The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific

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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, and worst of all, no television or coffee. And that’s just the first day.

Sunburned, emaciated, and stinging with sea lice, Troost spends the next two years battling incompetent government officials, alarmingly large critters, erratic electricity, and a paucity of food options. He contends with a cast of bizarre 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), and eventually settles into the ebb and flow of island life, just before his return to the culture shock of civilization.

With the rollicking wit of Bill Bryson, the brilliant travel exposition of Paul Theroux, and a hipster edge that is entirely Troost’s own, The Sex Lives of Cannibals is the ultimate vicarious adventure. Readers may never long to set foot on Tarawa, but they’ll want to travel with Troost time and time again.

What Customers Say About The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific:

With arctic air masses threatening to give us frostbite and keep our cars from starting-- I think I had a bit of schadenfreude as I read about our main character's misadventures. I've been on a Bill Bryson kick and generally adore books about travel, so I was psyched when my friend at work gave me this. I was also sickly enjoying reading about how crappy a beautiful tropical island can be sometimes. Hey, it might be cold here but there's no sea lice, beer shortage, or sharks. It was a fun and fast past travel story.

If you're an optimist, you'll quickly be turned off by the continual negativity and complaining about how miserable this island is, the endless self-deprecating humor about how lazy he considers himself, a procrastinator not accomplishing much of anything, while his wife works.After seeing so many positive reviews, I didn't realize it was going to be such a pessimistic book, but quickly realized that as soon as I started reading. I felt it may eventually turn positive but gave up half-way through when I realized it wasn't going to change.In short, if you're conscious of what you feed your mind and love a fun upbeat adventure, skip this book. If you love supermarket tabloids or modern television shows with their drama, negativity, and sarcasm, then you'll probably like this book.On the positive side, I did like the title, the beautiful cover art, and their courage to escape the norm.

Although I thoroughly enjoy travel books and humor, I could not ever get into this. I finished it, but felt as though I could have used my reading time much better, but it was a book club choice, so finished it. I shall stick to Bill Bryson for this category. Much better writer.

I have to say that I have not laughed out loud while reading a book in some time.If you have traveled/lived in remote places this is the book for you.Justin

Only Mormon missionaries wore pants on Tarawa" (p. By his own admission, Troost was a slacker, with few defined ambitions.A few months later, he was living on an island with limited fresh water, cannibal dogs (hence the book's title), trash everywhere, limited contact with the outside world, excrement fouled beaches, and fish, fish, and more fish for meals. 105).Why didn't I read about Troost being a volunteer teacher, or getting trained to be a health aide, or anything. This was my second time through this book, and Troost has a wit about him that makes for entertaining reading. They were very nice about it, and though I did my best to be an [expletive deleted], they were never anything but polite, which has been my experience with Mormons everywhere. Troost doesn't take an anthropologist's view (he isn't an anthropologist, after all). To each their own, I say.

Kiribati is his new playground (and home), and he dissects it from this perspective, through his lens of reality.In discussing how he trained his mongrel dogs to be watch dogs, he wrote:"Elder Jeb and Elder brian were twenty-year-old Mormon missionaries from Utah. He laments the tedium of life on a remote island, and the parts of Kiribati life that involve listening to La Macarena over and over, many I-Kiribati customs, health issues, and the HEAT. They wanted my soul.'Come in,' I said. Still, I found the book entertaining.

Maarten Troost followed his girlfriend to Kiribati, an island nation in the South Pacific, when she got a job working for the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific. But leave me alone. When I inquired if they had any luck finding wives, they decided to move on and try their chances elsewhere. Still, I tried to teach the dogs to growl menacingly at anyone in pants. Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol are three very good reasons why I will never become a Mormon. It is there in his own words. He has nothing nice to say about outsiders on Kiribati, particularly aid workers (except for his wife). He seemed to spend his waking hours drinking, hiking, bodyboarding, windsurfing, preparing fish dishes, and complaining.

'Do you want a cup of tea.''No, thanks.''How about a cigarette.''Not really.''Beer.''No, we can't.'Exactly. We don't even have to get into the highly colorful and fantastically ludicrous theology. Really. I just don't feel Troost is the best ambassador for the I-Kiribati people.