Now restored to print with a new Foreword by Philip Gourevitch and an Afterword by the author, this book is a frank, moving, and vivid account of contemporary life in West Africa. Stationed as a Peace Corps instructor in the village of Lavié (the name means "wait a little more") in tiny and underdeveloped Togo, Packer reveals his own schooling at the hands of an unforgettable array of townspeople--peasants, chiefs, charlatans, children, market women, cripples, crazies, and those who, having lost or given up much of their traditional identity and fastened their hopes on "development," find themselves trapped between the familiar repetitions of rural life and the chafing monotony of waiting for change.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
One of the best PC books ever written If you want to cast moral judgement on George Packer, don't read this book. If you want to read the best Peace Corps book ever written, at least about life in Africa, then pick up this book. I lived in Guinea in the mid-90s, while Packer was in Togo in the early 80s. Yet I felt like he was describing my own village, my own frustrations, my own thoughts and feelings (save the prostitute). This was the book that convinced me not to write a book about my own experience. He did it, only better.
A book of little inherent value. I have to disagree with every review written about this book thusfar. It is not well written, for one. The style is amateurish, and it has little substance.
But that's not what really bothers me about this book. What really bothers me is that he writes about soliciting a prostitute that he describes as having a "twelve-year-old's body." Another thing that bothered me was that George Packer dropped out of the Peace Corps without even telling his so-called friends in the village that he was leaving. He... more info
Profound in its Simplicity George Packer's ability to describe the lives of many who live in Togo make this piece of text a must-read for all, even for those who do not have an interest in serving in the Peace Corps. He writes with raw emotion and sincerity, without a tad of pretense. I'd say that Packer's foremost accomplishment in this text is that he makes no attempt to tell a story about how a superior white individual intervenes in a remote village and rids the residents of poverty and illiteracy. Rather, The Village of Waiting... more info
Incredible Haunting--this book is raw and hontest. I can't get it off my mind. Will be visiting friends doing VSO in northern Ghana soon and am trying to get a copy for them as well.
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