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Power Lines : Two Years on South Africa's Borders
A land of tension and segregation, relatively unchanged since Nelson Mandela?s release from prison nearly a decade ago, South Africa is a country fraught with deep racial divides. While white citizens enjoy lifestyles similar to Westerners, black citizens inhabit a world of poverty and deprivation. Despite Mandela?s regime-shattering election as President, there has been little improvement in the ability of the two sides to communicate, limited both by race and language. In Power Lines, Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, offers a portrait of South Africa that few outsiders see. During his Peace Corps training, Carter learned Zulu and Siswati, and these tools helped to break down racial barriers. Befriended by blacks delighted to find a white person who spoke their tongue, Carter was embraced by the community, participating in rituals and everyday life. Carter?s moving accounts of his experiences reveal a willingness of people to reach out to each other?even in a society as divided as South Africa. Compassionate and astute, Carter brilliantly depicts the strength and humanity of South Africans and their challenge to forge a vital bond.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 8, 2008
i was in the peace corps, south africa, very nearby to where "musa" lived and shortly after (when the book was published, in fact). so i'm totally biased. for me, the book was exceptionally personal and accurate. for others, hard to say.
April 18, 2007
this was the one of MANY peace corps memoirs i suffered through (reading material choices were limited to our paltry communal bookshelves in the volunteer lounge of the swaziland peace corps office).
anyway, i used to write a monthly literature review box or our volunteer newsletter, and one month i ranted about this genre. below are my thoughts:
Dissecting the Peace Corps Memoir
One of my least favorite genres of nonfiction is hands-down the “peace corps memoir.” I attribute it to both the fact that I am a volunteer myself, and thus more critical of the actual content. And then probably due to the sheer volume that I read, I’m picky about writing, appreciating only good prose. More often then not, I feel like returned volunteers have good stories to tell and get book contracts for these stories without actually possessing the literary training or raw talent to pull them off. Even the most talented editors couldn’t fix these calamities.
Just to prove that it doesn’t matter how bad of a writer you are, as long as your granddaddy is famous you can get a book deal, Jason Carter’s Power Lines is an embarrassment to his Duke education. Stylistically, his sentences and paragraphs fall flat, lacking cohesion. And grammatically, he leaves the reader reaching for her copy of Strunk & White. The award for most frustrating goes to Susana Herrera whose Mango Elephants in the Sun made me want to jab blunt objects into my eye sockets as I waded through nonsensical odes to lizards and out of place poems. I couldn’t tell if she wanted the reader to feel sorry for her or be envious. I suppose in the end it didn’t matter because I felt neither. I found Sarah Erdman’s Nine Hills to Nambonkaha, one of the newest in the genre, to be nauseatingly pretentious and self-congratulatory. From a literary standpoint, the lack of coherent theme or message was disappointing. As I’ve mentioned in a previous entry, Geneva Sander’s The Gringo Brought His Mother is ridiculously absurd. It’s a memoir written by a volunteer’s mother after a month-long trip to visit her son. The mother is completely nutty and paints a pathetic portrait of her son; then again whose mother actually writes a peace corps memoir ?!?! Moritz Thomsen’s Living Poor was mind-numbingly boring and topped only by Peter Hessler’s River Town. Hessler’s was so dull that even Kelly (training director) couldn’t finish it. And in the “who cares” category is Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery’s Dear Exile, a collection of letters the two friends wrote back and forth during Montgomery’s service (Liftin was stateside). The reader is treated to a nearly constant string of Montgomery’s complaints to her friend about rural village life in Kenya. It’s very hard to muster up sympathy for her bouts of diarrhea when I (and all the other volunteers in Swaziland) still heroically troop to the pit latrine through thick and thin.
It’s not, however, a complete waste of a genre. Two gems sparkle in the rough including Mike Tidwell’s The Ponds of Kalambayi. Tidwell does not shy away from his own shortcomings and writes candidly of his own vices and addictions. His clear and concise prose paints a vivid and enthralling picture of the fisheries program in Zaire.
And then there is George Parker’s The Village of Waiting. The first memoir to take a critical look at post-colonial class, race, and culture issues that surround the Peace Corps experience. Not only is Parker’s writing heads above the best (he’s a Pushcart Prize winning writer whose work has appeared in Harper’s, Dissent, and The New York Times), he’s also brutally honest about his work as white western volunteer living in an African village, acknowledging the inherent problems and paradoxes....less...more
...less...more
anyway, i used to write a monthly literature review box or our volunteer newsletter, and one month i ranted about this genre. below are my thoughts:
Dissecting the Peace Corps Memoir
One of my least favorite genres of nonfiction is hands-down the “peace corps memoir.” I attribute it to both the fact that I am a volunteer myself, and thus more critical of the actual content. And then probably due to the sheer volume that I read, I’m picky about writing, appreciating only good prose. More often then not, I feel like returned volunteers have good stories to tell and get book contracts for these stories without actually possessing the literary training or raw talent to pull them off. Even the most talented editors couldn’t fix these calamities.
