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Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu | 
 enlarge | Author: J. Maarten Troost
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $3.94
You Save: $9.01 (70%)
New (33) Used (39) Collectible (4) from $3.94
Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 19175
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0767921992
Dewey Decimal Number: 919.59504
EAN: 9780767921992
ASIN: 0767921992
Publication Date: June 13, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee.
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Product Description
With The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Maarten Troost established himself as one of the most engaging and original travel writers around. Getting Stoned with Savages again reveals his wry wit and infectious joy of discovery in a side-splittingly funny account of life in the farthest reaches of the world. After two grueling years on the island of Tarawa, battling feral dogs, machete-wielding neighbors, and a lack of beer on a daily basis, Maarten Troost was in no hurry to return to the South Pacific. But as time went on, he realized he felt remarkably out of place among the trappings of twenty-first-century America. When he found himself holding down a job—one that might possibly lead to a career—he knew it was time for him and his wife, Sylvia, to repack their bags and set off for parts unknown.
Getting Stoned with Savages tells the hilarious story of Troost’s time on Vanuatu—a rugged cluster of islands where the natives gorge themselves on kava and are still known to “eat the man.” Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles against typhoons, earthquakes, and giant centipedes and soon finds himself swept up in the laid-back, clothing-optional lifestyle of the islanders. When Sylvia gets pregnant, they decamp for slightly-more-civilized Fiji, a fallen paradise where the local chiefs can be found watching rugby in the house next door. And as they contend with new parenthood in a country rife with prostitutes and government coups, their son begins to take quite naturally to island living—in complete contrast to his dad.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 Nowhere near as good as his 1st book which was great but not bad. July 2, 2006
Mendicant Pigeon (pdx, or United States)
32 out of 33 found this review helpful
I stumbled upon Troost's first book in Powell's due to a 'Staff Recommendation' and devoured it within a day: A truly funny and engaging read. The following day I ran out and purchased this expecting more of the same but it ain't. Well, not exactly anyway. Whereas I read his first book in a day, it has taken me over a week to get through this and I doubt I'll finish it actually. What's the difference? Well, to start with the premise is that Troost will write a 'Travel Book' in the vein of Evelyn Waugh, and Paul Theroux around A year that spent living in Fiji and Vanuatu. His previous book revolved around the two years he spent in Kiribati. This latter book was a masterpiece of humor, anecdote, gentle self-deprecation and just pure good will. It was fresh and engaging and a real pleasure to read because of the author's uncanny ability to turn small events into good story fodder and for his willigness and ability to mock himself within the adventures told of. The present book suffers by contrast because I believe the author has slipped from glib and insouciant bonhommie to rather smug and smarmy world weariness as he grinds out his tale of two situses. Whereas in the former book the author took delight in the tiny details which he really used well to make his point, we find in this book these exquisite little details have been replaced by A sort of slapdash broadbrush treatment of large themes such as 'trip to an island dance' or 'month in the city.' It isn't very fulfilling in any event and one feels as though the author may either have been allowing his lack of enthusiasm for the semi-colonial life typical of many expatriate experiences to color his judgment, or perhaps was caught up in writer fatigue as he was writing a very similar story about a very similar place under similar circumstances very close in time to each other.
Anyway, I don't want to shush you away from this book but I would like for you to consider buying the author's earlier effort first so that you can see what A truly fun travelogue reads like. For those of you who loved his first book I'm giving fair warning that this one pales in comparison.
engaging, but not up to sex lives of cannibals June 18, 2006
David W. Straight (knoxville, tennessee United States)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
Back to the South Pacific, but this time to Vanuatu and Fiji.
Curiously, cannibalism is much more relevant in this book than
in Sex Lives of Cannibals--maybe he should have saved the word
for here! Once again we escape from the structured life of
suits-and-ties and commuting to visit exotic places. You'll
read about visiting active volcanoes where tourists had been
killed a few weeks before, foot-long poisonous centipedes, the
joys of drinking kava, which is best if you don't think about
how it's made, and cannibalism, which last occurred in Vanuatu
within the author's lifetime.
Troost is a very engaging and humorous writer, frequently poking
fun at himself. And yet....and yet..there seemed to be
a difference between this book and Sex Lives--something that
gave his first book a full 5 stars, something that maybe wasn't
exactly missing here, but something that didn't quite captivate
you as his first book had done. It's been a year since I read
Sex Lives, and there are scenes that stand out in my mind from
that book--the lagoon where you would like to swim filled with
used disposable diapers, for example. Having thought things
over, I think that the problem is that in Sex Lives, there was
so much that seemed totally alien to most of our lives--such
as the lagoon with diapers. In Getting Stoned with Savages, a
lot of what we see is not as alien--you can get hurricanes and
transvestites in New Orleans or Florida, volcanoes in the
Caribbean and Central America, corrupt politicians everywhere.
