Coping with Lust and the Colonel

About the Book

Ignoring Lieutenant Grady’s protest that his European heritage makes Germany the logical choice for an assignment, the Army despatches him to the Far East in mid-1952.  There, this novella and its seven related short stories, depict Grady´s picaresque and sometimes bumbling encounters with local customs. Grady passes from culture shock through ethical dilemmas and sensual ambiguity to religious doubts and clashes with authority.

Grady, not distinguished for common sense or tact, alienates his commanding officer and the commander’s deputy, while beginning to fit into the Korean milieu.  A wise and older roommate tempers Grady’s doctrinaire view of the world.  Conversations with Yong Sam, the Officers Club Accountant, and with Won Chang, Grady’s houseboy, reveal the intensity of the Korean spirit.  An affair with Sun Nae, a comely university student; companionship with Jeannette, a half-French, half-Korean arrival from French Indochina; and a magical evening with Persimmon, a trainee kisaeng, stimulate his infatuation with Korean womanhood.

Grady, who arrived abroad as a naif from the American heartland, graduates slowly to a knowledge of and an affection for the local scene. After a year’s exposure to the wiles of the Orient, he emerges a changed man.

About the Author

The author embarked on a 44-year career, all but ten abroad, as an Army Officer in Korea and Japan. He next spent almost a quarter-century in the Foreign Service, principally in Southeast Asia. His first assignment to Vietnam was as Vice Consul in Saigon. Subsequently, he was Principal Officer of the Hue Consulate; Province Senior Advisor, Binh Long; Associate Director, Region II (Nhatrang) of the Agency for International Development; and Consul General at Can Tho. Finally he spent a decade with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, mainly in Geneva but initially in Somalia; and four years with a Geneva-based international non-governmental organization.