Conchie Fernandez's Blog - Posts Tagged "americans-in-peru"
My Review of "Notes from the Lightning God" by John W. Schouten
John W. Schouten created a perfectly plausible story of a young American student of anthropology, Sam Young, caught in the midst of a perilous leftist revolution in Peru. Sam, out of sorts in his hometown in Oregon, is searching (as many of us are in our twenties and beyond) for some sort of hinge and meaning to his life after his father's death. Sam drops out of med school and his volunteer work in a small clinic catering to Central and South American migrant workers inspires him to uproot his entire existence and move to a small town in Peru. What is certain is that Sam gets much more than he could ever imagine once he lands in Lima, and later in smaller mountain villages, and begins to peel away at the complex layers of politics and society in 1980s Peru.
Schouten describes the ravages of the local guerrilla, a Communist group called Camino Rojo or Red Road (loosely translated) which is, I think, based on the very real Sendero Luminoso that terrorized the South American nation for years in the late 70s through the 90s. As Sam meets the different and mesmerizing secondary characters of "Notes from the Lightning God", the reader is pulled into the bloody fight for social equality and one wonders, more than once, who the 'bad' guys are in Schouten's tale. Is it the rich upper class, shrouded in corruption and opportunity, the two elusive women Sam is attracted to, the Peruvian army, or the idealistic and brutal Camino Rojo? Sam is at times a demi-god, a not-so-innocent gringo observer, a logger of local history, a student of real life in Latin America in the mid-80s and a very compelling character that, in spite of the hardships of his situations, moves the story along with bewitching naivete, bravery and compassion.
As a Latina, I really appreciated the flawless depiction of life in Peru in a markedly difficult period in history, and the perfect insertion of Spanish into the English narrative. The book is a poetic, genial thriller. Mr. Schouten has written an amazing novel, and I can only hope he graces his readers with many, many other books to come. Bravo, Senor Schouten!Notes from the Lightning God
Schouten describes the ravages of the local guerrilla, a Communist group called Camino Rojo or Red Road (loosely translated) which is, I think, based on the very real Sendero Luminoso that terrorized the South American nation for years in the late 70s through the 90s. As Sam meets the different and mesmerizing secondary characters of "Notes from the Lightning God", the reader is pulled into the bloody fight for social equality and one wonders, more than once, who the 'bad' guys are in Schouten's tale. Is it the rich upper class, shrouded in corruption and opportunity, the two elusive women Sam is attracted to, the Peruvian army, or the idealistic and brutal Camino Rojo? Sam is at times a demi-god, a not-so-innocent gringo observer, a logger of local history, a student of real life in Latin America in the mid-80s and a very compelling character that, in spite of the hardships of his situations, moves the story along with bewitching naivete, bravery and compassion.
As a Latina, I really appreciated the flawless depiction of life in Peru in a markedly difficult period in history, and the perfect insertion of Spanish into the English narrative. The book is a poetic, genial thriller. Mr. Schouten has written an amazing novel, and I can only hope he graces his readers with many, many other books to come. Bravo, Senor Schouten!Notes from the Lightning God
