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The Sex Lives of Cannibals
Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
352 pages
A sweltering, laugh-out-loud dismantling of the tropical paradise myth, fueled by culture shock and relentless absurdity.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like sitting at a dive bar with a hilarious, slightly traumatized friend who is recounting the worst two years of their life. The pace is brisk and episodic, driven by a relentless cascade of comedic misadventures, from toxic fish to erratic electricity. The mood is sweltering and chaotic, perfectly capturing the claustrophobia of island fever and the utter collapse of romanticized escapism. Troost's prose is sharp, self-deprecating, and heavily reliant on impeccable comedic timing and vivid, often gross-out sensory details. It is a book that delights in schadenfreude, making it perfect for armchair travelers who prefer their exotic journeys served with a heavy dose of cynicism, absurdity, and hard-won resilience rather than glossy travelogue clichés.
- Mood
- sweltering
- absurd
- chaotic
- claustrophobic
- Tone
- wry
- self-deprecating
- cynical
- hilarious
- observant
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- culture shock · the myth of paradise · quarter-life crisis · resilience through humor · island fever
- The writing
- Conversational and sharp, relying heavily on comedic timing, hyperbole, and vivid, often uncomfortably sensory descriptions.
- The arc
- Moves from naive romantic escapism to overwhelmed frustration, eventually settling into a wry, hard-won affection for the absurd.
- Who it's for
- Armchair travelers who enjoy a healthy dose of schadenfreude and laugh-out-loud memoirs about people making terrible life choices in exotic locations.
Content notes
- illness and bodily fluids
- animal death
- alcohol consumption
- dated cultural observations
About the book
The laugh-out-loud true story of a harrowing and hilarious two-year odyssey in the distant South Pacific island nation of Kiribati--possibly The Worst Place on Earth.At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost--who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs--decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.The Sex Lives of Cannibals tells the hilarious story of what happens when Troost discovers that Tarawa is not the island paradise he dreamed of. Falling into one amusing misadventure after another, Troost struggles through relentless, stifling heat, a variety of deadly bacteria, polluted seas, toxic fish--all in a country where the only music to be heard for miles around is "La Macarena." He and his stalwart girlfriend Sylvia spend the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options (including the Great Beer Crisis); and contending with a bizarre cast of local characters, including "Half-Dead Fred" and the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of Tarawa (a British drunkard who's never written a poem in his life).With The Sex Lives of Cannibals, Maarten Troost has delivered one of the most original, rip-roaringly funny travelogues in years--one that will leave you thankful for staples of American civilization such as coffee, regular showers, and tabloid news, and that will provide the ultimate vicarious adventure.
Description from Open Library.
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