Relationships Matter

"Encounters: A Memoir - Relationships Journeys from Around the World" takes the reader on a journey from a segregated village in the southern US to exotic places in Europe and Asia. There are stops in war-torn Vietnam, a visit to an abandoned palace in Bangladesh where goats waltz on a deserted ballroom floor, a life-threatening confrontation with police in Paris and many other adventures. In these absorbing tales, the author shares his cross-cultural experiences and describes the challenges he faced in trying to become a citizen of the world.

User Reviews about Encounters: A Memoir: Relationship Journeys from Around the World

Whether the reader is looking for light entertainment or new insights into exotic cultures, countries and the foreign aid game, Sam Oglesby's "Encounters: A Memoir" fills the bill. It's an interesting, often humorous personal memoir with a few universal themes: objective self-knowledge, cross-cultural sensitivity, and some cynicism about foreign aid as administered by the United Nations for whom the writer worked.

To call the author "cosmopolitan" would be a gross understatement. Not only did he travel the world with great enthusiasm, but he seems to have learned the language of any country he visited and found friends from the highest to lowest levels of society. While his writing is not flawless, Oglesby's life adventures are so varied that the reader is not only entertained but challenged to re-think some assumptions. From an early childhood with grandma and slop pails on a Maryland farm in the 1940s, the author became a lucky draftee who managed to talk his way out of KP duty and later an inside observer of the Vietnam war hypocrisy.

Oglesby's most pertinent observations concern the Asian countries (including Burma, Bhutan and Indonesia) where as a United Nations official he worked and learned and tried to increase the share of aid resources hitting its intended target: the disadvantaged people of the Third World. -- A Fascinating Life Lived in Many Cultures

Sam has again fascinated us with his tales of people he has met as he did previously in Postcards.
I found his honesty about himself very admirable and rendered the book even more authentic because of it.
You didn't know where you were going to end up next in Sam's book but it was always insightful looking at his encounters from his point of view.
His descriptions of his journeys were right to the point which I appreciated.
A wonderful book that should be on one's gift-giving list.

-- Say it again, Sam!

If you have lived all over the world and experienced the many cultures and countries that Mr. Oglesby has during his long career, you will love Encounters. If, on the other hand, you are an armchair traveler, you will also love Encounters. It is heartwarming, very funny, moving and charming. He writes with grace and simplicity creating chapter-length vignettes that he fleshes out into full blown visualizations. I enjoyed his first book, Postcards, for the same reasons. Encounters is further enhanced by 46 simply rendered illustrations by Portland, OR-based graphic designer, Tobias Sugar. Another reviewer compared Mr. Oglesby's writing style to that of British author, Graham Greene and I concur: Travels with My Aunt comes immediately to mind. Mr. Oglesby has written a delightful little book - great for summer reading and for Christmas stocking stuffers too! Encounters also won Honorable Mention in Biography at the 2010 New York Book Festival recently. -- My Review of Encounters

Sam Oglesby offers his readers the memoirs of an atypical American with an atypical curriculum and an unusually great curiosity about, and respect for, other cultures. Paradoxically, the author's personal feeling of being a perpetual outsider has made him all the more open to encounters and friendships with people from every social and cultural background on several continents. His tales about humans and places are peppered with humorous as well as heart-breaking anecdotes. His intelligent musings about domestic and international politics, including some acerbic comments inspired by his working among official "international do-gooders", are right on. In fact, many of the "encounters" in his first two books would make great ingredients for insightful and exciting fiction. Oglesby has certainly gathered enough real-life material to create a credible fiction brand of his own in, say, the international-politics thriller genre.
-- entertaining and enlightening

"Encounters..." is even more enjoyable than Mr. Oglesby's first book "Postcards from the Past". I was a happy tag-a-long on his journey, relishing every moment of this global odyssey. Full of humor, heart and fascinating humanity, this book features an array of unforgettable characters. I find Mr. Oglesby's writing style to be reminiscent of Graham Greene's, putting me in mind of the latter's "Our Man In Havana". Hat's off to Our Man Sam for regaling us with this most entertaining and informative memoir.
. -- Encounters: A Memoire; Relationship Journeys from Around the World