The Departure Lounge
Copyright © 2009
by Paul Eggers
Ohio State University Press
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What happens when people land on unfamiliar moral and cultural turf? The five stories in Paul Eggers’ The Departure Lounge examine that question, focusing
on characters in either voluntary or involuntary exile — men and women forced to confront their deepest emotions and beliefs, removed from familiar,
comforting surroundings. In one story an academic flees his family, arriving in Africa only to find that his African host is dealing with a similar crisis.
In another, an American chess hustler in Africa is forced to come to terms with his own sense of right and wrong. In yet another, an old Vietnamese man now living
in California finds that his relationship with his now-dead daughter was not what he had assumed. In the story "Hey," a young chess star confronts the death of
his brother in the Vietnam War. And in the final story, an aging American couple — former UN relief workers — return to their refugee-camp worksite
in Malaysia, discovering what they had forgotten about themselves. In lyrical, tough-minded prose, Eggers' stories illuminate in unexpected ways the profundity
of cross-cultural experiences, as well as deliver fresh insights into the complexity of identity. — from the publisher
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How the Water Feels
Copyright © 2002
by Paul Eggers
Souther Methodist UP
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In "The Year Five," Nguyen Van Trinh, one of the boat people who left Vietnam after the war, is living in a squalid refugee camp on Bidong Island. He is as
powerless to repress his sorrow over his daughter’s death as the Malaysian administrative chief of the island is to find out who carved Trinh’s name into the
wooden plank in the staff eating hut.
In "Substitutes," Bridget and Owen Greef, two misfits, have been growing apart because of his obsession with chess and Bobby Fischer. They both must come to
terms with the fact that they are—as a couple and as individuals—permanent outsiders.
In "Anything You Want, Please," Peace Corps trainee Reuben Gill is led into the malevolent presence of long-term "jungle junkie" (and Peace Corps volunteer)
Geronimo Donaldson’s companion monkey. In this alien place, Gill finds himself struggling against his own worst impulses, beginning to doubt the strength of
his commitment to his stateside fiancée. — from the publisher
Eggers's stories glide from one exotic locale to the next — from Peace Corps-type burn-outs in Southeast Asia to geeky
chess aficionados in Tacoma, Washington — displaced persons all, lit from within by strange flickering passions. Funny,
trenchant, lyrical, and mesmerizing stories. — Marly Swick
A fresh and resonant voice. Eggers has established himself as an important writer illuminating the complexities of our ties to Southeast Asia. An outstanding
book of stories. — Robert Olen Butler
Paul Eggers’s stories examine the moral arena created by the existence of refugees. Some are stories about literal refugees, those displaced in the aftermath of
the Vietnam War, and about those who would help them. Others are about refugees in a metaphoric sense—people alternately bullied and bullying, exiled from
sources of power, caught in moments when the familiar gives way.
The author's ability to evoke milieu is outstanding — one can feel the heat, the presence of the vermin and reptiles, the oppressive rains; in the Tacoma
stories, the sordid neighborhoods are alive and teeming. Characters are wonderfully rendered. What is especially striking is the author's capacity to present
the intense psychological/emotional pressures under which his characters labor — usually in vain. Another virtue of the book is its topic of the boat people
dramatized in four of the stories; these bring the reader into confrontation with an aspect of the Vietnam 'experience' that has received little attention
and probes themes of moral anarchy and collapse. — Gordon Weaver
Eggers is a talented and ambitious writer, and this is an excellent collection. Eggers is not daunted by different cultures. His ability to bring an exotic
setting to life reminds me of Paul Theroux. Settings are as vividly renderend here as they are in the best work of Graham Greene. This is a writer who almost
never chooses to use shorthand. Eggers's characters are as memorable as the places he writes about. — Steve Yarbrough
Two alienated, disgruntled communities are on display in Eggers's short story collection: chess players and Southeast Asian refugees. The latter group gets most
of the attention, with Eggers reprising some of the themes from his first novel, Saviors, about Americans at a Vietnamese refugee camp in Malaysia. ...
Eggers's unconventional scenarios and distinctive voice are promising, and readers willing to
put up with the rough patches will find some intriguing material. — Publishers Weekly
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The Departure Lounge
Copyright © 1998
by Paul Eggers
Houghotn Mifflin Harcourt
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Once in a rare while a novel comes along that succeeds in taking us away
from home in order to show us what it means to be American. The saviors
of this brilliantly witty and wise novel set in a Vietnamese refugee camp
off the coast of Malaysia are, among others, a pair of contrasting
Americans:
the outsized, outrageous, and highly opinionated Reuben Gill, and a
thoughtful,
diplomatic woman named Bobbie Porkpie Sortini.
Like a feudal kingdom, the refugee camp on the island of Bidong has a law of
its own that occasionally takes note of the Vietnamese but usually ignores
their needs and natures. The island is home to an array of unpredictable
characters — Gurmit Singh, a Sikh in charge of Bidong who is
woefully in over his head; a Malaysian police captain with a power base
all his own; a variety of self-important refugee workers; and, of course,
the
Vietnamese. Faced with this odd collection of people and the imminent
decision of whether or not to close the camp, it is no wonder that Reuben
and Porkpie find themselves fomenting rebellion.
Gently but firmly, Paul Eggers draws us into one of the world's most recent
hearts of darkness. He writes with a lyricism rooted in the mud and smell
of a refugee camp, an authenticity that can come only from personal
acquaintance with such a life, and a sense of humor that can come only
from surviving the experience. An antic combination of Graham Greene's
The Comedians and Catch-22, Saviors is about the lure of the
exotic, the clash of cultures, and the struggle between power and love.
Wow! What a debut! Eggers is a masterful writer, and this book positions
him to joing the ranks of Maugham and Forster and Conrad, Paul Theroux
and Norman Rush. Saviors is as funny as Twain and as dark as
Stone. I gulped it down, amazed by the deftness of Eggers's style.
Saviors is an enormously accomplished and
entertaining novel....[I] wouldn't be surprised if this novel ends up being
short-listed for all the major prizes. — Bob Shacochis
Paul Eggers seems to have learned from someone that the novelist is
allowed to think, so bravo! This is a
serious (i.e., not trivial), searching, painful first novel by someone
as daring as he is well-informed. — Paul West
Saviors is never anything but spirited, funny and, if such a word
can be used, wise. It is a
lovely book, keenly perceived, original and wonderful to read.
Saviors is not only a moving and entertaining novel, but also one
that brings us closer to an understanding of just how the human spirit
operates in the face of adversity. — Craig Nova
Maybe a book can't save the world, but it can give us real insight into
what inspires people to try and, all too often, dooms them to fail. By turns
elegiac, comic, personal, and political, Saviors is a
tour de force.
— Marly Swick
Reuben Gill of the
UN High
Commission for Refugees longs to be assigned to
Bidong. He believes he
can relive the days of his Peace Corps stint, when he
was a kind of savior
to the Malaysian villagers he encountered. When he
does get sent to the
camp, it's as a subengineer for the Sanitation
Division, a disciplinary
measure after he creates an embarrassing incident at
a party thrown by his
boss. What he finds on Bidong is complete chaos.
Reuben has a hard time
adjusting to life in the camp, in part because he is
overwhelmed by the
hopelessness of trying to make any difference. This
first novel is bleak but
also steeped in black humor that is reminiscent of
MASH. — Booklist
A fascinating portrait of one of the great historical dramas of our time.
— Kirkus Reviews
A nebraska author has written a rich, challenging, and rewarding novel that
would make a good book club choice. ... It's the kind of book you want to
talk about
with someone else who's read it. — Nebraska Center for the Book
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