Mad Nomad, by Eric Jay Sonnenschein
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Mad Nomad, by Eric Jay Sonnenschein
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Mad Nomad is a novel about the Peace Corps in North Africa that blends adventure, comedy and romance. The setting is Tunisia, a Muslim country tucked between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert, in the period after Vietnam and before the age of Islamic radicalism. Mad Nomad describes the interplay between three cultures—American, French and Tunisian—and shows how Americans are viewed in societies we influence and disrupt. Mad Nomad varies from a typical Peace Corps narrative. Rather than depict in reverent detail the interaction of earnest Americans with grateful natives, it tells a sardonic, frequently ribald tale about a young American who flees a tough economy for an African adventure.
Mad Nomad, by Eric Jay Sonnenschein- Amazon Sales Rank: #5077480 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x 1.23" w x 5.50" l, 1.37 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 542 pages
About the Author Eric Jay Sonnenschein is the author of two novels, AD NOMAD and MAD NOMAD; two collections of essays, MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME and ALL OVER THE PLACE; a book of verse, THE LOST POEM AND OTHERS LIKE IT; and prose and poetry for NIGHT SCENES, a book of photography by Ralph Gabriner. Eric Jay Sonnenschein has also contributed articles, reviews, commentaries and criticism for numerous publications, including the VOICE, NEWSDAY, ART NEWS, the LITERARY REVIEW, ARTSPEAK and the ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL. He resides in New York City with his family.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Destined to Become a Classic, American Bildungsroman of the 20th Century By Wordsworth At age 21 Rick Murky joins the Peace Corps and is assigned to the waste land of Tunisia to teach English and enable local cultures to "advance." It turns out in this masterful Bildungsroman that there is far too little peace in the Peace Corps where Life is a series of battles to survive in a hostile, foreign nation like Tunisia. The well-named Murky is a stranger in a strange land seeking to be closer to the love of his life, Cerise, who lives in France. Cerise is everything that he seeks in a woman: beautiful, sensual, intelligent, articulate and witty. That is, she is everything except actually compatible over longer durations and when she visits, Cerise is appalled by the dire poverty into which Murky has become immersed. The novel becomes epistolary in the exchange of letters between Murky in Tunisia and Cerise in France. Like many of us Murky is seeking a meaningful existence which eludes him in a place which he had hoped would become an exotic setting for adventures and living Life to the fullest. He does find adventure and in one stunning chapter joins a crusade to free from captivity a kidnapped sex worker whom he first met at the Peace Corps. Cerise tells him "I don't believe in your war with the company, the Peace Corps and the system: they are battles with yourself." It is a lonely existence for a man of his considerable intelligence carrying upon his broad shoulders the immense weight of American culture with its long history of hostile politics and international belligerence so despised by Tunisians. One of his friends advises Murky that he is "living like a cabbage" in the Tunisian waste land. The sensual temptations are many but Murky wants to remain true to his beloved and in a real sense becomes a one-man Don Quixote: his most earnest endeavors backfire and turn upon him and leave him dizzy in trying to make any sense of it all. But Rick has learned from painful experience that the secret of life is that there is no secret: "Making sense of random experience is a path to madness." Major leitmotif. So when opportunities arise with beautiful women in Tunisia, he forsakes them out of a sense of loyalty to Cerise and is left to wonder if his sacrifices will amount sufficiently to earn the love of beautiful Cerise. One of my favorite of many great quotes in this extraordinary novel comes in Rome on his way back home where he hoped he would be received as a hero rather than as a casualty. Life is so hard in Rome that Murky considers taking a job as a foot washer's assistant. A diplomat's daughter, the beautiful Lauren, assures him: "You will never have a typical life because you are not typical. Everyone has experiences. It's what we make of them that makes our lives interesting." She tells him he has come a long way even if he doesn't know where he is. He replies that he knows where he is: "nowhere." The expression of a Swiss gent named Henri is apt for Rick Murky: "La vie est dure. Passe moi le buerre." Or "Life is hard. Pass the butter." Life is a struggle for Murky every day but he is told that in his case his is a good struggle. I have read a great many genius novels in which an intelligent young gentleman with ideals is bewildered by the shocks to their most fervent ideals tossed willy-nilly like existential hand grenades by the realities of Life. I find much of Joseph Heller's Yossarian from "Catch 22" and, of course, Don Quixote by Cervantes and the lead protagonists of JP Donleavy and even Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. In our childhood and youth, at home, in college and in religious training, we receive a steady stream of well intentioned but hopelessly inapt ideals which bring us into conflict with the ways of the world. The struggles of our youth test and diminish us and bewilder us at a time in your life when our financial resources are the most scarce and experience is in short supply. Youth may seem to be wasted on the young but these are the years when the struggle to justify ideals with worldly existence sharpens the survival skills that serve us well in the decades which follow. One of the most sincere compliments that any reader can pay to a novelist is to wish that the novel would not end because the reading experience is so immersive, witty, intelligent and well crafted. This sentiment happens for me in one out of a hundred novels. So it was for me in "Mad Nomad": I was sorry to see this great American novel come to an end. "Mad Nomad" is destined to become a classic, American Bildungsroman of the 20th century and is a masterpiece of literary erudition which you should not miss. The writing is so immersive that the pages fly by and every single reading session at some point caused an eruption of laughter at the bright, self-deprecating wit of Sonnenschein. Rick Murky is Everyman in the bewildering throes of Youth. Read this book: you will instantly recognize a younger version of yourself and the idealism that nearly drove you to madness as you wandered through Life seeking answers that didn't evolve into clarity often enough. When does one outgrow the nomadic madness? Read next the brilliant "Ad Nomad" by Sonnenschein to understand how Time improves upon the dogged absurdity of Life for the professional in business in the big city. Eric Sonnenschein is a gleaming, beaming, brilliant literary treasure: I really can't wait for his next great novel to unfold.