Just to prove that it doesn’t matter how bad of a writer you are, as long as your granddaddy is famous you can get a book deal, Jason Carter’s Power Lines is an embarrassment to his Duke education. Stylistically, his sentences and paragraphs fall flat, lacking cohesion. And grammatically, he leaves the reader reaching for her copy of Strunk & White. The award for most frustrating goes to Susana Herrera whose Mango Elephants in the Sun made me want to jab blunt objects into my eye sockets as I waded through nonsensical odes to lizards and out of place poems. I couldn’t tell if she wanted the reader to feel sorry for her or be envious. I suppose in the end it didn’t matter because I felt neither. I found Sarah Erdman’s Nine Hills to Nambonkaha, one of the newest in the genre, to be nauseatingly pretentious and self-congratulatory. From a literary standpoint, the lack of coherent theme or message was disappointing. As I’ve mentioned in a previous entry, Geneva Sander’s The Gringo Brought His Mother is ridiculously absurd. It’s a memoir written by a volunteer’s mother after a month-long trip to visit her son. The mother is completely nutty and paints a pathetic portrait of her son; then again whose mother actually writes a peace corps memoir ?!?! Moritz Thomsen’s Living Poor was mind-numbingly boring and topped only by Peter Hessler’s River Town. Hessler’s was so dull that even Kelly (training director) couldn’t finish it. And in the “who cares” category is Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery’s Dear Exile, a collection of letters the two friends wrote back and forth during Montgomery’s service (Liftin was stateside). The reader is treated to a nearly constant string of Montgomery’s complaints to her friend about rural village life in Kenya. It’s very hard to muster up sympathy for her bouts of diarrhea when I (and all the other volunteers in Swaziland) still heroically troop to the pit latrine through thick and thin.
It’s not, however, a complete waste of a genre. Two gems sparkle in the rough including Mike Tidwell’s The Ponds of Kalambayi. Tidwell does not shy away from his own shortcomings and writes candidly of his own vices and addictions. His clear and concise prose paints a vivid and enthralling picture of the fisheries program in Zaire.
And then there is George Parker’s The Village of Waiting. The first memoir to take a critical look at post-colonial class, race, and culture issues that surround the Peace Corps experience. Not only is Parker’s writing heads above the best (he’s a Pushcart Prize winning writer whose work has appeared in Harper’s, Dissent, and The New York Times), he’s also brutally honest about his work as white western volunteer living in an African village, acknowledging the inherent problems and paradoxes....less...more
...less...more
September 28, 2007
Jason Carter is a keen observer, but not a writer. With Power Lines, he documented everything he saw while in South Africa, so that the reader may, for much less effort, learn the lessons that he learned. I value content over aesthetics, though, and his experiences with buckets of maggots, in-your-face racism and Nelson Mandela held my attention fast.
June 5, 2008
Jason Carter does a great job detailing the differences from our lives and those who live in rural South Africa. His life for two years and the genuine love and respect he feels for the people is inspiring.
August 25, 2009
lots of detail on peace corps experience in south aftica. some good insight in to social and economic challenges of post-apartheid country, which are great by the way. not that well written, but i think he learned a lot, i sure did.
September 3, 2008
Loved this book. About President Jimmy Carter's grandson's experience in the Peace Corps in South Africa. Very insightful and an easy read.
January 5, 2009
jimmy carters grandson tells about his successful pcv experience
July 29, 2010
This book follows Jason Carter through his experience with the Peace Corps. I found it interesting and engaging, and it left me with a lot more information about South Africa and the Peace Corps.
February 1, 2016
For younger audiences if you are thinking of joining the Peace Corp this is a great account by President Jimmy Carter's grandson. Takes place in South Africa.
July 6, 2022
Loved it. My opinion is very biased, as I was also a PCV and could easily relate to many of his experiences and his self-doubt. He comes across as a very young guy–but he was! A good way to learn about this time period in South Africa.
February 21, 2013
Jason Carter, grandson of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, writes of his experiences serving with the Peace Corps in South Africa in late 1990's. He lived and worked in the community of Lochiel helping the teachers to implement the new curriculum - designed to allow for greater creativity instead of rote learning of basic skills.
