The
Dung Beetles of Liberia
by
Daniel V. Meier Jr.
Genre:
Adventure, Historical Fiction
Based
on the remarkable true account of a young American who landed in
Liberia in 1961.
Ken
Verrier is not happy, nor at peace. He is experiencing the turbulence
of Ishmael and the guilt of his brother's death. His sudden decision
to drop out of college and deal with his demons shocks his family,
his friends, and especially his girlfriend, soon to have been his
fiancee. His destination: Liberia - The richest country in Africa
both in monetary wealth and in natural resources.
Nothing
could have prepared Ken for the experiences he was about to live
through. He quickly realizes that he has arrived in a place where he
understands very little of what is considered normal, where the
dignity of life has little meaning, and where he can trust no
one.
Flying
into the interior bush as a transport pilot, Ken learns quickly. He
witnesses first-hand the disparate lives of the Liberian "Country
People" and the "Congo People" also known as
Americo-Liberians. These descendants of President Monroe's American
Colonization Policy that sent freed slaves back to Africa in the
1800's have set up a strict hierarchical society not unlike the
antebellum South.
Author
Dan Meier describes Ken's many escapades, spanning from horrifying to
whimsical, with engaging and fast-moving narrative that ultimately
describe a society upon which the wealthy are feeding and in which
the poor are being buried.
It's
a novel that will stay will you long after the last word has been
read.
"I saw the airstrip through a parting of the clouds—and I dove for it. I flew the airplane straight onto the runway with a couple of hard bounces, pulled it to a dusty stop, and set the parking brake. Leaving the engine idling with the prop turning over slowly, I bailed out of the cabin. I ran to the bush, which was mostly grass and weeds about chest high, and, with only moments to spare, relieved myself. While this relief was occurring, I heard the distinctive wuush, wuush, wuush of dung beetles crawling through the grass. I had been told that they could hear a mouse break wind from five miles away and could follow the scent. With my pants around my ankles and the sun beating down on my head, I started a little hippy hop, hippy hop movement to keep away from them. And here came the good sisters in their Land Rover. “Oh, Mr. Pilot! Mr. Pilot, Mr. Pilot! Where are you?”
A
retired Aviation Safety Inspector for the FAA, Daniel V. Meier, Jr.
has always had a passion for writing. During his college years, he
studied History at The University of North Carolina Wilmington and
American Literature at The University of Maryland Graduate School. In
1980 he was published by Leisure Books under the pen name of Vice
Daniels. He also worked briefly for the Washington Business Journal
as a journalist and has been a contributing writer/editor for several
aviation magazines.
Dan
and his wife live in Owings, Maryland, about twenty miles south of
Annapolis and when he's not writing, they spend their summers sailing
on the Chesapeake Bay.
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