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Katie Crouch uses her first-hand experiences of living in Namibia to craft this wonderful novel in which two American "trailers" (partners who accompany their spouses to diplomatic posts) come to love a place they'd known little about before landing there. Perceptively, such people are regarded by the local population as FIGJAMs (I can't transcribe this acronym, but it's so spot-on I have to use it). They have personal upheavals to overcome, and the story of a native wife of Minister of Transpor...
The privileged are in Africa doing what? Sending their children to international schools in Namibia Africa and staying bored. These embassy wives followed their husbands and have nothing really to do. I mean why would someone end up there? Is there an agenda? Obsession? Love? Regret? I think all of these things were in this story and not necessarily in that order. This was ok. Nothing memorable. Light entrainment. A bag of mental potato chips. This was narrated by Marni Penning and she did a gre...
Very good light-hearted comedy, with some interesting tidbits about Namibia. Excellent entertainment.
The diverging paths of a trio of women connected to the Namibia Embassy makes for a fascinating story. I enjoyed learning more about this country. This would have gotten more stars from me, but the 'orange man bad' narrative kept popping up its ugly head. Sure there was a mess up on pronouncing the name of the country four years ago. So glad that no other presidents have mispronounced something or forgotten what election they were campaigning for. Seems a bit lacking in diplomacy, in my opinion....
What an odd, manic little book, a weird mix of satire and Liane Moriarty-esque characterization and plotting.I was drawn to this in part because I live in the DC area and know many people who have worked and lived abroad with their families in postings with State Dept., etc., and I have also lived overseas in a government-run program setting myself.I think there’s so much that this book gets right about the strange, insular, often toxic or at least dysfunctional culture of those hierarchical and...
I debated whether to rate this book a 1 or a 31/2 and finally decided on 2. The 1 rating would be for the many, many inaccuracies and misconceptions about embassy life, and the 31/2 would be for the entertainment value of the story line. Although now retired, I actually was an ‘embassy wife’ for almost 30 years. So much of what the author says about the embassy is just plain wrong. As I read the book, I began to make a mental tally of errors until there were so many, I decided to stop. One of th...
4.5 stars. When you read as much as I do, novelty is precious and rare. And Katie Crouch's novel is novel and precious and rare. I absolutely loved it! First the setting... It's clear that Ms. Crouch has spent some time in this world--both the African setting, and possibly the diplomatic setting. And it's a world that very few of us will ever glimpse in real life. It's different, it's exotic, and she does a terrific job setting the stage.And then there are her characters. Most of them are flawed...
2.5The August selection of The Nervous Breakdown Book ClubI hesitate to give this work my usual critique, because modern humor is not the kind of book I usually read. The absurd plot (mostly in the second half and especially in the denouement) is not for me, but I’m sure some may find it entertaining. The novel is set during the former U.S. presidential administration and I learned some current-ish (probably already outdated) slang, which I’ve promptly forgotten.However, it was the perfect book
Katie Crouch keeps getting better and better. In this book, the main characters include two wives living in Namibia, following their husband's embassy posts. They are fishes out of water but not flailing. There is Amanda, who has agreed to leave her high-end tech job and transfer from California to Namibia for 2 years while her husband Mark works on his Fullbright-granted work. Their 9 year old is enrolled in International School with children of other embassy families and rich locals Including
Sneakily plotted, historically eye-opening (to me, who knew nothing about Namibia), intriguingly real, this page-turner is one of the best expat books I've ever read. The way privilege works is only one part of it, how native and interloper fit is another, secrets as plot glue yet more. The Embassy and the culture it brings to a foreign land is the great umbrella for the failed Fulbright scholar, the frustrated trailing spouse, the local shape-shifter, the clever children, the devoted native ser...
Brilliant satire, which makes the book go from beach read with absurdly endearing characters to something layered that is more than the sum of its parts.
3.5 stars. I was hooked with the story, but was disappointed in the ending.It reminded me of the movie Burn After Reading, where the characters are clueless, there are random incoherent twists, and the ending makes little sense. Oh, and almost all the men suck in this book.
