Living on the Edge
Fiction by Peace Corps Writers
Published on 30. April 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-880684-57-3 (ISBN)
Description
Living on the Edge contains seventeen remarkable stories by writers who served in the Peace Corps, including well-known authors such as John Coyne, John Givens, Norman Rush and Paul Theroux, as well as work by exciting emerging authors like Mark Jacobs and Marnie Mueller. All these stories reflect the impact the Peace Corps experience had on former volunteers who write across cultures in the literary tradition of Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, and Paul Bowles. Each author has included a commentary on how he or she came to write the anthologized story.
Reviews / Votes
"For anyone interested in the US and its place in the world, this collection will provide a good picture of diplomacy on a personal scale."-Kirkus Reviews|"In this unique short story collection . . . myriad facets of Peace Corps life and the culture of diverse lands are examined . . . [the authors] get to the heart of the human endeavor as they write about language, food, custom, social and familial politics, racial differences, sexual decorum, violence and disease as well as instances of deep confusion and transcendent communion."
-Donna Seaman, ALA Booklist
|"A wonderful collection of stories that take you from Africa to South America to Asia while probing important issues of place, identity, and tension in a world grown closer but still suffering from a huge gap between have and have-not nations . . . A terrific idea; highly recommended wherever good literature is read."
-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
St Paul, MN
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-880684-57-3 (9781880684573)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
John Coyne was with the first group of Volunteers to Ethiopia and taught English in Addis Ababa. Later he was an Associate Peace Corps Director in Ethiopia and the Regional Manager of the New York Peace Corps Office. He has published eight novels and edited, among other books, Going Up Country: Travel Essays by Peace Corps Writers. In 1989 he founded RPCV Writers & Readers, a newsletter for and about Peace Corps volunteers.