Before plunging into the depths of Eric Hansen’s “The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer,” a surreal and zany adventure, be prepared to fully suspend any sense of incredulity, not to mention any animal-loving instincts.
This is especially difficult after the somewhat trite and predictable Arlette and Madame Peruche — two very sweet old ladies who feed pigeons and cats — touch off a slightly weak but sufficiently random opening to an otherwise quite unbelievable read.
Hansen, it seems, is not really concerned with our sense of reality, or even attempting to transport his reader into this other world; instead he departs from Southern France without warning to the wilds in the South Pacific. Here we are confronted almost immediately with images of him sailing about with hammerhead sharks hanging from his rigging, and blood and guts a-plenty. Nice.
Perhaps this sudden leap was intentional; his reference to “French Doors” in the first paragraph of the section entitled “Life at the Grand Hotel” lulls us into a feeling of being on the French Riviera, about to enjoy a day of baguettes, cheese and wine. Hansen forces us to question these assumptions and suggests that there is potential for a completely different, uninhibited way of life. This certainly provides a refreshingly lighthearted perspective on life; the community in “Night Fishing in Nahimah” for example, accepts sexual relations with amusing honesty; shy boys are confronted with the address “Don’t you have a penis?” and religious abstinence and difference is dismissed. “Muslim? Christian? Buddha people? All the same,” Hansen writes. “We were young people. It is nature!”
It is the style of these stories that prevents them being anything more than wonderfully colorful and exciting — though perhaps this is enough. There is a lot to enjoy despite Hansen’s simplistic and unimaginative prose, which can often leave the reader feeling somewhat alienated; does he really expect us to accept without question images of drunken South Sea Islanders flinging themselves off pool tables, throwing bowling balls at sinks and generally indulging themselves in untold hedonism without any kind of introduction or warning? There is barely time to consider as we are taken on adventure after adventure; by the next page he is sandwiched between a forest fire and the shark-infested shallows of the Torres Strait.
Despite this there are some real moments of inspiration. We see the protagonist torn between his desire to stay and forget the Western ideals of success, and his fear that it is a momentary joy and will fade, leaving only regret and disappointment. He seems painfully aware that he is unable to fully forget his past and fully engage with these places. However, he does not end leaving us feeling that escapism is ultimately impossible, but instead learns to value these experiences for themselves and for the color they add to his life. These stories are not so much about finding one’s inner spiritual self in a hut in the jungle, and leaving the Western world behind forever, but, more simply and less pretentiously, about finding one’s self in a hut in the jungle, and having a very silly adventure for its own sake.
Hansen’s characterization is often truly enlightening. The portrayal of Madame Zoya is really beautiful; by this point I had realized that questioning the likelihood of these stories was a somewhat lost cause, and this particular one is somehow more accessible than the crazed adventures with hallucinogenic kava and seductive island girls.
Madame Zoya’s honesty and her matter-of-fact outlook on life are inspirational enough to induce a New York drug baron into starting a “Help the Aged” volunteer program, and even if that’s completely incredible, its certainly a lovely idea.
The variety in this book means that despite a very tired imagination by about page 20, it’s impossible to give up reading. And Hansen makes perseverance worthwhile; “Life Lessons with Strangers” somehow manages to turn the ultimate travelers’ nightmare into a really stunning example of how our Western minds haven’t got it all right.
If this doesn’t sound like you’re cup of tea, “The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer” opens with a description of the mating activities of the official California State Mollusk, the Ariolimax dolichophallus, otherwise known as “the banana slug with the big penis.”
The last story, “The Ghost Wind,” involves an Indonesian sailing crew learning the Texas Two-Step on deck, while simultaneously negotiating perilous weather conditions in a race. Now that’s something for everyone!
