William Lederer and Eugene Burdick

The Ugly American raises good points on failures in American diplomacy and the lasting effects of imperialistic mindsets, but within a paranoid worldview. When I read it the first time, I was thirteen or fourteen, and I thought it was great. I’m not sure if I’d be so positive now, but I’d still recommend it for Americans who are thinking of living in other countries.

Or, if you’d like something more literary, try Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, or anything by John LeCarre.

Chinua Achebe

I read Things Fall Apart because it was assigned reading for a course. I’d heard from someone who took the course the previous term that the book was about “white people who come to an African village and destroy everything.”

My friendship with that person didn’t end after I read the book, but realizing how wrong she was about Things Fall Apart showed me that we probably wouldn’t have that much in common in the long run.

Things Fall Apart is about changes in an African village, but it’s no more about that than The Old Man and the Sea is about fishing.

It provoked some of the same emotions in me as Nectar in a Sieve, and The Sorrow of War, but Achebe had an ability to understand his antagonists that Markandaya and Ninh don’t demonstrate.

I’d recommend it for anyone, and almost require it for anyone interested in careers in education, development, or globalization.