Customer Reviews

The Gringo's Hawk

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The Gringo's Hawk is the personal memoir of a varied and remarkable life. Jon Maranon was an idealistic American who became a landowner on the southwest coast of Costa Rica. Maranon found himself confronted with one crisis after another ranging from chicken hawks, to termites, to adjudicating peasant disputes, to conflicts with other landlords who felt Maranon paid his peasants too much. He fervently battled with Costa Rican government to stop the slow degradation of the environment, and worked with scientists to understand more about the migration patterns of whales. The Gringo's Hawk is the compelling, highly recommended autobiographical story of a unique, candidly presented, and singularly fascinating life.

The Gringo's Hawk is a thoroughly enjoyable read by Jon Marañon (nom de plume). Marañon made the tropical paradise of Costa Rica his home some 30 years ago and documented the immense change he witnessed in the ensuing years in a charming erstwhile enlightening manner. He describes the socio-cultural and ecological conditions of a remote part of Costa Rica as he found them, and the changes and growing pains he suffered and shared with the local community during his years there.

Through his memoirs we share Marañon's joy, anger, and frustration in his dealings with inept beauracracies and cultural roadblocks. At times one is drawn into his dejection, his pain and sorrow; at other times we are taken by his joy and satisfaction. We feel his love and fascination for the rainforest, the flora and fauna, and the planet. The book is full of interesting cultural and ecological observations, yet is never pedantic.

As we follow the author while he eeks out an existence in the rainforest, we learn about a life without luxuries such as power and transportation. We witness the personal transformations he underwent from idealist, to realist, and ultimately to environmental activist and philanthropist.

The lessons learned in the Gringo's Hawk make it a must-read for anyone interested in the recent natural history and changing sociology of Costa Rica. From his unique perspective, Marañon has successfully documented the challenges, on personal, ecological and cultural levels, faced by Costa Rica and its citizens during its emergence as a modern, globalized nation.

Having lived in Costa Rica in recent times, often wondering how the country once was, I highly recommend The Gringo's Hawk.

Once in a while you come across a movie, a place, or a book that takes you in and makes you part of it. One can have this experience at so many levels, but the deeper you are taken the better the experience. A book that does this and at the same time it forces you see the world in a different way, or to think about the way you look at life... well, that's a GREAT book. I had only a few books create such an experience in my life. But none so exuberant as this master piece.

I hope that you have a chance to read this book and I hope that it creates an unique experience for you as it as for me.

I wasn't expecting such an addictive read. This book tells a story that stays with you. I love the humility of the author. He doesn't try to shove his opinions down your throat. He just tells you honestly what it is like living in this wonderful part of Costa Rica. But the ultimate story is in his battles with nature. He is obviously a conservationist, but he finds that humans and nature (and humans and humans) are all too often in contradiction. His desire to protect and enhance his garden of eden comes up against nearly unsurmountable obstacles.
Every environmentalist should read this book. It is a real world example of the difficulties in managing ecosystems and gentle mankind's conflicts with a savage world.
I couldn't put this down until I finished the last page. I hope this guy keeps writing!

For the sake of truth in reviewing, I confess that I had a small editorial/copy editing role in this book's preparation. From the first, this has been a 5-star book in my life, and fortunately, Maranon overcame my "help" and saw the project to completion. Readers will be engaged by an engaging author who doesn't "take himself too seriously." He might have had a comfortable life, or a wildly exciting life as a "rock star," but he had two character "flaws": a passionate love of the natural world and integrity. He had to live in nature, as a steward, and he had to "live authentically"; so his life became an adventure in a paradise on the southwest coast of Costa Rica. His love of the natural world was under serious assault from both humans and from nature itself. In many ways, and in many instances and circumstances, his idealism and integrity became self-inflicted punishment, or folly, or were tested almost to the breaking point. The central image of the gringo's hawk powerfully captures the central conflict of the author's unexpected role as a gringo padron in a strange land. The bugs and tropical diseases and machete violence in that land would not have been "interesting" or mere problems to be solved for most of us. So it is a privilege to vicariously experience Maranon's life and world. On the political stage, he had a large role in environmental sttruggles in Costa Rica, which came accompanied by descents into bureaucratic hell. The author observed happening to his beloved land what has happened all around the world. but for him the ecological degradation and destruction has been personal. He details the effects with naturalist precision but feels the effects in gut and soul, as will readers. And now, Maranon and the rest of us arrive at a time of amoral squatters and desperate refugees. . . . We may, bowever, lack Maranon's spirit and integrity.

A great read! Having vacationed & owned land in Costa Rica, this book was hard to put down. Makes me want to follow in the arther's foot steps. I found the agracultural parts of the book fasinating. Would recomend!

This is a true story, as true as one can be about one's own life, of an American who, in his early 20's left the capitalistic society of America to seek a life more in tune with the environment. As a seeker, he made many mistakes along the way, but has found wisdom and harmony and offers it to those who choose to visit La Cusinga Lodge. He fought to conserve and preserve paradise and has definitely made a difference in Costa Rica. He has also found a way to make science more humane. Thank you, John, for your wonderful and honest accounting of your life's journey so far! Read this if you have ever wondered what one person can do to change the world.

I live near the area in Costa Rica where the author writes about in Gringo's Hawk. We are inclined to think that the really good stuff in life has to come from overseas, certainly not from the same neighborhood where we live. So as I started reading the book, I was expecting an amateur presentation of life in the rapidly changing tropics of Costa Rica... and then I found myself reading the last page of the book and looking for more.

I have struggled a bit with my reaction to this book since I am truly biased by living here. I share, to a profound level, the concerns for the cultural, social, and ecological upheavals that we are witnessing all around us here, and that this book so capably catalogues. I regret the fact that I arrived to Costa Rica after the big trees were cut down, and I envy the author the fact that he at least got to see it. I think though that it isn't so much being a resident of this small and special part of the globe. "Morita" Costa Rica, is a microcosm of the much bigger picture. The book is a "must read" for all residents of Planet Earth.

By the way, a similar read by another local author is "Monkey's Are Made of Chocolate" by Jack Ewing, also available here at Amazon.

Even after reading so many books about costa rica and people that have gone to the tropics and try to make it, I read the Gringo's Hawk... and it is a great book. It is one of those books that flows and makes you want to know what is coming next. A great writer, simple and to the point. It brings you in and makes you part of the story.

I most say that it is a most for all of us who have travel the world, or for those that want to know about the tropics and the struggles with life.

GREAT BOOK!