Under the Neem Tree - Softcover

Like Mike Tidwell in The Ponds on Kalambayi ( LJ 8/90), Lowerre recounts her experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer responsible for teaching fish culture to Africans, in this case Pulaar tribespeople in Senegal. Tidwell and Lowerre both sought acceptance by their hosts, and their books offer insights into the difficulties and rewards of such friendships. Lowerre emphasizes her emotional life and love/hate affair with a country that depressed her and ruined her health, yet seized her imagination and gave her an adoptive Senegalese family. Although she points out that her Peace Corps work is incidental to this story, Tidwell's book is stronger because he describes the goals and techniques of fish farming. Lowerre presents her work as essentially futile, and in the end her struggle seems more self-pitying than heroic. A more comprehensive account of Pulaar culture would also have increased the value and interest of this book. It is an optional purchase for travel or anthropology collections.
- Beth Clewis, J. Sargent Reynolds Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, Va.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

YA-- An emotionally intense, readable book for mature readers. The neem tree provided Lowerre with shade and sanctuary during her stay in Senegal as a Peace Corps volunteer. Both her friends and rivals come alive in this graphic account of her struggle to work and survive in the harsh climate amidst extreme poverty and disease. What comes across throughout is Lowerre's devotion to the Senegalese people; she kept working despite serious health problems of her own. Each chapter discusses a single event and keeps the pace flowing. This is similar to Mike Tidwell's Ponds of Kalambayi (Lyons & Burford, 1990). He, however, explains the work of the organization more fully while Lowerre helps readers know the people better. There is no glossary of the non-English terms.
-Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.