Customer Reviews

Go and Come Back

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This excellent book is the story of two American anthropologists who went to live with a tribe in Peru. One of the main characters is a young girl who is trying to raise an adopted baby and becomes friends with the anthropologists. The story shows all of the cultural differences and misunderstandings that arose between the anthropologists and the people of the village because they had different values and ideas about how people should behave. The book does a good job of showing how people of one culture can try to do things that they see as polite and kind and can be perceived by people of a different culture as stingy or mean. It is challenging to readers because it helps them think about what is important to them and how that is expressed in what they do. It helped me see ways that my actions are not really consistent with what I say is important to me. It also gave me a good sense of some of the basic difficulties and joys of living in a different culture.

One caution: if you would be offended by open talk about sex, this book is not for you. It shows a culture in which sex is discussed openly and people tell children more about it than in the U.S.

Go and Come Back is an odd yet moving novel written by Joan Abelove. The book is very well written, captures the reader almost instantly, and has great character development. In the book, a small Indian village in a Peruvian jungle is host to two strange, white women, coming from New York, named Joanna and Margarita. They are anthropologists coming to the Isabo (the Indian tribe) village to do research. Alicia, an indifferent Isabo girl, thinks the women are "stingy and stupid". But later, when she adopts a non-native baby, she begins to understand the women better, and they start to understand her. Later, the anthropologists have to leave, but by then will Alicia be too close to them to bear it? Find out by reading this wonderful book on how two narrow-minded people can suddenly fit in so easily and be liked so much by a totally different kind of people, who have a totally different culture.

Go and Come Back is a book I highly recommend because of the way the author shows how different cultures can be and how ignorant they can be of each other. For instance, when Joanna and Margarita came to the village, they were doing things horribly wrong according to Alicia's customs, such as not sharing all their food to every single person in the village immediately. It is very interesting to see the different cultures mix, and it's even funny! Another reason why this is a good book is because of the character development. Go and Come Back is a 1st person narrative novel "told" by Alicia herself. With any 1st person book (especially this one), it is very easy to see the personalities of the characters when the main character tells the story. You get to know Alicia very well throughout the story, and you can almost feel her own feelings. Those are a few of the reasons why I recommend this book.

One reason why someone might not want to read it was because it can be unclear sometimes. During the story, the author makes some points that are unclear. The reader would know there is a point, but he/she wouldn't know what it is. The metaphors are hard to catch too. Sometimes the reader can't understand what the author is even talking about, but only sometimes. Don't let that stop you, though, from reading this wonderful book, because everyone and everything has some flaws (and that's even one of the points made in the book).

As an anthropologist having done fieldwork in another part of Amazonia, I recognized myself in Alicia's descriptions of the awkward, annoying, and funny situations, with two young women trying to get a grip on the culture they want to study. I think anthropologists should read this book to become more honest about the way they gather their "data", initially understanding half of what was said, to say nothing of the context in which it was said. On the other hand, Abelove obviously succeeded in her own fieldwork, understanding and conveying another point of view so well. She writes with care and respect for the two different cultures, with modesty, and with humor. She does NOT standardize the witty characters and does NOT create a native paradise, nor a native hell. I wished more anthropologists would use her human approach in addition to writing academic, "objective" books. It could bring us a wider readership, which in turn could help to create more respect for "the other" in an increasingly hostile and racist world.

This wonderful story is told in the first person narrative of Alicia, a teenaged girl in a small village in the Amazonion jungle of Peru. Two anthropologists from New York City come to observe and take notes for an entire year on the way of life of the Isabo people. Margarita is there to study the village agriculture and Joanna is to study the children. Alicia thinks that these two women are stingy because they do not follow the Isabo's custom of sharing all their food with everyone in the village immediately. The two anthropologists are also perceived as being unclean and unsociable because they only bathe once a day and relieve themselves in private. The humorous tone of this book kept the pace moving. The cultural differences are many and Alicia explains things in a matter of fact way, such as the Isabo's views on sex compared to the two American anthropologists...married women have boyfriends, teenagers have sex and couples invent reasons to slip off in the bushes. As the year progresses the two women are taught about customs and traditions of the tribe. They also learn about the subtleties of the language and the fact that there is no word for good-bye in Isabo. When two people take leave of each other, they say "Catanhue", which means go and come back. I enjoyed the differences in both cultures and feel this was a wonderful way to learn about anthropology in the Amazon jungle.

I absoulutly loved this book and would reccomend it to anyone who loves to study new cultures. This book gives the reader an idea of how lucky we are to have food, have a very nice home, and live happily. It is like a whole new world that you are learning about. PLEASE READ TO ENJOY A NEW WORLD AND EXPERIENCE!!!

Alicia is a teenaged girl living in a small village in Peru. She thinks her life is pretty uninteresting and unremarkable. So she, along with her neighbors, is surprised when two white women from New York show up and ask to stay there for a year to study the people and their culture.

These white women seem very strange and stupid to Alicia and the other members of her village. They don't seem to know anything about charity, about sharing the things they have brought with them. They are seen as very rude for some of the things they do, but Alicia and her friend Elena gradually are able to make them aware of some of their biggest mistakes.

Over the course of the year, Alicia warms up to these anthropologists and is able to help them learn all there is to know about her village and the customs of the people who live there.

I liked that this was a book about a different culture but it was told from their point of view instead of from the American point of view. I really enjoyed reading about the customs and ways of life in an isolated village in Peru; I was surprised at how the attitudes and customs of the people there differed from us. I didn't like that nobody gave the American women a chance. Nobody tried to understand them or to accept that their culture was different; they just assumed the women were rude and stingy.

I loved this book! I initially bought the book for my niece, but as I was flipping through it I got interested and ended up reading the entire novel. It's a beautiful story about a young girl's experiences with two anthropologists who come to visit her village. It was amazing to me how Abelove presented the story without any of the condescension that is so prevalent in books about more "primitive" cultures. The fact that the story was written all through the point of view of the girl gave it a fresh and unusual angle that I don't think I've found in other books.

What a great way to teach sociology! This is a great book with vivid details and a great cultural perspective.

american tend to thinkj that there culture is the mormal one and every other one is weird this book is good for the young teens to see there culture thru others eyes. this book has plenty funny parts and sad and touching parts also.

This book is an entertaining story of two female anthropologists from New York who live with and study a tribe in a Peruvian jungle village. Margarita will study the agriculture in the village and Joanna will study the children of the village. Together, they discover as much about themselves as they do about the villagers. You will learn about yourself also. Very entertaining and insightful!