If you are prone to wanderlust or escapism, as I am, there are two books that are a must read at some point … ideally on your metro commute to a big city for a long day of intimacy with your small monitor and rapid-fire meetings. These books will affirm your belief that American life has a few voids that need filling (perhaps with void) while also providing a few rationales against the greener grass of the concept of leaving it all behind for a idyllic existence on a remote Pacific island.

J. Maarten Troost recalls his time spent on remote islands in the Pacific with a relaxed flair and a casual, witty style. In
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific he shares his experience in deprivation on the small atoll of Tarawa and in Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu he relives another remote, yet different experience over in Vanuatu.

Both are hilarious accounts involving the naturally comedic elements involved in living simple in simple locations that happen to include bloated pigs, being trapped by pooping natives, racing feral dogs, and much more. Both also give a bit of tentative love to both the pros and cons of being owned by nature.

Getting Stoned sets the mood early with this wonderful summary of Maarten’s need to get back to the island:

In Washington [D.C.] , we lived in a place where everything was available, for a price, and yet I couldn’t recall the last time I had really savored something – a book, a sunset, a fine meal. It was as if the sensory overload that is American life had somehow led to sensory deprivation, a gilded weariness, where everything is permitted and nothing appreciated. I’d find myself inside a Whole Foods, and remember that not long ago I would have engaged in all sorts of criminality for a chance to skip down these heaving aisles, yet now I found myself feeling a mite peeved that the cheese selection wasn’t quite as expansive as I would have wished.

Wonderful reads for like-minded individuals.