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32nd out of 65 books
—
23 voters
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
In a malarial outpost in the South American rain forest, two misplaced gringos converge and clash. Martin Quarrier has come to convert the fearful and elusive Niaruna Indians to his brand of Christianity. Lewis Moon, a stateless mercenary who is himself part Indian, has come to kill them on behalf of the local comandante.Out of their struggle Peter Matthiessen has created...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
December 3rd 1991
by Vintage
(first published 1965)
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Author Peter Matthessen is a naturalist and documentary filmmaker. At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a novel set in the Amazon. The same year he wrote the novel he also worked on the famous but somewhat controversial documentary Dead Birds.
At Play in the Fields of the Lord is another take on Heart of Darkness. A mercinary and a family of missionaries both come to a remote village for polar oppsoite reasons leaving the villagers in a tug of war. As with Conrad's tale, fantasticism ultimately...more
At Play in the Fields of the Lord is another take on Heart of Darkness. A mercinary and a family of missionaries both come to a remote village for polar oppsoite reasons leaving the villagers in a tug of war. As with Conrad's tale, fantasticism ultimately...more
I agree with a previous reviewer that this is similar in theme to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. A group of American evangelical missionaries move to the Amazon to convert the natives. This is a dark story leaving the reader with more questions than answers. The prose is excellent (albeit lengthy at times) and the characters are well-developed.
The film version is superb and has an outstanding cast including a scene with Kathy Bates that is one of the greatest performances ever done on screen.
The film version is superb and has an outstanding cast including a scene with Kathy Bates that is one of the greatest performances ever done on screen.
I've been wanting to read a Peter Matthiessen novel for such a long time. I started to read one several years ago - the one about Nepal - but after I'd read fifty pages I realized I would like it one day but that I couldn't concentrate enough to enjoy it then. I have fewer excuses and fewer distractions these days, so I persevered this time. Through the lines and lines of words, so many words. Sometimes I had to skim just to keep moving through paragraphs, which makes me think admire Matthiessen...more
Oct 20, 2008
Eugene
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in Truth's darker side.
Recommended to Eugene by:
Fate
A penetrating, visceral novel that plays out in a backwater hell-hole village deep in the Bolivian Amazon. The cast of characters includes fundamentalist Christian missionaries, a drunken and thoroughly debauched military commander, two professional mercenaries, and a tribe of pre-contact Amazonian tribesman. This amazing ensemble sets the stage for deep, and often profoundly disturbing insights into the nature of the human mind, the ambiguities surrounding moral behavior, and our capacity for b...more
Brilliant. Such earthily irreverent work reminds me of Tom Robbins at his best.
A family comes to Remate del Males to help expand the missionary founded by a young couple. The missionaries want to save the natives not only from their paganism but also from the catalicos who have been in the jungles of South America for hundred of years. The natives are particularly resistant to conversion and somewhat adept at playing both sides. And Lewis Moon is a Native American from South Dakota who leads a s...more
A family comes to Remate del Males to help expand the missionary founded by a young couple. The missionaries want to save the natives not only from their paganism but also from the catalicos who have been in the jungles of South America for hundred of years. The natives are particularly resistant to conversion and somewhat adept at playing both sides. And Lewis Moon is a Native American from South Dakota who leads a s...more
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My favorite book ever, at least so far as I recall. Protestant missionaries, Catholic missionaries, and a Lakota con-man turned his own sort of missionary in the Amazon jungle. Everyone's flawed, everyone has a plan to save the Natives, and everyone loses their minds a bit. The most likeable character turns out to be the hellfire and brimstone Protestant missionary. They made a good movie of it, too, but the scenes on mind-altering drugs don't work so well in there. Peter Matthieson is the man,...more
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Really interesting novel about missionaries trying to convert an indigenous community in Peru back in the 1960s. But about a lot more...sounds weird, but actually pretty good. Really excellent writer. Some missionaries we met said it puts them in a bad light...so depends on the reader of course.
Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book alongside listening to Jared Diamond's The World Until Yesterday. The juxtaposition made me realize how much research Matthiessen must have performed to get the possible interactions between the tribes and the missionaries right and, additionally, to move beyond cliche.
Favorite Matthiessen story I once heard him tell in an interview (source no longer known): It was about how he never reached the kind of fame as a writer in which people would recognize hi...more
Favorite Matthiessen story I once heard him tell in an interview (source no longer known): It was about how he never reached the kind of fame as a writer in which people would recognize hi...more
A slow starting though thought provoking book exploring ideas of "progress," colonialism, colonial mentality and manifest destiny. 4 missionaries travel to the Amazon to convert the traditional Niaruna people, who have managed to preserve their indigenous customs, despite the "conversion" of several local tribes to Catholicism and Protestantism. Thoughout the process of reaching out to the Niaruna, the missionaries begin to learn that some of their ideas are not so easily translatable, and even...more
Imagine my surprise as I groped through the aisle of the library, seemingly in the "M" section when I came upon several of Peters books in the fiction section. I thought he only wrote nonfiction. I picked this book of the three or so offerings and laid it on the stack I was accumulating for the weeks reading.
