Customer Reviews

Guanacaste Snapshots: Experiences in Rural Costa Rica

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

"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."

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.

I don't know about the reviewers who said that you will never forget the people in this book. Still, this book was just what I wanted after my 2-week trip - interesting vignettes from someone who truly experienced Costa Rica.

You should know that most of the stories occured at least a decade or more ago, in case that matters to you. Also, there wasn't much about Costa Rican wildlife.