Journey To Bom Goody [Paperback]

Karen Heuler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2006

Fiction. Karen Heuler's new novel, JOURNEY TO BOM GOODY, takes us to the Amazon River where a retired electronics store owner conducts a "social experiment" by delivering VCRs and portable electric generators to increasingly isolated natives along the riverbank. The fantastical results are as telling about America's Entertainment-Tonight civilization as they are about native South Americans.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Forbes is a retired American electronics salesman who seeks meaning in his life by going on a sort of vision quest into the Amazon. His plan is to deliver electricity, TV, and film to the most remote tribes in the jungle and then witness their transformation. Exposure to media will allow these disenfranchised peoples entry into the wider world's discourse, Forbes believes. He does not seem to realize the damage his plan might wreak. A likable but culpable rube, he is haunted by memories of the tragic accident that killed his Amazonian wife and son, but he loses his grip in a land whose language and customs become increasingly alien to him. Then Tina, an ethnobotanist on her own jungle mission, comes to the aid of the stranded Forbes; together, the pair goes in search of the mysterious Bom Goody tribe. Stronger character development would have given Forbes' quest more substance, but it will satisfy those looking for only an anthropological adventure tale. Misha Stone
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Livingston Press (January 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931982546
• ISBN-13: 978-1931982542
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,864,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Little Novel about the Amazon, May 4, 2005

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Journey To Bom Goody (Paperback)

Karen Heuler's "Journey to Bom Goody" should appeal to those who are familiar with Andrea Barrett's fiction and especially, Yann Martel's "Life of Pi". Like Martel's novel, Heuler poses some interesting questions about people and their willingness to interact well with others of their kind, but her novel is less philosophical in scope. Like both authors, Heuler writes in a descriptive, often lyrical, prose, which pays homage to the Amazon and its native people. The main protagonist Forbes, a American saddened by the unexpected death of his wife - an Amazon native who grew up in the United States - makes an impromptu pilgrimage to the Amazon in her memory and to conduct an "experiment", trying to assess the natives' reaction to modern society in the form of television. But his experiment goes awry when he meets Tina, a young, attractive ethnobotanist, who is like Forbes, a fellow outcast from contemporary American society. In a journey that seems like a pale reflection of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and Forbes, the enigmatic Kurtz-like figure, they seek the isolated native village mentioned in the novel's title. My only disappointment is how swiftly Heuler ties up the knots, so to speak, at the end of the novel; otherwise I would have granted it a five star review. Heuler is definitely a writer whose time may be at hand, and one worth getting acquainted by fellow Amazon.com customers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unforgettable culture shock adventure, January 13, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journey To Bom Goody (Paperback)

Set along the Amazon River, Journey to Bom Goody is a wry novel about a retired electronics salesman who takes it upon himself to conduct the "social experiment" of delivering VCRs and portable electric generators to the isolated natives who live near the River's shores, ostensibly to give them a chance to study modern civilization as it has studied them. But his experiment leads to some haywire twists and turns when he retains a non-English-speaking guide who thinks his father is a dolphin, and encounters a beautiful ethno-botanist searching for fertility drugs. As events become increasingly bizarre, Journey to Bom Goody becomes maverick, exciting, and at times insightful in a good-humored way. Written a deliberate attempt of the author to balance Amazon culture views with those of the larger world, Journey to Bom Goody is an unforgettable culture shock adventure.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Lush, December 14, 2005

By 

Katherine Ludwig - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Journey To Bom Goody (Hardcover)

Readers of this book will travel through a vividly described and matter-of-factly dangerous rainforest, privy to the various insights of locals (pondering their own lives as well as passed down myths and lore) and gringo visitors with supposedly altruistic schemes. Not only do we cover distance as we travel deep into the lush and insect-filled Amazon, but we see our main characters adapt, question themselves, and emotionally change, as they and their stories intersect, separate, and intersect again, etc.

This is a fascinating and unusual book. I kind of feel like I've been in a rainforest.