I enjoyed this. There was some history at the beginning explaining the various cultural groups and how the land was divided during and after apartheid which was a bit tedious to read. But once I got past that and got to his description of where he lived and his actual service experience I enjoyed it. He talks a great deal about the dividing lines between white and black South Africa and how he learned to navigate his way through both. The title is an interesting choice when I think about it. On the one hand, there were the electrical power lines which ran right past Lochiel without providing power to the village and the disparity between the haves (white) and have nots (black). On the other hand, as a result of his work there, he was empowering the teachers to see themselves as equals, rather than contiuing to see only the oppression. He tells the story near the end about one of his friends from the community walking into a white car dealership and being able to buy a car. He tells Jason that before Jason had come, he never would be considered being able to do that. So it's the power lines of development and the power lines of culture and race.
I enjoyed this. There was some history at the beginning explaining the various cultural groups and how the land was divided during and after apartheid which was a bit tedious to read. But once I got past that and got to his description of where he lived and his actual service experience I enjoyed it. He talks a great deal about the dividing lines between white and black South Africa and how he learned to navigate his way through both. The title is an interesting choice when I think about it. On the one hand, there were the electrical power lines which ran right past Lochiel without providing power to the village and the disparity between the haves (white) and have nots (black). On the other hand, as a result of his work there, he was empowering the teachers to see themselves as equals, rather than contiuing to see only the oppression. He tells the story near the end about one of his friends from the community walking into a white car dealership and being able to buy a car. He tells Jason that before Jason had come, he never would be considered being able to do that. So it's the power lines of development and the power lines of culture and race.
October 7, 2012
This book had been on my to read list from the time I was reading lots of Peace Corps memoirs. It was a quick read as I knew about the history related in the first chapters. I have been to many of the places mentioned in the book which is always a nice experience to read about places familiar to me. One that particularly hit home was trying to hitch out of Jo-burg. The highways and exits doesn't make it easy and his effort took 4 hours before he got to the right highway towards Bloemfontein on this way to Lesotho. South Africa is a mixture of undeveloped and developed- the haves and have-nots and takes some getting used to. Since it was published by NatGeo- there was a map. Thank you for that!
August 5, 2011
It does read a little bit like a 4th grade book report. And you can tell he has lived a sheltered life as he is at pains to describe to readers the concept of a backpackers... For me, this book highlighted the different class system in the US. Got the feeling that the author was from the upper class of US society and was experimenting by "slumming" it in Peace Corps. Strangely, I respect his efforts all the more for this. Although his Peace Corps experience differed vastly from my own, I respect him for getting out there and doing it given his sheltered and privileged background. However, a photographer did not come to take pictures of me in my village as I was preparing to leave and write a book about it tho'. Sometimes you learn more about your home by going away.
August 10, 2011
Definitely not the best PC-related book I have read. Jason Carter tells us a lot about the area he came to know without showing how he came to know it or how it came to change over his two years there. Of course, he is a highly privileged volunteer worker, and his recollection of meeting Nelson Mandela reminds us all of that, but he seems to talk more about how he felt by not fitting in to the white or black communities (an important topic, I admit) than about how deeply he learned about the people among whom he was living. Disappointing overall.
May 15, 2012
This was the first PC book I read as a part of research I am conducting and I enjoyed it. It was fascinating to read Jason, a product of US privileged class, immerse himself in the PC work in South Africa. It is worth admiring that he lived in local environment with local people as one of them. The book highlights racial tensions in Africa and some of the challenges faced by the volunteers.
April 9, 2013
A thoughtful account of Jason Carter's Peace Corps service in South Africa. The book is limited by the author's unconscious privilege -- and, frankly, by his youth -- but I still enjoyed hearing stories about his time and the people he became friends with. It provided one more face to fill in the picture I am forming about South Africa in advance of our trip.
November 30, 2023
I recommend this to all former Peace Corps Volunteers. And also to anyone who hasn't been a Peace Corps Volunteer. I laughed and I cried and I wished I'd been a better PCV but also I couldn't put it down in the end. Jason Carter has a famous grandfather (Jimmy Carter) but even without that connection he's written an eye-opening book. "A person is a person through other people."
March 8, 2008
Horrible. The only thing memorable about this book is the double entendre in its title. Okay, I perhaps I'm being a bit harsh... On one hand, Carter does provide a useful perspective and I recommend it to those who have recently joined the Peace Corps.
October 11, 2015
This is written by Jimmy Carter's grandson and his experiences in the Peace Corps. This was a good book.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews