The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers - Softcover

Moritz Thomsen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0712647104 ISBN 13: 9780712647106

Publisher: The Sumach Press, 1992

Synopsis

This is an account, introduced by Paul Theroux, of the author's journey as a 63-year-old gringo through Brazil. During the course of this journey he reflects on his escape in middle age from his wealthy pacific Northwest family to South America, where he became a Peace Crops worker in Ecuador. He then tells of how he brought a farm which he worked in partnership with a local friend. 12 years later his friend kicked him off the farm and Thomsen, stunned by the rejection embarked on a trip across Brazil. In candid prose, he describes Rio, Bahia, and the Amazon River, lined with one-room shacks and millionaires' rancheros. Gradually through his relationship with this extraordinary continent and with the people he meets along the way, he begins to make sense of his life.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The Saddest Pleasure

The Saddest Pleasure is a deeply personal look at the people, poverty, beauty, art, music, literature, and passion of South America by an American who has spent most of his life there.

Moritz Thomsen was one of the early Peace Corps volunteers. Through his skill as a writer he vividly brings to life the people and landscapes he loves. The Saddest Pleasure tells the story of Thomsen's desperate departure from Ecuador at the age of sixty-three and his soul-searching journey through Brazil and the Amazon River. Along the way the author reflects on the meaning of his own life and the world around him, his friendships, and on the distances between people and cultures.

Thomsen's spirited observations are tinged with irascibility, as he moves from city to feudal countryside, from primitive conditions to the startlingly contemporary details of a culture in transition.

Paul Theroux's introduction to this book is a testament to Mr. Thomsen's remarkable life.

About the Author

Moritz Thomsen, born in 1915, lives now in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He served as a bombardier in the eighth Air Force During World War II. At the age of 48 he became one of the early Peace Corps volunteers. His first book, Living Poor, chronicles his four-year Peace Corps experience of living in a small fishing village in Ecuador in the 1960s. He returned to Ecuador after leaving the Peace Corps to become a farmer on the Esmeraldas River, an experience he describes in The Farm on the River of Emeralds. He continues to travel and live in South America.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Sumach Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0712647104
• ISBN 13: 9780712647106
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 276