Dung Beetles of Liberia

Liberia’s oligarchy: The beginning of the end.2019 Grand Prize Winner - Red City ReviewBased on the remarkable true account of a young American who landed in Liberia in 1961.*****The story weaves drama, dark comedy, and romance throughout a rich tapestry of narration - The San Francisco Book ReviewKEN VERRIER IS NOT HAPPY, NOR AT PEACE. He is experiencing the turbulence of Ishmael and the guilt of his brother's death. His sudden decision to drop out of college and deal with his demons shocks his family, his friends, and especially his girlfriend, soon to have been his fiancee. His destination: Liberia - The richest country in Africa both in monetary wealth and in natural resources.NOTHING COULD HAVE PREPARED HIM FOR THE EXPERIENCES HE WAS ABOUT TO LIVE THORUGH. Ken quickly realizes that he has arrived in a place where he understands very little of what is considered normal, where the dignity of life has little meaning, and where he can trust no one.Flying into the interior bush as a transport pilot, Ken learns quickly. He witnesses, first-hand, the disparate lives of the Liberian "Country People? and the "Congo People" also known as Americo-Liberians. These descendants of President Monroe's American Colonization Policy that sent freed slaves back to Africa in the 1800s have set up a strict hierarchical society not unlike the antebellum South.Author Dan Meier describes Ken's many escapades, spanning from horrifying to whimsical, with engaging and fast-moving narrative that ultimately describes a society upon which the wealthy are feeding and in which the poor are being buried.It's a novel that will stay with you long after the last word has been read.

"Meier's precise prose is vivid and yet straightforward as he details contrasting lives of the common Liberian population and the privileged Americo-Liberians. A fascinating evocation of 1960s Liberia..." -- The Prairies Book Review , https://theprairiesbookreview.com/

A retired Aviation Safety Inspector for the FAA, Daniel V. Meier, Jr. has always had a passion for writing. During his college years, he studied American Literature at The University of Maryland Graduate School and in 1980 was published by Leisure Books under the pen name of Vince Daniels. He also worked briefly for the Washington Business Journal as a journalist and has been a contributing writer and editor for several aviation magazines. Dan and his wife live in Owings, Maryland, about twenty miles south of Annapolis, and when he's not writing, they spend their summers sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.