January 25, 2005: Headlines: COS - Uzbekistan: Writing - Uzbekistan: San Francisco Bay Guardian: Tom Bissell was a Peace Corps English instructor in Uzbekistan until he had a culture shock-induced breakdown and shipped out early, only to later return as a reporter for Harper's Magazine
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Tom Bissell: Archived Stories:
December 1, 2004: Headlines: COS - Uzbekistan: Writing - Uzbekistan: Vietnam: Harper's: A father and son return to Vietnam by Uzbekistan RPCV Tom Bissell :
January 25, 2005: Headlines: COS - Uzbekistan: Writing - Uzbekistan: San Francisco Bay Guardian: Tom Bissell was a Peace Corps English instructor in Uzbekistan until he had a culture shock-induced breakdown and shipped out early, only to later return as a reporter for Harper's Magazine
Tom Bissell was a Peace Corps English instructor in Uzbekistan until he had a culture shock-induced breakdown and shipped out early, only to later return as a reporter for Harper's Magazine
Tom Bissell was a Peace Corps English instructor in Uzbekistan until he had a culture shock-induced breakdown and shipped out early, only to later return as a reporter for Harper's Magazine
Other Stories
By Tom Bissell. Pantheon, 224 pages, $20.
Tom Bissell is the best of the Believer's formidably ingenious staff of essayists, but in God Lives in St. Petersburg and Other Stories he has turned to writing fiction about tiny former Soviet Central Asian countries you've probably never thought about. Bissell was a Peace Corps English instructor in Uzbekistan until he had a culture shock-induced breakdown and shipped out early, only to later return as a reporter for Harper's Magazine. As the United States began its attack on Afghanistan in autumn 2001, Bissell was stranded there, held back by what he describes as the bribe-hungry Uzbek border patrol. As one of Bissell's characters, the spoiled son of a U.S. ambassador, puts it in one of his stories, it was "the kind of place that was so corrupt you had to bribe yourself to get out of bed in the morning."
Bissell, himself the son of a U.S. ambassador, examines the region through the eyes of visiting Americans in all of their various guises: North Face-clad outdoor adventure tourists, war correspondents, Christian missionaries, and United Nations scientists. These are tales about American privilege abroad, and perhaps first and foremost among these privileges is the ability to leave when things get the least bit unpleasant. The reader is linked with the protagonists in mutual naïveté about the region, and we learn its rules and systems through violating them as the characters commit blunder after blunder. Wounded in a car wreck and stranded at the mercy of an Afghan warlord, an American and an English war correspondent busy themselves by demonstrating their cringe-inducing paternalism and incapacity for gratitude before learning the full implications of losing their status as observers. Bissell's writing is full of uncomfortable truths, brilliant wit, and dexterous language, skeptical of any and all political ideology. The collection is hit-and-miss, but also ambitious and likable enough to compensate for it. (Ben Bush)
When this story was posted in January 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Ask Not As our country prepares for the inauguration of a President, we remember one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and how his words inspired us. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." |
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
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Story Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Uzbekistan; Writing - Uzbekistan
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