Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle
by Moritz Thomsen
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Book Summary Information
Author: Moritz ThomsenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1990-05
ISBN: 0295969288
Number of pages: 280
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Book Reviews of Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle
Book Review: First of the Trilogy
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I was a Peace Corps volunteer I did not read this in preparation of my service (although I wish I had). I was drawn to this book after reading a friend's copy of Moritz's "Farm on the River of Emeralds" which was such an excellent book I wanted to read more of Moritz's writing. I was not disappointed by "Living Poor". As referred to in the subtitle this is a chronicle of Moritz's experience joining the Peace Corps and traveling to Ecuador where he spends most of the next four years working with the people of Rio Verde, a village on the Pacific Coast near Esmeraldas.
I think "Farm on the River of Emeralds" is a better literary work and reflects the development of Moritz as a writer as well as his enriched experience over time in Ecuador. This did not reduce my enjoyment and appreciation of "Living Poor". This is a book that reveals poverty as deeply and as powerfully as Rohinton Mistry's novel on India, "A Fine Balance".
Moritz is an excellent observer of people and writes of their appearance, mannerism, and background with portrait accuracy but also with humor and sensitivity. I remember a description of a woman in the village that was feared by all the families. She was a bruja, a witch that could cast spells and control people with her "brews of secret leaves". Moritz meets and describes her..."She had great square teeth, strong and yellow, and her smile was like some aristocratic but fading French countess right out of Proust. She was in her sixties but her hair was still dark and tied in two teenaged pigtails; they stuck out wildly from out beneath a limp and incredibly well used straw hat, the top of which was broken and hinged. When you talked to her on the beach and a breeze was blowing the top of the hat kept opening and closing mysteriously, as though it was trying to send you a secret message without..her seeing."
I did not read Moritz as having a dark perspective as mentioned by some previous reviewers here. He is just very honest, perhaps a little self depreciative but very capable of showing the struggles, joy and humor of the people of this little village in Ecuador. I now consider him one of my favorite authors and very much look forward to reading "Farm on the River Emeralds" again and his last book about his life in Ecuador "The Saddest Pleasure".
Summary of Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle
At the age of 48, Moritz Thomsen sold his pig farm and joined the Peace Corps. As he tells the story, his awareness of the comic elements in the human situation - including his own - and his ability to convey it in fast-moving, earthy prose have made "Living Poor" a classic. 'Hilariously funny at times, grimly sad at others and elavened with perceptive insights into the ways of the people and with breathtaking descriptions of the Ecuadorian landscape' - St. Louis Post-Dispatch.Travel Books
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