villa incognito

by tom robbins. this book is hilarious. i resonated with the book because its about 3 vietnam MIAs who go missing in Laos and decided they wanted to stay missing. now that i know i'm headed home, i'm already missing the culture, the food, the weather. the book is about Bangkok, Laos, Japan, and American culture. It was excellent, but it ended a bit abruptly i thought. a glimpse of America through Japanese eyes:

Your country [America] seems to have everything and yet has almost nothing. Its unbelievable. In that vast, beautiful, powerful land of unprecedented abundance live some of the most unhappy people on earth. Oh, generally speaking, they complement all that affluence by being generous and energetic and, except for the ruling class - which is wormy with evil like ruling classes everywhere - rather decent. But they're chronically depressed and dissatisfied. Chronically.