The difference bewteen the idyllic view of the South Pacific
and reality in Kiribati is great, the difference in Vanuatu and
Fiji is substantial, but not as great. Still--a fine read!
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll come away with a new appreciation for the South Pacific September 9, 2006
Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA)
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
J. Maarten Troost's sophomore effort is another travel memoir about a suburbanite displaced to a remote, third-world culture. This time around, he's not merely following his wife's career in assisting impoverished countries. He's not moving around the world for lack of anything better to do; he's moving of his own free will and desire. Maarten and Sylvia, after returning temporarily to the hectic pace of Washington, D.C., make a conscious decision to return to the South Pacific and start a family. They research locations, look for employment, and consider the political unrest in various locales before deciding on their new homeland.
In his first memoir, Troost's reluctant adoption of his new culture is the core of the story. Heck, he wasn't even sure why he agreed to go there! His writing drew the reader into a foreign culture, bringing a higher level of appreciation for a dirty, poor, unconventional village that the average American wouldn't survive a day in. This time around, Troost has a goal of actively exploring his settings and writing a second book. The premise doesn't succeed quite as well as his fish-out-of-water basis for the first memoir.
Troost spends days bonding with natives over the psychedlic high providing by kava, but in the end, he appears to be just another man trying to escape with alcohol or drugs, only now it is conveniently packaged as a cultural experience. He is on a quest for a message and a purpose for his book, running around trying to find cannibals and other interesting characters to interview. The action seems forced. He's lost the innocence and reluctance that made the first memoir so wonderful. Is this still a great travel book? Absolutely! It is leagues above most anything else on the market. Unfortunately, Troost just set the bar really high with his first success.
I especially enjoyed the story of the Troosts' search for proper pre-natal and natal medical care for their first child. The end up moving within the region to begin their family, providing even more humorous material for our author (ever imagine paying for deluxe cable only to get three channels--the national station, a Bollywood station, and a sport channel which focuses on "Korean ping-pong and Malaysian high school basketball?").
Troot is a talented humorist who will open your eyes to an amazing world on the other side of the planet. Again and again, his tales serve to remind Americans how much danger and disease they are protected from every day. This will remain my second favorite of his efforts to date, but I welcome his third travel memoir!
A Different Look at the South Pacific November 28, 2007
Tamela Mccann (Nashville, TN USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Getting Stoned With Savages, J. Maarten Troost's second book on life in the South Pacific,follows the author and his wife as they spend time on Vanautu and Fiji. This comes approximately two years after the time spent on Kiribati, which was chronicled in the excellent Sex Lives of Cannibals. Maarten seems to understand a little more about what he's getting into this time; he's definitely wiser about the natives and more respectful of nature this time around. Missing from this book seems to be a sense of wonder; Troost and his wife live in Port Vila in Vanautu, which seems much more urban than their former life, and thus less of a culture shock.
Troost has a marvelous sense of humor, and it is most evident when he describes drinking kava with the locals, chasing Pip the kitten, or battling gigantic centipedes. He also does a great job of taking us into the remote areas of the islands while he tries to experience more of the personalities of both the peoples and the lands. Still, there seems to be either a lack of events or less wide-eyed wonder in these pages, particularly after Troost and his wife move to Fiji for the impending birth of their child. I can appreciate how different life in the Pacific is from the one I live daily, but somehow life in Fiji came off as decidedly smarmy with the constant propositions of sexual favors and the rife corruption of the government. I suppose I wanted more of the light, sunny attitude of the South Pacific and instead had to face that sometimes, life just isn't pretty.
This is indeed a funny book, and I enjoyed the descriptions of the areas Troost lived in. While it does lack the charm of his first book, this one is also entertaining, educational, and just plain fun. Recommended.
 Not Very Worldly October 12, 2006
Undre-undre (Nadi, Fiji)
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
This guy is an idiot and does not know anything about Fiji, or its inhabitants. He is the typical "ugly American" and it would be best if he stayed away from beautiful islands such as Vanuatu. The people of Fiji are not as he portrays them, and his juvenile excursion to the islands is a poor attempt to be Hunter S-like.
BTW - Kava does not make one hallucinate.
Vinaka-Vaka-Levu,
Signed: A real Island Boy (a true 'Gimrit' off the ship, Leonidas)
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