading sensationalist title.