Faded Gray

by Jeffrey Vollmer

First formed in 1961 under the Kennedy administration, the U.S. Peace Corps is a government program that sends American volunteers into countries to aid in their social and economic development. When candidates are interviewed for the Peace Corps they’re told idealistic mantras such as “everyone has a different experience,” and “your service can be anything you make it.” But in country, service often presents both unexpected and dangerous challenges. In Eastern Europe Volnteers are widely recognized as an American diplomatic gesture, bright, young people offered as an olive branch, tokens to the young satellite republics, who in turn accepted the tribute to make good for the poor acts of their former Soviet oppressor. In that regard, the program in Estonia had in it the largest per capita number of American volunteers serving in any country in the world. By the late 1990s, the U.S. government was caught ill prepared to deal with broken economies of the fallen Iron Curtain. The Clinton administration struggled to retrofit idealistic, covert, Cold War processes into effective programs for the growing needs of the unruly, wide-open region. As a result, the U.S. failed to stay ahead of the curve, and relegated itself to past policies, those of the lowest common denominator where the ends justified the means. In this novel, the first of three, lead character PCV Grayson Palmer finds in the former Soviet Union’s wild-east an enigmatic Peace Corps. Palmer’s experience had become something he’d never expected, but one he was born to understand. Still, sexton stressed, his naïveté was exposed and he became unwittingly enveloped in the criminal world. Strange and new influences challenged him. He’ll need all his skills to traverse the dark world of Eurasian organized crime. To regain that control he must relearn to become his own true arbiter. Grayson Palmer interviewed for the Peace Corps with little expectation, but what he got was beyond his imagination. He learned at a young age to handle everything in front him, to not fear the unknown, and to shoot the moon with every hand dealt. He was confident, moral and ethical, in a world where having such qualities was predicated purely by self-determination. But would it be enough? As Grayson Palmer confronts and submits to the elements around him, he discovers secrets that change his life forever.

404 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2013

Reviews

[Alison Cubitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faded Gray is an international thriller and is the story of U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, Grayson Palmer, an ordinary guy 'who wanted to get away from his home town, who wanted to earn a life, who thought he could get ahead, serve his country.' As soon as Grayson encounters his fellow volunteers – a curious mix of social misfits and young women seeking spouses; he realises that his new life, volunteering in Eastern Europe isn't going to go according to plan. Grayson's insights on the voluntary sector – where "going to help people" is, as he puts it, 'benevolence disguised as self-gratification' are apt.

His hippie biker upbringing in a bar in the Wisconsin Northwoods doesn't immediately signal Peace Corps material, yet it turns out that’s the perfect training for the hard partying lifestyle he falls into in Eastern Europe. Soon Grayson's penchant for bars, nightclubs and pretty girls draws him into a world of liars, conmen and gangsters, who see not the person but his U.S. diplomatic passport and all that it symbolises.

Jeffrey Vollmer tells his story with a time-shifting narrative – moving from Wisconsin to Estonia and various points in between. Faded Gray is an original take on the 'American abroad' theme, There is a surprising twist at the end which neatly sets up the sequel.

[Laine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally got around to reading this as the premise sounded interesting and I have a connection to its location, Estonia. Over all it was a disappointing experience as confirmed by my book club of a dozen readers. Technically, the book requires better editing as it is riddled with typos. In addition the protagonist is said to have acquired amazing fluency in the Estonian language in a short period of time receiving the highest score on testing but the phrases he's made to utter are the equivalent of pidgin English - laughable, not praiseworthy. Could the author not arrange for a native speaker to correct this lapse? Although there's no doubt it was a bit of the Wild West in the transition from Soviet dominance to independence and chaos attracts criminals, the main character is aptly named "Gray" because he makes choices to hang out with disreputables instead of the people struggling to make Estonia what it is today - one of cleanest countries on the international corruption scale though you'd never guess it from this book. Also all the Peace Corps volunteers are made to sound like drunks and potheads, happy to corrupt and be corrupted by the locals. No idealism in sight.

A much better book to give the flavor of Peace Corps dealings in Estonia that's not written as a fictional thriller but a memoir is: "In Search of the Elusive Peace Corps Moment Destination: Estonia" by Douglas Wells, (2001). It's a series of humorous vignettes of a fish out of water Mid-West American trying to assimilate with Hiiu islanders who are even slower to warm to strangers than are mainland Estonians. Yet they arrive at a place of mutual respect to the point that the author married an Estonian girl. He went on to work as a US diplomat stationed around the globe.

The high rating for Faded Gray appears to be inflated by the author and at least one relative with the same last name. The premise is good but the execution poor. Even the English is awkward in places, something a better editor would have smoothed out.