Mister Pop

Once over lightly is not good enough for Pop Buell,"" wrote John Steinbeck in April 1967 after visiting Tan Pop (""Mister Sent-from-Above"") in the Laotian highlands where the middle-aged Indiana farmer has worked since 1960 with Meo tribesmen, master-minding airlifts of food, clothing and medicine when the Communists drove them from their homeland, establishing schools and medical training centers, and otherwise helping the Meo to help themselves. Now Pop Buell gets the full treatment indeed from the former Managing Editor of the Saturday Evening Post, and--if you can sustain the momentum through the rather plodding narrative, keep your bearings amidst the terrain, the war-wrought tumult, and the expanding cast of characters, and warm up to Pop's modest mid-western charm (verging on the campy)--it is quite a story. The unassuming hero, who signed up for an International Voluntary Service stint in Laos as an ailing and grieving widower, has emerged as a strong and dedicated deus ex machina: ""I'm sowin' seeds that, by God, someday is gonna grow."" An old-fashioned adventure story of a good-hearted man that is informative and ultimately endearing., ISBN13: B0006CPHHI ISBN10: B0006CPHHI Material Type: hardcover