Amazon Journal: Dispatches from a Vanishing Frontier [Hardcover]

Geoffrey O'Connor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Combining memoir, journalism, history, and anthropology, a critically acclaimed filmmaker takes a critical look at one of the world's most intriguing regions, discussing the plight of the Amazon's native peoples, ecological disaster, the rich beauty of the environment, and the struggle for indigenous rights. 20,000 first printing."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The gold rush taking place in the Amazon, writes documentary filmmaker Geoffrey O'Connor, already promises to yield more ore than the Klondike gold rush that took place a century ago. Yet it has been little reported, and the quest for gold has already cost thousands of lives as the Indian nations of the Amazonian rainforest are overrun. O'Connor brings us grim news, to be sure, but with flair and sometimes even pointed humor, such as when he describes rock star Sting's descent into the jungle to deliver pious sermons about the sanctity of the unbroken forest; Sting can always jet out, O'Connor notes, whereas the Indians, and most of the gold miners, have no where else to go. Anyone with an interest in the area will want to read this well-crafted and sometimes alarming book.

From Booklist

This reportage flows from O'Conner's recent camera work in Brazil, which has been edited into a documentary (with the same title) released this year. Although his book is permeated with descriptions of clear-cut swathes of jungle, the biological consequences of the gold and cattle rushes in the Amazon are not O'Conner's subject; rather, it is the white-indigenous peoples' conflict, the last chapter in the epic stretching back to Columbus. Visiting villages of the Yanomami and the Kayapo, O'Conner respectfully films their prominent figures and chronicles the disease and violence that are reducing the numbers and territories of the Brazilian Indians. His information is bound to be valued once the forces of development on the Brazilian frontier--the mine entrepreneurs, the road builders, and the ranchers--prevail. The author's prose seems videographic rather than literary, but that will not deter interested readers, who will appreciate O'Conner's accounting of the reality behind the publicity images, promoted by celebrity sympathizers (Sting) and Earth Summiteers, of the Indians' beleaguered way of life. Gilbert Taylor

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1ST edition (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525941134
• ISBN-13: 978-0525941132
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The author hits the nail on the head with no exaggeration., April 8, 1999

By 

John Carter ([e-mail]) (Xingu-BR158 Mato Grosso, Brasil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amazon Journal: Dispatches from a Vanishing Frontier (Paperback)

As an American living in the southern Amazon basin, near the Xingu Indian Reserve, I unfortunately can attest to the truth in Mr. O'Conner's writings. He manages to give one a glimpse of what it is like to exist in this lawless, confusing frontier. To capture the flavor of this land of anarchy truly is difficult but the author does a superb job in transforming the vagueness of this bizarre and mystical frontier into words.

Mr. O'Conner, thank you for putting my thoughts into print. The grand Amazon is under serious attack and ,in my region especially, is being leveled at an exponential rate. Someone please do something.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great book!, January 13, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Ann Arbor, Mi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amazon Journal: Dispatches from a Vanishing Frontier (Hardcover)

O'Connor's brilliance is that he combines a writing style that simply engages the reader with a the knowledge that he can't and doesn't know all that there is to know about his topic. He brings together several issues and introduces many intriguing characters (Rauni, Kenny Good, Davi, just to name a few). The combination of the political ineptitude of the Indian organizations and the skewed perception of the Religious affiliates in the Amazon create an overwhelming amount of obsticals for objective journalism. O'Connor reports what happens from the viewpoint of a jounalist that knows he is part of the problem. I have come into contact with Venezuelan Yanomama and have seen first hand the impact that contact has made. O'Connor's unbias journalism is a releif from all of the news specials, and talk-show trash that seems to abound with the "Save the Rainforest" campaign. Read this book if you want a true report of what is happening to the last remaining independent people in the world. The truth is that contact with "white" people has braught innumerable destruction to this once self-sufficient society and Geoffrey O'Connor is not affraid to tell that side of the story.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars O'Connor Didn't Know When to Stop, October 23, 2009

By 

stoic (Mobile AL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Amazon Journal: Dispatches from a Vanishing Frontier (Paperback)

Amazon Journal is Geoffrey O'Connor's account of the movement to save the indigenous people (or Indians) of the Brazilian Amazon. Though I enjoyed the book, I thought that it was overly long and I was happy to come to the end.

The best parts of Amazon Journal read like a great adventure story. O'Connor met all sorts of desperadoes on one of the world's last frontiers. His stories of flights in and out of the Amazon and of the shady gold miners who prospected for gold on Indian land are interesting reading. O'Connor also gives a good account of how the Amazon issue attracted interest from celebrities, such as Sting.

I cannot rate this book any higher than three stars, however. The biggest problem is that, at 360 pages, the book was "more than I wanted to know" about the Amazon. Also, O'Connor makes his living as a filmmaker, not a writer; his narrative has a disjointed quality that makes the book laborious to follow. A final negative is that even though O'Connor goes into exhausting detail about his attempts to film during his visits to Brazil, the book contains not one photo (aside from the cover).

I'm glad that I read Amazon Journal, but I cannot give it a strong recommendation. It's heading to my local used bookstore.