In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon [Paperback]

Redmond O'Hanlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 1990

O'Hanlon takes us into the bug-ridden rain forest between the Orinoco and the Amazon--infested with jaguars and piranhas, where men would kill over a bottle of ketchup and where the locals may be the most violent people on earth (next to hockey fans).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author traveled uncharted rivers in a dugout canoe, on a four-month journey to Venezuelan Amazonia. His intention: to meet--and "party" with--the Yanomami tribe, reputedly the most violent people on earth. "His descriptions of landscape and animals are superb . . . O'Hanlon's approach to travel borders on the lunatic," said PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

O'Hanlon takes us into the bug-ridden rain forest between the Orinoco and the Amazon--infested with jaguars and piranhas, where men would kill over a bottle of ketchup and where the locals may be the most violent people on earth (next to hockey fans).

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Edition edition (April 14, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679727140
• ISBN-13: 978-0679727149
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Travel > Latin America > South America > Venezuela
  • #11 in Books > Travel > Latin America > South America > Colombia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I would only armchair travel with O'Hanlon, October 30, 2002

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon (Paperback)

I wouldn't travel with Redmond O'Hanlon personally, although I'm quite happy to be a vicarious companion. And judging from O'Hanlon's opener here--where he tries to find someone to accompany him in his latest foray--it seem that my opinion is shared by O'Hanlon's friends. Except for one--who is shown to be under a mistaken impression about what a jaunt down the Amazon is like, not to mention having Redmond O'Hanlon planning the trip.

The title aptly describes the action. If you read O'Hanlon's Into the Heart of Borneo, this book follows without nary a break. While it doesn't have quite the originality of the first book, it doesn't fail to fulfill the promise of that book either. O'Hanlon's a little bit wiser, but still as trusting and stubborn. He presses on in circum- stances where most would have turned around--things like the fiercest tribe of natives in the world, torrential rainfall (not to be trifled with, especially on a river), and rapids in which he is dumped and unable to escape until a mile or so down river.

The best thing about O'Hanlon--although the amazing trips he takes are worthwhile in and of themselves--is the companions that he does manage to take. I'm not talking about the physical companions, who do provide humorous interludes, but the ones that are to be found in the books--the explorers who have traveled this route before. Rather than just supplying a bibliography, O'Hanlon uses them to annotate his own trip. An adventurer and a scholar, O'Hanlon's one of the best.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Half of a good book, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon (Paperback)

In the first half of this book, with the constantly hillarious Simon as a foil, Hanlon is hilarious. Through Simon's eyes and comments the reader can see the hilarity and, oftentimes, insanity of Hanlon's quests. But once Simon bugs out, Hanlon loses his reality check. The reader sees only Halnon's relentlessly cheery description of a journey that can only be becoming more unpleasant. Without Simon along to tell how it really is -- bizarre, unpleasant, and often painful -- the book loses its edge and becomes a mostly tedious recitation of the birds and plants seen along the way. The first half of the book would, by itself merit four or five stars, but the dull ending drags it down to three.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Travel writing at its finest, February 4, 2002

By 

xaosdog "xaosdog" (Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon (Paperback)

O'Hanlon is an academic, really; the natural history editor of the Times Literary Supplement and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Furthermore, he claims to look like Benny Hill, a claim borne out by his book-jacket photographs.
He is, therefore, an entirely unlikely candidate for the outrageous adventures he gets himself into while traveling.

I have read a handful of his accounts, and they are all completely mad. But I have to conclude that this is the best of the lot.

Briefly, this is the account of his travels through Amazonia, in a small wooden boat, ultimately to the homelands of the Yanomami (the "Fierce People" in Napoleon Chagnon's memorable phrase). Everyone O'Hanlon meets is terrified of the violent, unpredictable Yanomami, and he is hard pressed to find anyone to accompany him on his journey. When he finally meets them, he loses no time before joining them in a blast or two of hallucinogenic ebene, afterwards falling into a stupor while gazing lustfully at the local chief's young daughter.

Anyone could make these adventures interesting to read. After treatment by a writer of O'Hanlon's skill and humor, the book is impossible to put down.