Missile Paradise
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
In the Marshall Islands, an island-nation in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that was once a testing ground for nuclear bombs, American engineers and programmers are making and testing missiles while their "hosts," the indigenous Marshallese, sweep their streets and clean their houses. It's 2004, the Iraq war is heating up, and 9/11 is fresh in everyone's minds. Following four interconnected story lines—the meltdown of a burned-out cultural liaison who has "gone native" and bitterly resents his role in keeping the Marshallese down; a young programmer who has lost his leg in a reckless solo sailing journey; the struggles of a young widow with two children whose husband drowned in a mysterious diving accident; and the destructive spiral of a Marshallese teenager whose American girlfriend rejects him when she returns to the States—Missile Paradise is an epic, heartbreaking, and satirical novel about the clash of cultures between the Americans trying to realize their American Dream in this seeming paradise, and the Marshallese who are both angered and bedazzled by that dream.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The three close but not completely connected story lines in Tanner's latest novel center on the Marshall Islands after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., and the intersecting lives of the native Marshallese people and the Americans stationed there. Living on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean might sound like paradise, but the reality for Tanner's characters is a lot bleaker. The island nation is a place of post-colonial struggle, with 30% unemployment and one of the highest suicide rates in the world. As if nuclear warfare and global warming aren't threatening enough, cultural tensions between the Americans and the natives are getting worse. Cooper, a computer programmer assigned to work on nuclear defense systems, loses his leg in a freak sailing accident before his first day on the job. Alison, an alcoholic widow with two young sons, questions whether she will ever return to the U.S. while holding onto hope that the body of her drowned husband will eventually be found. Jeton is a teenage island native who feels his world has ended when his American girlfriend leaves him for college and a better future. Tanner (From Animal House to Our House) is at his best when depicting the very human flaws, obsessions, and prejudices his characters face, all against a vivid island background where summer never seems to end and social progress is at a standstill.
