Published in the The New Yorker magazine, Richard Dooling’s Bush Pigs is a harrowing tale of reverse culture shock and a cult favorite among expats who wander abroad and are sometimes unprepared for the trauma of returning to the first world.
After three years in the bush, a Peace Corps Volunteer is evacuated from war-torn Sierra Leone and sent home to Omaha, Nebraska, where he attempts to celebrate his return in a steak house. What happens next is called reverse culture shock. G.K. Chesterton put it this way: “The whole object of traveling abroad is not to set foot on foreign land; it is to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land when one returns.”
By Richard Dooling, author of White Man’s Grave, a novel.
Actor Mark Nelson read Bush Pigs live at Symphony Space in New York City for the famous Selected Shorts program. His performance was recorded and played on NPR over the years.
You can listen to Mark Nelson’s performance of Richard Dooling’s Bush Pigs by clicking HERE.
Bush Pigs, a short story, by Richard Dooling
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