Is this author overexposing herself?

Close Calls.escaping by the skin of my.""Before we even knew what he hit, Arab men appeared from every nook and cranny. Like flies around a ripe, red watermelon, they swarmed around our car, peering at us from behind black beards and mustaches. Our hearts sank.""

Lodges.the good, the bad, and the ugly.""We had certainly come a long way from the flush toilets.Chobi's toilet amounted to a chair that resembled a lawn chair, with a toilet seat on it-over a 'long-drop loo'.Actually, the chair was over a hole in the ground-and this 'long-drop loo' had a...