Dodging Machetes: How I Survived Forbidden Love, Bad Behavior, and the Peace Corps in Fiji

I must admit that I still have visions of this tale swirling around in my brain. Last week, I finished this book, the second half in one sitting--ignoring my cravings for lunch and other distractions. What makes this book so special is that Mr. Lutwick has opened his soul, exposed his vulnerabilities, and invited us in to learn the tales of a brave, young couple. Yes, it's a tale that could make its way into a movie, but if it were, there would need to be a narrative track expressing the innards of Mr. Lutwick's brain.It's a testament to Mr. Lutwick's writing that I have firmly embedded in my brain a graphical construct of Rani's leopard eyes. Though there is no photo of her in the book, he paints quite carefully how he reacted not only to Rani's captivating beauty, but also to her take-charge attitude. Who could not enjoy this wild ride through cultural taboos and young love?I heartily recommend this book on many different levels: to get a taste of our youth culture in the 1960's, to learn how the U.S pushed its values onto the world, and to enjoy quite simply the universal love story in a not-so-universal set of circumstances.

Will's memoir is insightful, funny and romantic. It is a well written memoir of his Peace Corps experience. He has crafted a story that reads more like a fine novel than a dateline of experiences. He provides great details of the Fiji people and culture while maintaining plot and just the right amount of humor.He makes it easy for the reader to understand the main characters and what drives them. He successfully creates suspense as well as romance. His use of dialog is well done and enhances and moves the story forward. He clearly shows time and place right to the end with the suspense filled Selective Service Board hearing to gain III-A status.Dodging Machetes takes place in the late 60's and early 70's and he portrays that era flawlessly. Will's Peace Corps experience was unique yet familiar and believable. I feel his writing is a fine representation of a Peace Corps experience in the early seventies with a wonderful story to boot.I would highly recommend Dodging Machetes.

The easiest way describe Dodging Machetes is to talk about it in terms of movies: I would compare the book to romantic comedies written by men--movies like Woody Allen's Annie Hall, for example, which look at romance from a decidedly male point of view. In fact, the comparision to Annie Hall is an apt one, because not only is that movie, like Dodging Machetes, about lovers who come from very different worlds, but the story is told through a narrator with a distinctively Jewish sensibility about a unique, attractive and, to him, exotic love-object. So let us call Dodging Machetes a literary Annie Hall, set in a place as foreign to many Americans as New York City, the island of Fiji, and told about the romance he will never forget, not with a goofy Wisconsin-bred Christian girl, but rather with a willful, ethnically Indian Hindu.The memoir, narrated in the present by a witty, now-accomplished adult, looks back at his younger self, when his social maturity and world-wisdom were not yet equal to his book-smarts. Perhaps because he lost both of his parents as a young boy or perhaps because he was a misfit Jewish kid living in a part of the South with few Members of his Tribe, Lutwick needed extra time to mature and become socialized before entering the business and administrative world. Rather than becoming a man by sacrificing his life for his country in Vietnam, Lutwick joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to a tiny Pacific island country, Fiji. Rani Gupta, the star of this movie, I mean the book, is a member of the country's ethnic Indian population, that was originally brought by the British to this former colony to work plantations for the Empire.Indeed, if Annie Hall is the star of the movie Annie Hall, because of her quirky, fun personality and her one-of-a-kind style, then Rani Gupta is the star of Dodging Machetes, because of her strong will, her admirable bravery, her recklessness, and her downright sexiness. Without apparent invention and, remarkably, through just the power of words, the narrator Lutwick does a superb job of bringing his love-object to life for the reader, making us wonder through the twists and turns of this difficult romance if she will survive the adventure, and how. Because Lutwick's narrator is prevented from reading her thoughts, the reader finds himself tantalized and, like Lutwick, attracted to this young woman. The author deserves high praise for using the narrative tools at his disposal to make us understand what drew him to this mysterious Indian girl with the boldness to wear a mini-skirt instead of a sari.Lutwick's memoir generously rewards readers who look for certain traits in a book. For readers who seek escape, Dodging Machetes offers a story set on a tropical island with a testosterone-fueled American falling for a reckless, dark-eyed beauty. For readers who love humor, Lutwick's comic narrator tells his story with wit and dramatizes a great number of hilarious scenes that illustrate the silliness of a bright but socially immature man who has not yet mastered human relations. For readers who like to learn, Lutwick explains what it meant to grow up Jewish in the American South at mid-century; he gives a fascinating explanation of the history of Fiji and the makeup of its people; and he makes clear what it meant to be an able-bodied American male on the verge of being drafted during the Vietnam War. And, finally, for readers who love characters and relationships, this book offers you Will Lutwick and Rani Gupta--two likeable outcasts in a culturally unacceptable relationship that is anything but sure to succeed. I relished the time I spent with these two young people and I believe that you will also. Like me, I'm sure that you will not soon forget Dodging Machetes, the literary Annie Hall.

In March 1961, President Kennedy founded the Peace Corps and in the last 51 years more than 200,000 Volunteers have served in more than 139 countries. Their experiences have been as varied as their personalities and most fully integrated into their local villages and towns. Many dated host country nationals and for thousands, like myself, this integration culminated in marriage to one. "Dodging Machetes:How I Survived Forbidden Love, Bad Behavior, and the Peace Corps in Fiji" written by former Fiji volunteer Will Lutwick highlights his sometimes poignant, occasionally awkward, often humorous and frequently dangerous and secretive roller coaster ride of courting then marrying his Rani. It focuses on the cultural taboos set in motion when a Jewish American Volunteer woos a Indian Hindu from Fiji whose family and culture deplore marrying outside their culture and take extreme steps to place roadblocks on this courtship. Only the love and steely determination of Will and especially Rani overcome these threats culminating in marriage. Unfortunately, to insure their safety, they depart the island soon after exchanging vows.Any Returned Peace Corps volunteer or anyone who has lived oversees can relate to this story. Anyone who has dated outside their culture or comfort zones can find much of themselves in Will and Rani. I found myself cheering them on through the book hoping they find true happiness. I highly recommend this as a great readand feel good story.