Travel memoirs of unpleasant places

There are plenty of great books like A year in Provence that will describe what it's like to move to a genteel French farmhouse and experience goat races and truffle hunts. But what about living for a few years in the places that are less pleasant, rarely see tourists, or are even potentially dangerous?  Here are some non-fiction travel memoirs that give insight into unfamiliar or misunderstood places that many Americans will never visit.

Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti by Amy Wilentz (2013) 

What is it like to live in Haiti after the last earthquake?  How has the country's past influenced its modern life and culture? Part journalism, part memoir, it's an unflinching look at the influence of Western aid and involvement in Haiti. In Wilentz's experience, doctors that go to Haiti are a force for good, the influence of Sean Penn is better than you might imagine, and the UN and aid organizations are probably not making things much better. Despite the country's many misfortunes, the Haitians profiled in the book are portrayed as cautious optimists and not victims.

The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay: An American Family in Iran by Hooman Majd (2013)
Other than news stories about their nuclear program and the excellent graphic novel Persepolis, what do most Americans really know about modern Iran? This is the memoir of an Iranian American man who returns to Tehran to live with his Anglo-American wife and child for a year so that they can better understand their family's heritage. A humanizing look at the society beyond the government.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific by J. Maarten Troost (2004)

Ignore the sensational title; this book is sardonic but not really salacious. When his partner gets an NGO job in the late 1990's on the tiny Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, Maarten tags along, hoping to use the time to write a novel. Instead he experiences life with no TV or internet, astonishing civic incompetence, food shortages, and a culture where the only popular song is the Macarena. Even if you have never heard of Kiribati, this hilarious book will rupture the myths of the tropical island paradise.

Tony Wheeler's Bad Lands by Tony Wheeler  (2007)

Tony Wheeler is the founder of the Lonely Planet guide book company, so as you can expect, he's been everywhere. This book is a memoir of traveling to places that are fraught with problems regarding human rights, warfare, terrorism and deprivation. Chapters on Afghanistan, Albania, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia explore the question of  'how bad is really bad?' while he engages with local residents to see the human face beyond the "evil" facade often presented in the West.



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