Plant Teacher [Paperback]

Caroline Alethia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 2012

Hailed by Huffington Post contributor Joel Hirst as a compelling and powerful story, Plant Teacher begins in 1972 when a hippie in Oakland, California flushes a syringe of LSD down a toilet. Thirty-five years later, the wayward drug paraphernalia has found its final resting place in Los Yungas, Bolivia, the umbilical cord between the Andes and Amazonia. Enter into this picture two young Americans, Cheryl Lewis, trying to forge her future in La Paz and Martin Banzer, trying to come to terms with his past in the same city. The two form an unlikely friendship against the backdrop of a country teetering at the brink of dictatorship and revolution. Bolivia sparks the taste for adventure in both young people and Martin finds himself experimenting with indigenous hallucinogenic plants while Cheryl flits from one personal relationship to another. Meanwhile, the syringe buried in the silt in a marsh in Los Yungas will shape their destinies more than either could anticipate or desire. Plant Teacher takes its readers on a fast-paced tour from the hippie excesses of Oakland, to the great streams of the Pacific Ocean and the countryside, cities, natural wonders and ancient ruins of Bolivia. It reveals the mundane and the magical, and, along the way, readers glimpse the lives of everyday Bolivians struggling to establish equanimity or merely eke out a living during drastic political crisis.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Caroline Alethia is a freelance writer whose work has been published in newspapers, magazines, web outlets, and broadcast on radio. Her words have reached audiences on six continents. She lived in Bolivia and was a witness to many of the events described in Plant Teacher.

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1468138391
• ISBN-13: 978-1468138399
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,215,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Esoteric and Fabulous December 27, 2011

By mv

Format:Kindle Edition

The first word that springs to mind when describing Caroline Alethia's novel, Plant Teacher, is "esoteric." Some of the main themes the book explores include homeopathy, indigenous South American hallucinogenic plants, and the theories of Austrian psychoanalyst, Alfred Adler. Add to that a liberal sprinkling of Bolivian history, society and politics, and what you discover is a meaty story that works - incredibly well.

I was captured by the first sentence of this novel and never did find a place where the narrative lagged for me. The storyline takes us from California, across the Pacific, throughout Bolivia, up the East Coast of the United States, and back to Bolivia again. Throughout most of this journey, the main character, a recent college graduate named Martin, must cope with a bizarre and tantalizing problem which I won't give away in this review. Other characters alternatively try to help him or blame him for his foolishness in bringing his problem upon himself.

Will or won't Martin solve "theproblem," as he calls it in an Excel file on his desktop? The answer to that question isn't resolved until the end of the book, and in the meantime Alethia does a lot of things right along the way. The pacing of Plant Teacher couldn't be better. Most passages are page turners, and if you aren't turning the page it's because you're enjoying lingering over her very often very beautiful prose. Each character is richly evolved and whether likeable or not, all of the characters prove to be deeply interesting. Dialogues smack of realism and are, again, thoroughly enjoyable - so much so that at times it's easy to imagine this first-rate work of fiction converted to a play.

Open your mind to the idea that life can be strange, and set aside a weekend for a great read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Get ready for a very special trip September 4, 2012

By panuli5

Format:Paperback

This story has a part of everyone in it, meaning, you are sure to find some of your most secret traits in the characters described in the story. The author does an excellent job in studying people in deep detail. The story brings together cultures and languages from distant parts of the world, from the US to countries in South America to a small country like Austria. This tale is sure to peak the interest of all. When can we read another book from Caroline Alethia?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book March 8, 2012

By Cat Lady

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I subscribe to a service that sends out the first chapter or so of a book and that is how I discovered Plant Teacher. Intrigued by the first few pages, I bought the book. It is a fantastic read, reminiscent of the early Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City series) and Joan Didion's early works. Set in Bolivia, the book traces a few months in the lives of a handful of Americans living in Bolivia but is much deeper than that sentence would imply. There is an underlying story of the inter-connectiveness of everything. This is an excellent well-written book and one that I will remember for a long time to come.

Read it today.