Guanacaste Snapshots: Experiences in Rural Costa Rica [Paperback]

Susan Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2004

Like the mirror chips in a rotating ball, these stories provide images of the shifting realities of a small world, Tempira, Guanacaste, before it became the trendy vacation destination and retirement paradise it is today.

Delight in these intimate word portraits which paint honest, personal, sometimes funny, sometimes painful views of the human ironies and contradictions in relationships and experiences with people in the same community over a twenty-year period. The author was not a visitor in Costa Rica. It was her home.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

From 1964?1966, Susan Gordon was a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica. She returned there in 1973 with her husband and lived in the same small town until 1981. Returning again in 1983 for a 4-month stay, she prepared her doctoral dissertation research in folklore studies at UCLA. Her last visit was in 1994, but Ms. Gordon continues to maintain contact with close friends there.After completing a Ph.D. in 1986 (dissertation: Characterizing ?the Other?: Costa Ricans? Ambivalent Attitudes Expressed Traditionally About Each Other and Their Nicaraguan Neighbors), Ms. Gordon worked as Associate Director of the California Council for the Humanities in Los Angeles. She moved to Israel in 1998.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (July 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595321194
• ISBN-13: 978-0595321193
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,735,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and memorable, April 7, 2006

By 

Michael Phillips - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guanacaste Snapshots: Experiences in Rural Costa Rica (Paperback)

An exciting book with stories that I can't get out of my mind, months after reading it.

This book is more than vignettes of life in Costa Rica, this is first rate anthropology in fictional and memoir form. You will never forget the people in these stories. They will make you laugh, cry and fear. Great stories about fascinating real people.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating memoir of the life and people of Guanacaste, November 20, 2004

By 

Susan C. Spivack "reader & writer" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guanacaste Snapshots: Experiences in Rural Costa Rica (Paperback)

"What a wonderful book! Well written, with deep honesty and self-understanding. This fascinating description of a young idealistic woman's sojourn to a land and culture new to her, and how it became her home for many years, is also great memoir. Beautiful portraits of the residents of Guanacaste, with detailed images that give us the smells, tastes, music and human drama of Costa Rican rural life. And somehow these portraits hold up a mirror that help writer and the reader see their own lives. I loved reading it. So many of the chapters ended just right--with a resounding final sentence and last detail to set me down powerfully. I'm very very impressed."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Personal Account of Living in Costa Rica, August 14, 2004

By 

R. A. Georges (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guanacaste Snapshots: Experiences in Rural Costa Rica (Paperback)

Susan Gordon lived in Costa Rica for more than 10 years between 1964 and 1983, first as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a resident and college teacher, and finally as a dissertation researcher. She last visited the country in 1994. Gordon writes insightful, moving accounts of her journeys, detailing what she learned about Costa Ricans--and herself--as she taught and interacted with them. In concise and often poetic prose, she selectively documents and sensitively comments on the challenges she faced as she adapted to life in another country and responded to unfamiliar environments and often puzzling social mores.