From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. When Powers, fresh out of a Ph.D. program in international relations, arrived in Liberia in 1999, sent by an international aid agency "to fight poverty and save the rainforest," he faced a daunting task. The second-poorest country in the world, Liberia had just begun to emerge from seven years of civil war and was "environmentally looted, violence scarred, and barely governed." Even major cities lacked electricity, running water and postal service; garbage lay uncollected in the streets, schoolteachers were barely literate and the economy worked largely on bribes. The government of Charles Taylor enriched itself through illicit trade in conflict diamonds, protected timber and weapons, while terrorist militias acted at whim. "It's all just so brutal," Powers confided to his girlfriend, almost ready to quit after his first year. Yet he stayed on, and this eloquent memoir shows why he found this troubled country so difficult to leave. He writes of stunning beaches and rivers, of majestic forests—home to the largest concentration of mammals in the world—threatened by rapacious logging companies, and of resilient people who teach him that it is possible to live happily with "enough." He sketches scenes of transcendent beauty and grotesque violence, and writes with disarming honesty about his struggle to maintain his ideals when the right course of action is far from clear: is it ethical to take an African lover, when the relationship will inevitably be based on financial support? Should he buy endangered zebra duiker meat from a poor family that desperately needs the money? Does his work do good, or inadvertent harm? In the end, he decides, it may not be possible to change the world, but we must continue to act as if we can. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Powers left behind a caring girlfriend and the comforts of the U.S. to travel to Liberia in 1999 to take the position of Catholic Relief Services director at an international aid agency. The state of Liberia was founded in 1822 as a refuge for freed slaves from America, but conflicts with local peoples and recent bloody coups greatly destabilized the region and have made it one of the more dangerous countries in Africa. Powers hoped to help the Liberian people not by giving them handouts (such as the food his agency passed out) but by helping them sustain themselves. Powers certainly did more than many of his cynical colleagues have done--he visited many of the neglected villages and started an ambitious guinea pig-breeding project. Even as Powers began to become disillusioned with his fellow aid workers and some of the people he was trying to help, he persisted in his efforts and his optimism. His memoir is a haunting account of one man's determination and the struggles of people living in a deeply troubled country. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
An elegantly written memoir of a young man's life-changing sojourn in a world of immeasurable poverty and instability: Charles Taylor's Liberia.

William Powers went to Liberia as a fresh-faced aid worker in 1999 and was given the mandate to "fight poverty and save the rainforest." It's not long before Powers is confronting the myriad obstacles to these goals. He discovers how Liberia has become a Fourth World country, or a "black hole in the international system"-poor, environmentally looted, scarred by violence, and barely governed. He comes face-to-face with unspeakable horrors and the insidious corruption behind every daily transaction. Yet, against the odds (and the attitude of most aid workers), he finds a place in the jungle that feels like home and a woman he might risk everything for, until violence descends once more, threatening his friends and his future.

With the pacing and prose of the best novels, Blue Clay People is an absorbing blend of humor, compassion, and rigorous moral questioning that will convince readers why the fate of endangered places such as Liberia must matter to all of us.



About the Author
William Powers hails from Long Island and is among a small group of Westerners to have lived long-term in Liberia and to have traveled to the nation's most dangerous corners. For two years, he directed food distribution, agriculture, and education programs for the largest non-governmental relief group in Liberia. He has also worked at the World Bank, and holds International Relations degrees from Brown University and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. He's currently on assignment in Bolivia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In this memoir, a young man recounts his life-changing sojourn in a world of immeasurable poverty and instability: Charles Taylor's Liberia." "William Powers went to Liberia as a fresh-faced aid worker in 1999 and was given the mandate to "fight poverty and save the rainforest." While flying over the country's Sapo National Park, he gets his first taste of Liberia's stunning, gemlike rainforests - and finds himself filled with purpose and hope." "But it's not long before Powers learns that years of fighting and famine have left Liberia poor, environmentally looted, scarred by violence, and barely governed, with Taylor himself supporting the massive logging efforts that threaten to turn Liberia into a virtual desert. During his mission, Powers comes face-to-face with unspeakable horrors, vast ecological destruction, and the insidious corruption behind every transaction." Yet, against the odds, he finds a place in the jungle that feels like home and a woman he might risk everything for - until violence descends once more, threatening his friends and his future.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

When Powers, fresh out of a Ph.D. program in international relations, arrived in Liberia in 1999, sent by an international aid agency "to fight poverty and save the rainforest," he faced a daunting task. The second-poorest country in the world, Liberia had just begun to emerge from seven years of civil war and was "environmentally looted, violence scarred, and barely governed." Even major cities lacked electricity, running water and postal service; garbage lay uncollected in the streets, schoolteachers were barely literate and the economy worked largely on bribes. The government of Charles Taylor enriched itself through illicit trade in conflict diamonds, protected timber and weapons, while terrorist militias acted at whim. "It's all just so brutal," Powers confided to his girlfriend, almost ready to quit after his first year. Yet he stayed on, and this eloquent memoir shows why he found this troubled country so difficult to leave. He writes of stunning beaches and rivers, of majestic forests-home to the largest concentration of mammals in the world-threatened by rapacious logging companies, and of resilient people who teach him that it is possible to live happily with "enough." He sketches scenes of transcendent beauty and grotesque violence, and writes with disarming honesty about his struggle to maintain his ideals when the right course of action is far from clear: is it ethical to take an African lover, when the relationship will inevitably be based on financial support? Should he buy endangered zebra duiker meat from a poor family that desperately needs the money? Does his work do good, or inadvertent harm? In the end, he decides, it may not be possible to change the world, but we must continue to act as if we can. Agent, William Clark. (Jan.) Forecast: While more limited in scope than David Rieff's A Bed for the Night, Blue Clay People makes similar points about struggles of humanitarian work and should engage readers of Rieff's volume. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews