The Gringo's Hawk

Rating:
Summary: Great Book, great live... loved it!
Review: Even after reading so many books about costa rica and people that have gone to the tropics and try to make it, I read the Gringo's Hawk... and it is a great book. It is one of those books that flows and makes you want to know what is coming next. A great writer, simple and to the point. It brings you in and makes you part of the story.

I most say that it is a most for all of us who have travel the world, or for those that want to know about the tropics and the struggles with life.

GREAT BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: The Gringo's Hawk Will Haunt Your Mind, Too
Review: For the sake of truth in reviewing, I confess that I had a small editorial/copy editing role in this book's preparation. From the first, this has been a 5-star book in my life, and fortunately, Maranon overcame my "help" and saw the project to completion. Readers will be engaged by an engaging author who doesn't "take himself too seriously." He might have had a comfortable life, or a wildly exciting life as a "rock star," but he had two character "flaws": a passionate love of the natural world and integrity. He had to live in nature, as a steward, and he had to "live authentically"; so his life became an adventure in a paradise on the southwest coast of Costa Rica. His love of the natural world was under serious assault from both humans and from nature itself. In many ways, and in many instances and circumstances, his idealism and integrity became self-inflicted punishment, or folly, or were tested almost to the breaking point. The central image of the gringo's hawk powerfully captures the central conflict of the author's unexpected role as a gringo padron in a strange land. The bugs and tropical diseases and machete violence in that land would not have been "interesting" or mere problems to be solved for most of us. So it is a privilege to vicariously experience Maranon's life and world. On the political stage, he had a large role in environmental sttruggles in Costa Rica, which came accompanied by descents into bureaucratic hell. The author observed happening to his beloved land what has happened all around the world. but for him the ecological degradation and destruction has been personal. He details the effects with naturalist precision but feels the effects in gut and soul, as will readers. And now, Maranon and the rest of us arrive at a time of amoral squatters and desperate refugees. . . . We may, bowever, lack Maranon's spirit and integrity.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite kind of book!
Review: I have piles of books that I intend to read someday. I thus have no time for slow moving books. Gringo's Hawk is a delightful and fast moving story that drew me in and allowed me to feel like I was participating in the story. I laughed. I cried. I shook with anticipation. This story is a joy to read.

Now, where can I find another as good?

Rating:
Summary: A great book, a must read for everyone
Review: Once in a while you come across a movie, a place, or a book that takes you in and makes you part of it. One can have this experience at so many levels, but the deeper you are taken the better the experience. A book that does this and at the same time it forces you see the world in a different way, or to think about the way you look at life... well, that's a GREAT book. I had only a few books create such an experience in my life. But none so exuberant as this master piece.

I hope that you have a chance to read this book and I hope that it creates an unique experience for you as it as for me.

Rating:
Summary: An enlightening work on change and growth in Costa Rica
Review: The Gringo's Hawk is a thoroughly enjoyable read by Jon Marañon (nom de plume). Marañon made the tropical paradise of Costa Rica his home some 30 years ago and documented the immense change he witnessed in the ensuing years in a charming erstwhile enlightening manner. He describes the socio-cultural and ecological conditions of a remote part of Costa Rica as he found them, and the changes and growing pains he suffered and shared with the local community during his years there.

Through his memoirs we share Marañon's joy, anger, and frustration in his dealings with inept beauracracies and cultural roadblocks. At times one is drawn into his dejection, his pain and sorrow; at other times we are taken by his joy and satisfaction. We feel his love and fascination for the rainforest, the flora and fauna, and the planet. The book is full of interesting cultural and ecological observations, yet is never pedantic.

As we follow the author while he eeks out an existence in the rainforest, we learn about a life without luxuries such as power and transportation. We witness the personal transformations he underwent from idealist, to realist, and ultimately to environmental activist and philanthropist.

The lessons learned in the Gringo's Hawk make it a must-read for anyone interested in the recent natural history and changing sociology of Costa Rica. From his unique perspective, Marañon has successfully documented the challenges, on personal, ecological and cultural levels, faced by Costa Rica and its citizens during its emergence as a modern, globalized nation.

Having lived in Costa Rica in recent times, often wondering how the country once was, I highly recommend The Gringo's Hawk.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling, highly recommended autobiographical story
Review: The Gringo's Hawk is the personal memoir of a varied and remarkable life. Jon Maranon was an idealistic American who became a landowner on the southwest coast of Costa Rica. Maranon found himself confronted with one crisis after another ranging from chicken hawks, to termites, to adjudicating peasant disputes, to conflicts with other landlords who felt Maranon paid his peasants too much. He fervently battled with Costa Rican government to stop the slow degradation of the environment, and worked with scientists to understand more about the migration patterns of whales. The Gringo's Hawk is the compelling, highly recommended autobiographical story of a unique, candidly presented, and singularly fascinating life.