At Play in the Fields of the Lord

I've always been a bit of an escapist, so this book was perfect for me. Peter Mattiessen is actually a travel writer, well qualified to describe the South American rain forest setting. What surprises is how well he conveys the brutal reality of what might befall us, should we find ourselves sitting at a rickety wooden table at La Concepción Taverna at the end of a mud street in the jungle.You will find yourself in the strangest company. It's hard to tell the savages from the decent white folk. The Missionary's wife appears to be losing her mind. The natives are restless. The mercenaries passing through town. You are about to meet Lewis Moon and, for some reason, you will not be able to look away.This is a disturbing book, no-one is spared, not even the reader.

One theme I found to be particularly compelling in this book which has not been directly explored in the reviews currently posted is the search for identity which seemingly each character in this novel is engaged. Lewis Moon, a man who existes on the fringe of the dominant culture of the US, longs for validation in the culture of his ancestors, a culture which is tragically unavailable. The missionaries, Protestant and Catholic alike, seek identity and validation in the people they seek to convert, including the endless "conversion" of their own families. The other characters have their own identity issues. The most compelling of these searches, to my mind, was that of Lewis Moon who, without any feeling of loyalty to any culture available to him, seeks identity in an indiginous culture not yet eradicated by the dominant Chilean culture of European origin. (Perhaps he thinks he can help them avoid the fate of the culture of his ancestors.) The novel explores each character's basis for self-perception and what they do when their basic assumptions about their role in the world are challenged. What does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be an American who has had his citizenship revoked? What does it mean to have faith? What if the dogma of your denomination appears to produce results that seem "un-Christlike?" What does it mean to indentify as a member of an indigineous people? What does that mean when you are among members of another indiginous people? All these questions (and there are many more) posed in the book have lead me to a better perception of who I am and why I think so. One of the best books I've had the pleasure to have read.

This book carried me WAY beyond the story line, using the questionable character of Lewis Moon as transportation. The well-meaning Quarriers were as lost and out of place in the jungle as the natives would have been if you dropped them off somewhere between 42nd Street and Central Park. And the death of the innocent child is a sacrifice to that ignorance.The journey of Lewis Moon away from civilization into the native life represents two things--a retreat from the sophistication of a society to which he did not seem to belong, and a search for an ultimate truth. As he penetrates further and further into the jungle, he comes closer and closer to the heart of life itself, and closer ultimately to death. This story is a mystery to which you have to write your own ending, and I dearly loved reading it!I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the juxtaposition of humor and tragedy, and the complicated contradictions of the human spirit