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Forward O Peasant
By MacLean J Storer
ISBN-10: 0980514908
ISBN-13: 978-0980514902
Having personally known this author for nearly a decade-and-a-half I have been introduced to his style of humor before, but I have to say that Forward O Peasant is one of the most enjoyable and funny reads that I have gotten into in the past several years.
The plot revolves around a young British social scientist who works for an organization that is seconded to a fictitious United Nations branch, UNMET. UNMET’s previous representative in Vietnam, a young Swede, has mysteriously disappeared and that means that aid money cannot be doled out. Dr. Phillip Snow, called “Dr. ‘No’” by many of his Vietnamese hosts, is hand picked by officials from Vietnam’s Ministry of Health. His appearance in Vietnam leads some hilarious situations. There are entanglements that go with working in the “UN Sphere” as well as the constant scheming, plotting and rivalry on the Vietnamese side of the fence. (Sound familiar?) Of course there are special nuances for those of us who have lived in Vietnam for some time but I believe this book will be very enjoyable to anyone with an imagination and a good sense of humor.
MacLean J Storer, a nom de plume, has been a writer for years who has honed his cutting, yet intelligent, sense of humor well. I also feel that the author's own experiences in Vietnam have been invaluable to writing this book. Anyone who has lived in Vietnam has felt the “us against them but me for myself” attitude that we can sense when trying to go about our business there. Forward O Peasant catches this like Yogi Berra but is written in a way that someone who has never been to Asia can soak in the humor as well. I laughed from beginning to end. There were times I had to put the book down from laughing so much.
Did you hear that? It was me still laughing!
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