Amazon Dream - Softcover

Allen, Roberta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0872862704 ISBN 13: 9780872862708

Publisher: City Lights Books, 1992

Synopsis

travel memoir by novelist Allen with photographs

About this title

Reviews

Allen's ( The Daughter ) tale of her journey in the Peruvian Amazon is intriguing but strangely detached from the natural wonders she sees and the people she meets. Allen witnesses--and describes in clear, visual terms--the secret life that teems both above and below the surface of the forest, yet her tone seems curiously superficial in light of her claim that she had always fantasized about the Amazon. Particularly fascinating are her visits to the isolated villages of the Shipibo peoples, whose delicately painted pottery she admires; but here, too, her perceptions fail to penetrate the surface: having been told that the Shipibo love to bargain, she is disappointed when one artist refuses to negotiate with her. She is at once afraid of and interested in the various men who act as guides throughout her trip, but she seems somewhat ignorant about their culture. Allen reports the many times that someone asks her whether she is married or has children; seeing a photo of the cast of Dynasty on the wall of a village hut, she seems surprised to learn that "everyone knows about Dynasty ," as one of her guides says. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Allen fantasized about the jungle from the time she was a small child. In 1987, she took a trip alone to the Peruvian Amazon to fulfill her dream. She found the reality of the jungle quite different from her imaginings. Starting in a conservation camp run by a seedy character, she here recalls her experience: the constant bugs, snakes, and other wild animals, as well as the heat, rain, and mud. The native people she meets are different from what she expects, and they provoke feelings of guilt about her affluent Western background. At one point, she sinks into a state of depression and almost leaves without visiting the people she hoped to see, the Shipibos. Eventually, she visits the Shipibo people and buys some of their pottery. Allen feels a connection to the women of the Shipibo tribe, who are renowned for their art. This book is an interesting and well-written account of a region in flux. Recommended for public libraries.
- Lisa J. Cochenet, Rhinelander Dist. Lib., Wis.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: City Lights Books
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0872862704
• ISBN 13: 9780872862708
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192