Going Up Country: Travel Essays by Peace Corps Writers

A number of former Peace Corps volunteers have become proficient writers, by evidence of the 13 here who record their current perspectives when returning to the countries where they had served: Ecuador, Kenya, Peru, Somalia, Japan, Grenada, Senegal, Mexico, Cameroon, Hungary and Tanzania. Almost all of these intimate, knowledgeable pieces are about the people of villages that are far from being tourist meccas, and even the delightful survey of the most seductive beaches in Granada by novelist and GQ columnist Bob Shacochis is more than a depiction of a sun-and-seascape. Short story writer Kathleen Coskran gives a moving account of hospitable villagers in Kenya; novelist Mary-Ann Tirone Smith wittily sends up a Hollywood scout whom she and two natives take on a climb to the top of Mt. Cameroon. The collection, edited by Coyne, the editor of the Peace Corps newsletter RPCV Writers & Readers , is enchanting and a testament to the empathy and understanding of other cultures that the Corps has engendered in these authors. (Mar.)