American Taboo
Written by John Owen
Published July 08, 2004
Published July 08, 2004
Those minor architectural details aside, American Taboo is a well-written, detailed, expertly researched and compulsively readable story of a sad day when American pragmatism overcame American idealism. It looks great on paper, and indeed like all noble ideals it remains worth striving for even when the facts are ugly, but in American Taboo, the American missionary ideal proved insufficient to save Debbie Gardner. Ultimately, despite the mission that was its reason for being in Tonga, the Peace Corps helped a killer walk free.
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- American Taboo
- Published: July 08, 2004
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- Section: Books
- Writer: John Owen
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review phil weiss book;
A sad, intriguing story, poorly told, February 6, 2006
Reviewer: Anonymous "booksandcookies" (Charleston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
This book seems to have been published before being proofread or edited in any way. Based on radio interviews heard with this author, I bought this book, but it has been a very frustrating read. It almost appears to be the rough draft/writer's notes for the book, rather than a finished work. The writing is bizarre and strange, disjointed, rambling, nonsensical much of the time. A reader keeps wondering: are these the author's rough notes? The writer's stream of consciousness? Some cognitive problem? We are told this was written by a journalist,an editor no less, yet over and over as I read I kept asking myself: what? when? who? huh? where? huh?
The story itself is a very sad one, but also frustrating. It leaves the reader feeling angry and disgusted by the crime committed by the murderer and by the consequent atrocities committed by the various and many people in authority - and also by the fellow "volunteers" who, at least as portrayed in this odd book, were complicit in the foul results of the trial which enabled the murderer to go scot-free. It seemed that those fellow volunteers displayed so much concern and assistance for the murderer and little to none for the victim, just as the Tongans observed. This book certainly does taint the Peace Corps in its, supposedly, most idealistic hayday and even contemporarily as a result. What a horrendous shame and what a horrendous embarrassment, but most of all, what a vicious, horrible criminal went free and presumably remains free - after a long career working for the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT in the SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION!! - yet another crime of this awful case, told in this awful book. I regret not giving this book a positive review because the author must have devoted much time and travel to the effort, but more time to editing would have been a good idea. I do appreciate that he has brought this very disturbing case to wider public attention.