A dark, disturbing, but beautifully described Amazonian adventure with overtones of Heart of Darkness.
In the first English translation of a Peruvian classic, an ambitious young man arrives in the jungle to make his fortune and finds himself swept along on a mysterious adventure.
In the early 20th century, Abel Barcas arrives in the Amazonian village of Santa Ines to make a living in the burgeoning rubber trade. What he doesn’t expect is the drama of dispatching a corrupt, drunken governor and his vile minions, the Bull and the Piquicho. The new governor appoints Barcas as his partner in the rubber business and sends him on a journey to survey the surrounding jungle for harvestable rubber trees. He is accompanied by an intrepid explorer known as the Matero; the wise man and rumored sorcerer Sangama, who is seeking an ancient, legendary treasure; Sangama’s beautiful daughter, Chuya, with whom Barcas falls in love; and the villainous Bull and Piquicho. Together, the group encounters hurricane winds, ravenous anacondas, and what might be demon spirits that fill the darkest corners of the jungle. The novel, based on Peruvian author Hernández’s own experiences in the jungle, was first published in Spanish in 1942; this is the first time it has been available in English, thanks to the translation efforts of Enstam. It is an elegant, poetic translation, with Hernández’s passionate prose painting a vivid picture of the jungle’s untamed beauty and danger, giving readers a rare glimpse into a world that, at the time, was still mostly unspoiled by modern man. “Some maintain that the jungle is a green prison,” Sangama says. “Others claim that it is the true Hell. Others describe it as an environment fit only for the life of the trees, but not for the dwelling of men.” Barcas’ relationship with Chuya—and the novel’s treatment of women in general—is a bit shallow in some of its more testosterone-fueled moments, but one imagines (and hopes) that attitude is a relic of the time period.
A dark, disturbing, but beautifully described Amazonian adventure with overtones of Heart of Darkness.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0978691400
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Quaestor Press, Limited
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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