Living in Abu Dhabi is akin to being a minnow in a fishbowl next to a tank of piranhas. You’re safe unless the glass breaks.
I start byFavorite Quotes:
Living in Abu Dhabi is akin to being a minnow in a fishbowl next to a tank of piranhas. You’re safe unless the glass breaks.
I start by brushing my teeth vigorously, as if I’m Lady Macbeth and dental stains are the proof of my crime.
Allan’s hairline has receded in the years we’ve been together, but what’s left still stands straight off his head. He still looks like Einstein and still dresses like a teenage boy in Converse sneakers, snug designer jeans, and rock ’n roll T-shirts.
Walking across the sand with my unwieldy coconut collection, I look like a juggler who’s forgotten what to do.
“Charred pigeon… And it’s mine. I’m taking it home for a snack later.” Habiba was nine months pregnant. The pigeon was all hers. I told her about eating live termites in Kenya and live octopus in Korea. She faked a gag reflex.
My Review:
I seldom read memoirs, as many people who write them erroneously believe that their lives are infinitely fascinating when they just - aren’t… However, this one held my interest as Nancy Stearns Bercaw, whom I had never heard of before, has lived an extremely adventuresome life, whether she was sober or soused. The book started in Abu Dhabi and ended in Iceland, just to give you perspective on the extremes of the wanderlust that was her normal. And in between those places were tales of her stints as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa and Korea with additional jaunts all around the dark continent, as well as trips and stays in Singapore, Manila, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kathmandu, New Delhi, Egypt, and the Taj Mahal.
The murder of a coworker in Korea seemed to have left a lasting scar on her psyche. However, her epiphany or Come to Jesus Moment occurred in Abu Dhabi when she was faced with the obscenity of her health status as the result of thirty years of over-imbibing. Facing her demons was not an easy task, nor was it dull for the reader to follow. I was not familiar with the term or concept of “dryland” training, which involves having swimmers perform sit-ups and push-up exercise outside of the pool to learn, “to grapple with the forces of gravity outside their preferred element.” The narrative was often amusing and remained entertaining throughout although it was not ordered in a chronological sequence and tended to swing passionately back and forth through various timelines of the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and beyond. Despite this, it was easy to follow and I thought nothing of it as my memories zigzag in a similar manner when I take stock of my own time on this earth, although my history would not be quite as eventful, well-traveled, or honestly expressed. I refer you back to my first sentence in regard to those writing memoirs ;)...more
In my opinion four people were responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall and Communism: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope JohFavorite Quotes:
In my opinion four people were responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall and Communism: Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and my father.
My dad picked some cherries off the cherry tree and ate them. He gave me five. That was my lunch. Gratefully I popped them in my mouth. There were exquisitely sour. When I mentioned this, my dad glared at me, as if I had insulted his cooking.
You don’t understand, Paullina. All the things you want to remember. I want desperately to forget.
As I stood at the foot of the stairs, the faded black and white details of my memory turned to color. Shepelovo had always been a myth to me, but Fifth Soviet was reality, then and now. I trudged up the stairs and became seven years old again.
Go into the woods, do your business. You’ll feel much better… Stop it, you fool. You will have to go in the woods in the end. Go now and end your misery – and ours. You haven’t stopped talking about a bathroom… Go now.
Russia was like a hard dream from which I could not wake up.
My Review:
Reading memoirs is a rare occurrence for me, however, in an effort to expand my horizons and keep those neurons firing, including this genre has been on my goal list. Having read Ms. Simons’s breathtaking and heartbreaking tome of Lone Star last year, I knew this talented author to be a storyteller of the highest order and surmised that if I were to indulge in someone scratching through the muck and emotional detritus of their own story, hers would be the one to select. I can happily boast – I chose wisely. Ms. Simons wrote of her 1998 return visit to the areas of her childhood in St. Petersburg/Leningrad Russia with her father, after leaving at age ten in the 70s. Her revelations and experiences were life altering for her, and eye opening and mind-bending for me. As a self-indulgent American, I had no idea that opportunities and living conditions had remained so stark and limited. I had never considered that a major superpower would view refrigerators, toilets, and running water as conveniences and luxuries or that their populous could shrug at those issues or would consider cleaning their ancient toilets as being a completely unnecessary task.
Ms. Simons’s writing was heaving with colorful insights and entertaining observations of not only the people and places of her travels, but also how the current observations of those people and places collided with her childhood memories of the same. Bonuses included amusing tidbits of her personal exasperation as due to the lack of road signs, indoor plumbing, or eateries, she was often lost, always hungry, frequently suffering from the need to relieve herself, and meeting countless men named Viktor. I enjoyed her personal pictures and found myself Googling the areas she mentioned as I devoured her emotive and transformative tale. Despite the often archaic, dire, and bleak conditions she found, she imparted her narrative with loving care and respect for their experience. I feasted on this meaty tome like a binge dieter hitting the buffet line. I want to read everything this talented scribe has ever written. ...more
“I met my future husband in a computer programming class. I would like to say that it was love at first sight. But honestly, he irritaFavorite Quotes:
“I met my future husband in a computer programming class. I would like to say that it was love at first sight. But honestly, he irritated me quite a bit and I was not interested in him at all as a potential partner.”
“We had never had goats before and thought that rescuing one was a good thing… After a few weeks, she regained her strength and became a bossy little handful of horned stubbornness.”
My Review:
I rarely – meaning never – read nonfiction for pleasure, as I do far too much of that on the job and want to spend my off hours reading for entertainment. However, I don’t recall ever reading a more simply written and entertaining non-fiction accounting or memoir in my long and varied life. The Molteni’s are a successful professional couple who decide to retire early from the IT sector and establish a “Hobby Farm,” which is something I was not aware even existed in the real world. These intelligent and lovely people knew next to nothing about the animals they decided to raise and care for, and dutifully went about researching and studying each species as they took them in. They were soon experts on everything hoof, feather, and fur related. They amassed a veritable Noah’s Ark as they deemed the best course of action to slowly start with two of everything. However, given their willingness and soft hearts, they seem to have a hidden knack for selecting special needs animals. Each addition to their menagerie was quickly found to have a unique problem or issue that required special or additional accommodation, modification, research, treatment, and or handling. Their veterinarian probably put his children through college or bought a vacation home from their fees alone. Despite their best efforts and good intentions, they were never able to obtain milk from the cows they hoped would provide them with dairy products. They also dealt with a lonely goat with an attitude who demanded an intimate dining experience, a grieving pig, quackless and runaway ducks, a quarantined and confused turkey, and hearing impaired bunnies. I particularly enjoyed the accompanying pictures and maxims at the end of each chapter, summing up the lesson learned from each species adopted. While not highly stylized or literary prose, their story was a quick and enjoyable read that will leave a smile on the face of any animal lover. ...more