The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 3 March 1998
by Peter Matthiessen
In this powerful book, Matthiessen draws a portrait of the Amazonian jungle and the pressures upon it from the outside world. A small group of Protestant missionaries arrives in a town dominated by a petty and cruel administrator. Here, two American soldiers of fortune prepare to launch a brutal attack on a tribe of jungle Indians to pay their way out of this isolated spot. Each of these groups, the missionaries, the mercenaries, and the tribespeople, has its own internal conflict. Matthiessen artfully brings out the humanity present despite the animal cruelty of man against man. The characters struggle with their dreams and morality in the face of seemingly insurmountable pressure. This reader came to know these people well, feeling sorrow at the deaths of characters, joy at their successes. In this book, published in 1965, we also see the pressures on indigenous life in the Amazon, and on the vanishing rainforest itself, that are still endangering a globally vital region today.
Also by Matthiessen: [East of Lo Monthang] [Killing Mr. Watson] [Blue Meridian] [Far Tortuga]