Amazon Category:  Memoir Publisher: Wren Song ISBN-10:  0975370693 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 316 Copyright: April, 2017 ISBN-13: 9780975370698 Sit and Cry is a Peace Corps memoir of my two years in the Peace Corps in Thailand Sit and Cry is a description of my day-to-day life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand in the late 1960s. It offers readers insights into rural Tahi life and culture, the impact of the Vietnam War, the angst of living in a completely strange environment, the struggles of trying to communicate in an alien language, loneliness and the desire for love or at least physical contact. Whether or not one loived through the turbulent Sixties, this volume offers a singularly unique perspective on that era. Excerpt My headmaster and I sat up front. It was called the Death Seat. If the bus crashed, the driver always managed to leap to safety, but everyone else in the front was crushed. Our driver sat with one foot extended out to the running board, as if primed for a hasty escape. Meanwhile, we remained stationary. The hood was up. A man in a blue uniform kicked a few tires, then stepped back and studied the situation. He leaned under the hood and I heard him spit several times. The driver yelled something, the man in blue stepped back and the engine roared to life with an ominous grinding noise. A black cloud billowed exhaust as the driver cautiously released the clutch. The mechanic slammed the hood shut and swung easily onto the very edge of the front seat. We backed away from the wooden platform and into an obnoxious cloud of exhaust and dust. Then, with a frightening groan of metal on metal, we moved from reverse into first and lurched ahead toward Nang Rong Village. We were tightly packed across the bench: a small boy clung to the outside, the driver hunched over the wheel, then the mechanic squeezed in next to me and the headmaster and, finally, a silent monk in saffron robes. Wheezing and coughing, the bus bounced over deep ruts as we headed out of Buriram Province in northeast Thailand. The wind whistled as the driver jammed the gas, played with the gears and murmured to the engine in tones as urgent as a jockey to a recalcitrant pony. Behind me, I heard the other passengers chatting, but up front all was quiet. I surreptitiously glanced at the monk. His head was smooth-shaven and a pair of delicate wire-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. I realized he was staring at my shirt pocket where a pack of Thai cigarettes peeked out. Did monks smoke? Was it de rigeur to offer a monk a cigarette? Taking a chance, I pulled out the pack and offered him a smoke.

Intriguing!
What a privilege it is to sit on Burgess Needle’s shoulder as he navigates his way, day by day, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the small town of Nang Rong (Sit and Cry) in Thailand. We eat with him (fried morning glory flowers, duck eggs); sleep (under mosquito netting); teach (haiku—wow—for his English language students); play (oh those parties!); and even suffer from intestinal distress with him as he struggles to find home in Thailand. Burgess is aided in his search to belong by a wonderful cast of Thai people who support him along the way. To say that he succeeds understates his accomplishment. This memoir also documents a critical point in time, the late 1960s, for Americans in southeast Asia. The author’s observations on the devastating effects the Vietnam conflict had on Thailand make me want to “sit and cry.” But that’s a small part of this remarkable account. Read this book. You’ll enjoy the ride.

This is a gem
I am not a memoir reader, but having read Burgess' poems, I knew his book would keep my interest. Wow, was I right! Sit and Cry is so much more than a memoir; it's a history lesson, it's an authentic glimpse into Thai culture, as well as a time capsule of what it was like for those early Peace Corps volunteers. My parents were also Peace Corps volunteers in the sixties, and Burgess' book provided me with insight into their experience in a personal way I was unable to receive from them first hand. Through a Fulbright, I taught English to students in a very poor community in Tampico, Mexico in 1999, and his descriptions of the challenges associated with being the only teacher who did not inflict corporal punishment - and the feeling of "this could take years" - rang so true for me.

Onde of the best Peace Corps memoirs
One of the best Peace Corps memoirs. Starts out as a fish out of water narrative and ends with Needle becoming a mensch on the Mekong, comfortable in Thai culture. The book is organized as a day to day account so the reader gets a sense of the kinds of encounters experienced by an English teacher in a remote Thai village in the 1960's and the development of the author's strategies to succeed and survive. Needle has as a keen observant eye for people, Thai culture. and what Malinowski called the imponderabilia of daily life. Very well written.