Two Women, Two Worlds: Friendship Swept by Winds of Change FROM THE PUBLISHER
A U.S psychotherapist-writer adrift in a personal crisis meets Pirip, a feisty mountain dweller in Papua New Guinea (PNG) who is striving to lead traditional women into the modern world. They develop a compelling friendship that bridges their separation by language, eons of tradition, and 10,000 miles. The author's urge to understand Pirip's strivings fuels seven month-long journeys to PNG during thirteen years. Dense rain forests and precipitous mountains have spawned countless distinct cultures and over 800 different languages in a nation the size of California. The author and her husband see people existing in harmony with the natural world, living richly textured lives without manufactured goods. Yet wherever they venture in this young nation, the clash between ancient and modern is the central drama, played out against a backdrop of sexual tensions.
At first, McCollum supports Pirip's goal of bringing rural women into the spreading cash economy. Then doubt began to stir. Rapid Western-style development is stripping influence away from women and a sense of significance away from men. But when Pirip finally confides her private story, McCollum sees why her struggle is needed. She also fathoms the central question for Pirip, for herself, for PNG and the USA; namely, how can the exhilarating possibilities of change be balanced with the sustenance of tradition?
The author's friends are asking, "Why do you keep going back to New Guinea?" The effort to understand her attachment to Pirip pulls her into a quaking bog of childhood memories, and then guides her onto firm ground again. In the end, that courageous mountain woman's affection lifts a timeworn veil of guilt and brings the author a
calming self-acceptance.
About the Author:
Audrey McCollum was born and raised in New York City, where turmoil in her family sparked her drive to become a psychotherapist and writer. Educated at the Brearley School, Vassar College, and the Simmons College School of Social Work, she became a family therapist and research associate at the Yale University Child Study Center and Department of Pediatrics. During those years, she married and began rearing her daughter and son--trying to combine effective parenting and professional life when that was still uncommon among women. Her first book, Coping with Prolonged Health Impairment in Your Child was described as "the best book in the field with the worst title!" Expanded and updated, it was later published as The Chronically Ill Child: A Guide for Parents and Professionals. A move to New Hampshire rekindled her childhood curiosity about personal transition. Her groundbreaking book, The Trauma of Moving: Psychological Issues for Women was followed by Smart Moves: Your Guide Through the Emotional Maze of Relocation, co-authored by Nadia Jensen and Stuart Copans. Still available, it has earned accolades in the media and is described as "the bible" of relocation.
An avid traveler, drawn to the beauty and mystery of tropical coral reefs and rain forests, McCollum became fascinated by Papua New Guinea -- a nation in the midst of tumultuous change. During repeated visits there, she and a mountain woman, Pirip Kuru, developed the complex and ever-deepening friendship described in Two Women, Two Worlds.
McCollum practices psychotherapy, writes, skis, hikes, and lives happily with her husband in Etna, New Hampshire.
FROM THE CRITICS
Burlington Free Press
Etna, NH resident Audrey McCollum recorded her experiences in Papua New Guinea to create her latest book...McCollum explores the life of Pirip Kuru, a native woman with whom she discovers many similarities and differences in their lifestyles -- things that make their friendship grow stronger. The book includes picture pages of the author's trip, and letters...between the two. The touching story reveals how deep the women's bond is, both wishing the other were their mother because of the honest, courageous qualities they held and desired.
(Papau New Guinea) Independent
Two Women, Two Worlds is sure to become a classic travel book on PNG.... To read [McCollum's] descriptions of these magical places in the remote locales of PNG is to be transported to these spots and then guided through her keen sensitive narration to almost feel, touch, and breathe these mystical haunting places.
Publishers Weekly
From 1983 to 1995, McCollum, a psychotherapist and writer (The Trauma of Moving), and her husband made seven extensive trips to Papua New Guinea. This memoir focuses on a friendship she formed with Pirip Kuru, a highland tribal woman who was president of the South Wahgi Valley Women's Association, an organization dedicated to helping women become more independent by modernizing their skills. Although Pirip did not, at first, speak English, she and the author were able to communicate through interpreters and to exchange letters (excerpted here) with the assistance of others. McCollum vividly describes a society where erotic "courting parties" bind a woman to a man, who must pay a bride price, which may include several pigs, to the bride's family. The new wives are wed for life to their husbands, who are permitted to marry several times. The author did not discover until her last visit that Pirip had once been stabbed and that one of her children had been killed by her husband's fifth wife; her husband did nothing to help Pirip or to stop the violence. Although the author's depiction of tribal life is even-handed, occasionally she draws forced parallels between social problems in the U.S. and Papua New Guinea that add little to this otherwise well-wrought account. Color photo insert not seen by PW. (June) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
An intriguing memoir...McCollum's relationship with the people of Papua New Guinea was intimate and fascinating, particularly when it involved women who are trying desperately to become part of the modern world....This book is by no means limited to the women's point of view. — (Tobias Schneebaum, Author of Where the Spirits Dwell: An Odyssey in the Jungle of New Guinea)
From the Author:
Two Women, Two Worlds is a travel memoir with a difference. It illuminates the rarely-described world of women in Papua New Guinea (in most books about this fascinating nation, women are shadowy figures in the background). Furthermore, since Papua New Guinea is emblematic of all nations being propelled into the modern world, the story shows the human face of globalization; that is, it highlights the impact of western values on a developing country, and it questions many of our beliefs about progress. A major challenge in the next millennium will be to transcend barriers of language, culture, and geography, reaching for common understanding. Two Women, Two Worlds shows how struggles to maintain cross-cultural friendships can deepen our understanding of ourselves, as well as of "the other."
— Audrey McCollum
The truth of Audrey McCollum's experiences in Papua New Guinea rings loud and clear in this remarkable memoir. With the heart of a mother and the attuned intellect of an experienced psychotherapist, McCollum explores the life of Pirip Kuru, a strong native woman dedicated to leading her highland sisters into a brighter future. McCollum reflects on experiences that contain threads of similarity and difference between Pirip and herself, holding a mirror for all women reaching across vastly different worlds to find a common understanding....Her poignant personal memories lend an incredible strength to the story. — (Charlotte Houde Quimby, MSN, CNM, FACNM. International consultant on women's health).
Thoughtful, evocative, moving, Two Women, Two Worlds traces the painful transition of a "primitive" culture into a cash society and questions some of its new values. Along the way, McCollum focuses on male-female relationships, skillfully drawing parallels between Papua New Guinea and the United States...As founder of the Women's Network of the Upper Valley and the Women's Information Service, I identified with Pirip's struggle to build a center for women, and was profoundly affected by her story. I strongly recommend this book. It is a good read. (Elaine Babcock, Delegate to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women)
— Elaine Babcock
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