A Place in the Rain Forest: Settling the Costa Rican Frontier (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the 1950s, Darryl Cole-Christensen and his family were among the first settlers of the Coto Brus, an almost impenetrable, mountainous rain forest region of southeastern Costa Rica. In this evocative book, he captures the elemental struggles and rewards of settling a new frontier--an experience forever closed to most people in Western, urbanized society. With the perspective of more than forty years' residence in the Coto Brus, Cole-Christensen ably describes both the settlers' dreams of bringing civilization and progress to the rain forest and the sweeping and irreversible changes they caused throughout the ecosystem as they cut the rain forest down. Writing neither to apologize for nor to defend their actions, he instead illuminates the personal and subjective factors that cause people to risk danger and hardship for the uncertain rewards of settling a frontier. In his own words, Cole-Christensen says, "This is a book for the scientist who wants to recapture a sense of an incalculable world departed, for the student who asks: How is it that our forebears changed and restructured this land? For the adventurer who dreams of the expanse of frontiers, for every person who, having passed once through the darkening forest along a path in twilit stillness looks back to find that a blanket of murmurs remains."

Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; First Edition edition (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292711913
• ISBN-13: 978-0292711914
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,191,398 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a deep, thought provoking and wonderful book., November 20, 1997

By A Customer

A Place in the Rain Forest is not only the story of an adventure, but a journey of the spirit. I found myself listening to the sound of the rain falling in an untouched wilderness and walking with bare foot peasants as they came to settle a new land. Cole-Christensen had a tremendous insight to the character of the land,the people who live on it, and the consequences of their actions. It is a story for any one who has ever wondered what it would be like to go to a wilderness and become a settler.....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Evocation of the Rainforest, April 13, 2000

By	Brian "w01" (Costa Rica) - See all my reviews

It is beautifully written--- the writer must also be a poet. The evocation of the forest, the air and the rain, the sweating labor of the horses and the men, the mud, all was done very well. The fine language combined with the author's humility made this an unusual book to come out of a backwoods experience. It is about farming on the frontier but it is also very much about his own growth!

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Apology, February 24, 2002

By A Customer

This book is a waste of the readers time and money. Christensen travels to the Costa Rican rain forest with his family to settle the "frontier". He never gives an explinatoin as to why he decided to travel to the "frontier", only excuses and apologies to his many, many mistakes. Darryl Cole-Christensen hates the rainforest, he hated it from the day he arrived and he hates it to this day. His only interest in the rainforest is monetary, money drives this man and this book. I had to buy and read this book for my college course, you have a choice.