Ward gave me some good ideas

I learned a few good things from this read.

First, she impressed me by writing economically from the get go. The Intro gives us the background of the project. She makes a dramatic entrance, too: she takes a sip of kava at a feast and picks her teeth. It’s always important to make an entrance. And Ward proves my theory that humor is important. What’s most memorable about the book is the humor in the first few chapters. There’s the honesty, too. On page 62 she admits that she should have been doing one thing but does another. She does this later, as well. It shows an honest reflection. Later, she is honest another way: she reprints letters she wrote home at the time. This gives me the genuine feelings of the author that are hard to replicate years later when writing the book.

As she begins her follow-up, I get excited. It appears she will now reflect on her trip and how it affects her everyday life now. I applaud the idea, but it does not live up to expectations. Instead, she slips into her anthropological mode and loses me completely.

Which leads me to the elements that should not be repeated. In the Intro Ward says a few things that she intends to do in the book:

(3)"I wish to evoke images, a sense of immediacy, and the feeling that you are there with me - that you are a participant and observer. I hint at the realities between the dots of the painting and make no effort to analyze each dot. This is not an official ethnography or history. It is only a true story about the doing of fieldwork and the doing of anthropology."

She did not stick to the game plan: she tried to make us feel like we where there but failed (this goes along with comments I've made before - the best exposition can not make me feel it, but a good story can – plus, it’s best to keep it simple, with one or two ideas per sentence), she very much did make an effort to analyze each dot (giving us pages of analysis, especially at the end), and because of the analysis the book became an anthropological work instead of a story (with a few pages of exceptions). Moreover, this inaccurate intro is an example of what not to write: don't promise anything you can't deliver.

Another minus – she elected not to use any space breaks. I saw two problems with this. First, one idea ran into the next, confusing me as I tried to find the ties. Second, the continuous flow gives the reader no time to reflect. There was a certain scene where the lack of a break stood out – page 92, where her friend’s body is taken up a hill.

There’s the spouse issue, too. I was hopeful that I could get a good example of how to include my wife in my story, but Ward’s husband is less than a flat character – he’s little more than a name.

She does end with a nice line, though:

(119) "You who hear my tale should listen very carefully and straighten it out for yourself. Sometimes what I say is not straight."

That is, that's where it ended in the first edition.