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Like the Bedouins of old… By John P. Jones III This is the third book of Eric Jay Sonnenschein that I have read. The other two are All Over The Place: Essays from A to Z and Ad Nomad: The Case Histories of Dane Bacchus. I found much substance, presented with a self-deprecating wit, and an easy writing style, in the other two works, and so when I was offered this work for review, with one extra letter in the title as compared to a previous work, I had to say Yes, and once again, was not disappointed. At one time, our ancestors, all, were nomads, moving together in small groups, from place to place, chasing the greener grass or the wildlife. Now, with the rapid urbanization of the planet, the Bedouins of old are almost extinct. But a firm sense of place and community has not replaced the wanderings of prior generations. In fact, the wanderings, along a different axis, may have intensified, with the demise of the 30-year and gold watch corporate workplace, replaced, as the “kids” now say, with the “gig” economy… temporary assignments here and there. The Bedouins did have each other; with today’s “nomads,” there is that sense of anomie. I felt Sonnenschein brought that out well in his selection of a book cover for this work, and it was an implicit theme of the novel.My intention upon graduating from college was to join the Peace Corps, and thus there was an additional appeal to this book. My own plans were derailed when the government became enamored with the idea of obtaining my services earlier than that, and I received a special invitation to join an alt-Peace Corps if you will… which purportedly had the objective of “winning the hearts and minds” of the native population. That did not work out very well either, and like Sonnenschein in the real-version Peace Corps, I did not fit in very well.Sonnenschein alter-ego, Rick Murkey, the novel’s protagonist, was able to select the country where he was to win the hearts and minds, and chose Tunisia. There was an ulterior motive to his destination. He was in love with an older French woman, who resided just to the north of the “Mother Sea.” At least they would be in the same time zone he rationalized, but the flesh was too distant to press, and so letters served as a pale substitute. The year was 1975, and Tunisia had obtained its independence from France almost two decades earlier. His assignment was to teach English.Sonnenschein peppers his novel with various French and Arabic words and phrases. I understand both, but the author generally provides sufficient context for the uninitiated. Murkey is 21, and the hormone level is high, and I thought of the Eagle’s song set in relatively nearby Winslow, Arizona… “I got seven women on my mind…” In addition to Cerise, his French love, there are several others he longs for, American, as well as the French wives of expatriates working in Tunisia… and he seems unsuccessful on all fronts. The real Peace Corps seemed to be as dysfunctional as the alt-version, with the members clustered together, generally maintaining a healthy distance from the natives, and power-tripping bosses. Murkey’s adventures were both slap-stick at time, and could also have been deadly on occasion.For his initial orientation and training, he was in Ayn Draham, a village in the far northwest corner of the country, near the Algerian border. One of the Tunisians that he appreciated the most, Ali, “a humble wood-worker,” lived there, and he called him the “Khalil Gibran” of the town. There was also a nearby cork forest for walks. The American ambassador decided to pay a visit to the area, arriving in “a cortege of Lincoln Continentals” and Sonnenschein’s description put all the feel-good hearts and minds business to rest. The author said: “Those elegant Town Cars were as strong and indomitable as tanks and suggested a power that no topography could deter. Regardless of the ideals that may have brought us here, those sleek sedans represented the true reason and purpose for our presence and for the Peace Corps, itself. Our service was a sideshow.”Alt- or real version, when it comes to the perceived projection of power, plus ca change… The author concludes with a classic Arab outlook, encompassed by basically one word, and a familiar hand gesture: “Shweah.” Take it a little bit at a time, that familiar “one day at a time.” The author continues to provide 5-star insights into the human comedy/drama.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Not since Nathaniel West dismantled Lemuel Pitkin in A Cool Million has an author heaped as much abuse and ... By Gabriner There was a time when the picaresque novel was frowned on by high brow readers. The advanced plots and literary devices that developed in the 19th century novel, elements that were lacking in the episodic tales of 16th century Spain, came to be seen as high achievements in the literary firmament. Post Modernism brought further word games and experiments, and "refinements," and these marginalized the picaresque form even more.Enter Rick Murkey, recent graduate from Brockwurst College, and wide eyed Peace Corp volunteer going to Tunisia. Not since Nathaniel West dismantled Lemuel Pitkin in A Cool Million has an author heaped as much abuse and humiliation on a naive hero. Poor Murkey is afflicted not only with representing "Amerika" and all its interventionist baggage in the 1970's, but as a human being, he is hopelessly anguished. His best intentions are reduced to dust, with the notable exception of his role as a disruptor of the sex trade industry in Tunisia.This book is a comedic romp through mountainous dunes of human doubt. Prepare to laugh.
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