GavinYoung’s Something of SamoaExcerptedfrom Slow Boats Home. He alsowrote Slow Boats to China about the first part of his
trip. While in Samoa, he was critical of Mormonsmissionaries for turning the people from Samoans into something artificial, andI appreciate that statement, but he undermined it by showing he had no beliefsat all: while the head of the non-Mormonhouse in which he is a guest prayed for the meal, “I looked surreptitiously atthe others” (p33). Young seems to bebasically a hypocrite—he carries Bibles as a disguise to make Burmese policethink he’s a missionary, and eventually the presence of his whisky bottlebetrays him. I don’t think I’ll read hislarger book.