The Foreign Service Journal, November 2003

continents, and survived gun-toting Bolivian revolu- tionaries, Viet Cong mortar and rifle fire, deadly anarchy in Sri Lanka, a shakedown by Tanzanian police, rodent- sized cockroaches in Taiwan and sheep’s-eye stew in Arabia. Steele shows us poverty and prosperity, fear and fun, mistakes, corruption, incompetence, language and cultural glitches … and some developmental successes. As Steele advanced from mid-level technician to senior-rank FSO, he found his own government and its bureaucracy at times as challenging to navigate as the dozens of overseas regimes and their national cultures. Throughout, the writing is lucid and light-hearted, but rich in on-the-scene detail and full of information and penetrating observations. This memoir is a great read for travel buffs, but at the same time provides insight and perspective for stu- dents of international development as well as for pub- lic or private sector employees heading for an overseas tour. Family Travels in India Alice Trembour, Monsoon House, 2002, $12.95, paperback, 169 pages. This is a gem of a book. The daughter of a retired USIA officer, Alice Trembour spent a memo- rable two years, from age 8 to 10, in Calcutta; 35 years later, she returned to India with her family, to the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad, where her husband was a vis- iting professor for one year. This is the story of that year, from the point when all three children (ages 12, 9 and 7) refuse to consider the move, to their visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram just before returning to the U.S. Based on Trembour’s letters home, the book chronicles the day-to-day experiences and challenges the family faced and the way each family member was affected. The unassuming title does not convey the richness F O C U S 22 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 3