Thomsen, Moritz

Boston. 1978. Houghton Mifflin. 1st Printing. Very Good in Slightly Won Dustjacket . 0395263115. 331 pages. hardcover. Jacket drawing by the author. keywords: Ecuador Autobiography America. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Here is the memorable story of a fifty-three-year-old white American, an ex-Peace Corps Volunteer, who keeps a promise he made to a poor, uneducated black friend twenty years his junior. A year after leaving the Peace Corps, Moritz Thomsen returned to Ecuador to join Ramon Prado in hacking a farm out of the jungle. This is the story of their struggles against the tropics: against year-long rains and longer droughts, crops that rot, markets that evaporate, exuberant weeds that pull their houses apart, and, underlying everything else, the shattering poverty that twists decent human beings into monstrous shapes. It is also the story of the confrontation of two radically different cultures; and the failure of illusion. Nonetheless, Thomsen chronicles his and Ramon's labors with wry hit morand draws his neighbors with the deft hand and compassionate eye of a born storyteller, Who could forget the gorgeous and tragic Cortez brothers? Or Victor, the magnificent thief? Or poor old Dalmiro, with his secret passion for the scornful Florinda, who in turn yearns for the indefatigably romantic Santo, eater of hummingbirds' hearts? Their wonderfully funny portraits weave through the book, making it a shear delight to read. But it is also much more; for Thomsen has dared to give us an intensely personal memoir, full of searing insights into his own prejudices and failings. The Farm on the River of Emeralds is eloquently written, tough, funny and wrenchingly sad - a lyrical triumph. inventory #25293 ISBN: 0395263115.