The Saddest Pleasure : A Journey on Two Rivers

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: An touching and poignant view of Brazil from the eyes of an American expatriate, but more importantly a wonderfully sensitive and perceptive human being

Rating:
Summary: A writer faces down both his own past and unavoidable death.
Review: Having read Living Poor, Farm on the River of Emeralds and Journey of Two Rivers, I savored every line, every word of Thomsen's last work. What beautiful insight, honesty, and soul. My favorite narrative, perhaps ever.

Rating:
Summary: Life as it is, not as it should be
Review: I found out about Thomsen from a Paul Theroux reference and like many of Theroux's references to other writers and books, this turned out to be a winner. It's the story of an expatriate, perhaps running from his father, or looking for life's answer, joins the Peace Corps at the age of 48. After leaving the Corps, he remains in Ecuador and scrapes out a living on a farm. After being forced off the farm by a younger co-worker, Thomsen embarks on a journey that takes him to Brazil and the Amazon basin. The journey is described from the poor travler's point of view with many sad recollections of his life.

Rating:
Summary: Stop it, I love it !
Review: I had heard neither of book nor author when I unexpectedly received this book from a friend. She mentioned its being a book which presented a strong sense of place. It is indeed that, but rather more as well. Moritz Thomsen lived in Ecuador for a number of years, but then, for various reasons, launched on an extended voyage around Brazil, from Rio up the coast, around to Bélem, and then along the Amazon to Manaus. The real voyage, however, was along the twisted, frazzled byways of his soul, a journey so painful that no physical hardship could rival it. Thomsen is no doubt a good writer, because the ultimate picture we get is exactly the one he saw---peering out at Brazil through the miasmic forests of his excruciating memories. We meet a few strange or pathetic characters---but very few, mostly other foreigners---we view Brazil through his jaded, pessimistic lens, and most of all we delve into his past. He takes us along two rivers---the Amazon in a boat, and a jungle river in western Ecuador in his mind---but there is no retrieving him from the tangled mess of an awful life. The book is excellently constructed, it is honest in the style of Tobias Wolff, it has riveting descriptions of nature and of a life among poor Ecuadorians that few outsiders, save Peace Corps Volunteers, might ever have known. Thomsen understands and describes very accurately the deep exploitation of millions of people in Latin America, an oppresion that is nearly impossible to break, given the policies of rich countries. But ultimately, how you like this book is going to depend on your own personality, your own taste in tragedy. Thomsen starts with a quotation from Paul Theroux about travel being the saddest of pleasures. I felt that Thomsen did not prove the point. He is a man who spent most of his life rejecting everything that he could have been, everything that his arrogant, abusive father wanted him to be. He accomplished very little, made a total mess out of his life, had no (visible)lasting relationships, and at last came to a vague realization in his sixties that he was a 'writer'. I doubt if he can ever escape from the clutches of his long-dead father---will he ever be able to write anything beyond that endless battle ? Describing his life was no doubt the saddest of his pleasures and reading it, for some people, may be labelled a close second. In a way, I wish I had not read THE SADDEST PLEASURE. I prefer my pleasures separate from my tragedies and while such separation is not always possible, I do not savor the juxtaposition.

Rating:
Summary: Stop it, I love it !
Review: I had heard neither of book nor author when I unexpectedly received this book from a friend. She mentioned its being a book which presented a strong sense of place. It is indeed that, but rather more as well. Moritz Thomsen lived in Ecuador for a number of years, but then, for various reasons, launched on an extended voyage around Brazil, from Rio up the coast, around to Bélem, and then along the Amazon to Manaus. The real voyage, however, was along the twisted, frazzled byways of his soul, a journey so painful that no physical hardship could rival it. Thomsen is no doubt a good writer, because the ultimate picture we get is exactly the one he saw---peering out at Brazil through the miasmic forests of his excruciating memories. We meet a few strange or pathetic characters---but very few, mostly other foreigners---we view Brazil through his jaded, pessimistic lens, and most of all we delve into his past. He takes us along two rivers---the Amazon in a boat, and a jungle river in western Ecuador in his mind---but there is no retrieving him from the tangled mess of an awful life. The book is excellently constructed, it is honest in the style of Tobias Wolff, it has riveting descriptions of nature and of a life among poor Ecuadorians that few outsiders, save Peace Corps Volunteers, might ever have known. Thomsen understands and describes very accurately the deep exploitation of millions of people in Latin America, an oppresion that is nearly impossible to break, given the policies of rich countries. But ultimately, how you like this book is going to depend on your own personality, your own taste in tragedy. Thomsen starts with a quotation from Paul Theroux about travel being the saddest of pleasures. I felt that Thomsen did not prove the point. He is a man who spent most of his life rejecting everything that he could have been, everything that his arrogant, abusive father wanted him to be. He accomplished very little, made a total mess out of his life, had no (visible)lasting relationships, and at last came to a vague realization in his sixties that he was a 'writer'. I doubt if he can ever escape from the clutches of his long-dead father---will he ever be able to write anything beyond that endless battle ? Describing his life was no doubt the saddest of his pleasures and reading it, for some people, may be labelled a close second. In a way, I wish I had not read THE SADDEST PLEASURE. I prefer my pleasures separate from my tragedies and while such separation is not always possible, I do not savor the juxtaposition.

Rating:
Summary: Sad, yes. Pleasure, no.
Review: I've never read any of Thomsen's works before this and maybe it was a mistake to make this the first. Is it possible this is not the best choice for my first exposure to Thomsen? I have never had such trouble getting into a book before. I finished it on principle but not because the book engaged me in any way. It is beautifully written but rambles on and on. Put me to sleep every time I opened it which made it nearly impossible to finish.

Rating:
Summary: Startling epiphanies
Review: This is the kind of book one is reluctant to continue reading, because each session brings one closer to the end, and thus closer to the end of its startling epiphanies and immeasurable riches. A sad pleasure indeed

Rating:
Summary: Great Book.
Review: This is the only book which, having just completed reading, I have immediately reread.

Rating:
Summary: A must for RPCV reflection
Review: Thomsen touches on so many aspects of the struggle to assimilate with an adopted culture only to realize that we can only be native to one culture. For as much as Living Poor is the handbook for current and future PCVs, The Saddest Pleasure may the best COS material available.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book.
Review: Thomsen writes of traveling through Brazil and on the Amazon while remembering his unrecon-ciled struggle with his father and his hard ten years living poor on a farm in Ecuador. This is one of the very best books I have read, and I am 78! That Paul Theroux is his friend and wrote the Inro is one more recommendation.