This Is Not Civilization

by Robert Rosenberg

Book Overview

In the tradition of Prague and White Teeth, This Is Not Civilization is an inspired, sweeping debut novel that hopscotches from Arizona to Central Asia to Istanbul with a well-meaning, if misguided, young Peace Corps volunteer. Jeff Hartig lies at the center of this modern take on the American-abroad tale, which brings together four people from vastly different backgrounds, each struggling with the push and pull of home. A young Apache, Adam Dale,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618562060
• ISBN13: 9780618562060
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

the easy romance of the exotic

As a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in Kyrgyzstan - though not in Talas, where Rosenberg's novel is partly set - in the later 1990s, I can attest to the versimilitude of detail Rosenberg brings to his writing. Indeed, it was this uncanny experience of reading a novel akin to looking into my own journal from the period that initially both gripped me and made me wary. Most interesting from a personal standpoint was the issue of guilt - the 'survivor's guilt' that lingers after one has dipped into and then withdrawn from the pool of hospitable people who invited me into their lives, homes, and families. Two thirds of the way through the novel, after Jeff (the former Peace Corps volunteer) suggests that he 'thinks' he was happy in Kyrgyzstan, the character Nazira replies, "'You were happy because you could come and go. We cannot do that.'" That would be the crux of the matter, and perhaps also a central issue for the novel: American power (of wealth, of charm, of stability, of easy English-possession,...) allows Americans easy ingress and egress into and out of situations around the world. The individual (whether a volunteer working to 'improve conditions' or a slacker in Goa or Bangkok) and the nation as a whole (via USAID/IMF/WTO coercion or via the U.S. air base that has been built in northern Kyrgyzstan) have the ease that power allows to those who share in or reflect that power among the powerless, the poor, the duped, and the exploited. Indeed, in an interesting twist, an Apache Indian whom Jeff knows from 'the rez' back in his Arizona days gets to experience a bit of what could be called 'white privilege' when he discovers that his, er, native English-speaking can earn him money in Istanbul. Rosenberg's writing is lucid and occasionally quite funny, if his dialogue occasionally seems a bit stilted (which only makes sense, given the number of languages existing in 'translated' English on the page). The situation in which his characters find themselves is metaphorical without the point being pressed too obsequiously - all of Jeff's 'dependents' gather in Istanbul, city of symbolic meeting of cultures, where Jeff is working as an investigator and processor of refugees... but can help none of them at first with their specific problems - American power as the facade-power of glamour, not terribly efficacious when it comes to complication or subtlety. What the reader is left with, in the end, is far more than some morose travelogue like Colin Thubron's traipses about post-Soviet Central Asia published in the 1990s. Rosenberg is interested in both the metaphorical implications - the political and existential struggles - present in his narrative at the same time that it is apparent that he deeply respects and feels for those whom it might otherwise be so easy to caricature. This respect is felt for the humanity of those 'crazy Kyrgyz' with their felt hats and maddening sense of Time as well as, for that matter, some of the frui

A page-turner that makes you think

Rosenberg is in command of the language with prose that is simultaneously funny, sad and thought-provoking. While every chapter is an interesting story, the book?s unique structure allows the larger story to unravel effortlessly. Be ready for twists and turns that take characters from an Apache Reservation to an NCAA Tournament basketball game to Istanbul during a gripping natural disaster (that?s just a sample). The novel moves rapidly with vivid description of geography, history, people and food. It?s an inexpensive way to travel.

Highly Recommended

Rosenberg captures the emotions, sensations, dilemmas and the essence of the American who lives abroad. The characters in this book are real, the situations true. The story is gripping, and the author makes no attempt to please the reader - the characters propel the narrative forward, not the writer. I couldn't put it down.

I LOVED this book

This was a very funny, smart, important, and well-written first novel. I could not put it down, and it kept me up half the night thinking about it. The characters were very real, and the detail felt amazingly true.

Best book I've read in ages

I loved the fact that this novel travels the world and is concerned with all sorts of global issues, but the writing itself is understated, funny, sad, and much more down-to-earth than other "big" first novels by young writers. The characters are lovable and real and interesting. The way they interact and the way their cultures clash are unlike anything I've ever read. I strongly recommend this novel.