As I began to read I immediately became sucked in and totally immersed in the story, the setting, the characters. It began to occur to me, about midway through, that this book reminds me of...more
As I began to read I immediately became sucked in and totally immersed in the story, the setting, the characters. It began to occur to me, about midway through, that this book reminds me of...more
Dec 13, 2011
Rayme
added it
This book had its mirror image in The Poisonwood Bible. Missionaries ill trained for their surroundings and operating what was a well intentioned mission that ultimately wreck a cultural and physical Armageddon on the native tribes of foreign land. APTFL took place in South America instead of Africa, a boy child dies instead of a girl, but as in The Poisonwood Bible, religious and political hypocrisy is exposed, lust bubbles, the mission fails, everyone goes crazy, etc
The Poisonwood Bible I foun...more
The Poisonwood Bible I foun...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book can be read strictly as a great story; but it is hard for it not to resonate within myself at least on so many levels: finding oneself, the face of evil(man corrupted by greed and power--not a new concept by any means, but very well eximplified by characters and deeds perpetrated throughout the story as well as motives--some even done in the misguided perpetuation of good!) Feuding religous factions that are more interested in the how of accomplishing Christ's message of spreading the...more
I must admit that I'm still digesting this book. It was little hard to get into, as events would take place for certain characters and then again from another perspective without the clearest of indications that this was happening. Once I did get into it however, it really became a fascinating book.
Though there have been many, many stories about missionaries trying to convert "savage" peoples to Christianity, from The African Queen to The Poisonwood Bible, At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a...more
Though there have been many, many stories about missionaries trying to convert "savage" peoples to Christianity, from The African Queen to The Poisonwood Bible, At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a...more
While searching for Shadow Country, I came across Matthiessen's well-acclaimed book on Native American confrontation with evangelistic missionaries, something personally intriguing since taking a social science course on ethnocentric conflicts during my Master's of Liberal Arts pursuits. The movie version of At Play in the Field of the Lord was a required viewing the first day, a long but engaging look at many topics related to Native American (and in this case, Native South American) tragedies....more
This is a book that makes you ponder the big questions of existence, faith, what is right. The central character, Lewis Moon, becomes the essential seeker and center point for the clash between civilizations in the Amazon basin. He has a gravitational pull that causes all who contact him to draw close in love and hate. Importantly, he is a "lost" Cherokee Indian named after Meriwether Lewis who gets entangled with evangelical missionaries, corrupt government, and native tribes. The reader is exc...more
What an overwhelming story - this novelist picks you up and turns you inside out. I would hesitate to criticize the sincerity of the Christian missionaries. From my Christian perspective I was intrigued by the verbal sword play between the "evangelicos" and the Catholic priest that the author meted out in various parts of the book, and I was reminded of the all too recent near-enmity between Protestant and Catholic branches of Christianity. On a different level, Lewis Moon's American Indian char...more
A flaming soul-wringer of a book. This tale of repressed and horny missionaries and crazed mercenaries pestering the wild Indians of South America contains more sweaty hysteria and seething malarial madness than Heart of Darkness or The Wages of Fear.
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Something about the narrative never really gripped me. The destruction and death that peppers this book seemed utterly pointless. And not in the reflective sense that all death and destruction are meaningless.
The early parts of the novel are well written and evocative. What starts as a vivid unfamiliar terrain devolves into the same senselessness that pervades the do-gooders actions towards the native population. The main characters seem so unaware of their self-imposed suffering that it is hard...more
The early parts of the novel are well written and evocative. What starts as a vivid unfamiliar terrain devolves into the same senselessness that pervades the do-gooders actions towards the native population. The main characters seem so unaware of their self-imposed suffering that it is hard...more
4.5, but will round since "half stars" aren't permitted. Quite superb. In the company of -if not shoulders above- Mosquito Coast, The Poisonwood Bible, and even Burroughs' often neglected Ghost of Chance, and (of course) Conrad, but doesn't wallow TOO much in being a another grim account of the Missionary far afield and His/Her conflicts and contradictions with the "universal savage"...though in all honesty, it can't fully escape some of these inevitable trappings. More care is given to an indig...more
What happens when cultures collide? This is a fascinating fictional examination of missionary zeal and certitude in the jungle of South America. Sprinkle with lust/jealousy, language barriers and fundamental human misunderstandings and you get a wonderful story. There are great characters here. Sadly, some of the most delightful have early exits. The ending, too, became a little surreal.
Christian Americans can not understand why the pedantic differences between Shi'ites and Sunnis should make an...more
Christian Americans can not understand why the pedantic differences between Shi'ites and Sunnis should make an...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
To quote one of the reviews: "A powerful novel of violent adventure where man finds religious rebirth in the womb of nature." I found this book revealing in its depiction of religious zealots like Huben and Hazel who are more interested in themselves than in humanity, and sad in the misguided intentions of good people like Quarrier and Andy. Moon reminds me of a street person or a hermit who has turned his back on society because he can not tolerate the stupidity and brutality of those in power...more
I pulled this book off the shelf of a thrift shop knowing nothing about it for a trip. It turns out it was one of the best books I've ever read. The story of missionaries, American expatriate mercenaries, and indigenous natives in a fictionalized south American country. It shows the ways that good intentions and interventions in others' cultures and countries can go terribly wrong, with everyone being affected in one way or another. Strong, memorable characters and engaging plot. Now I want to r...more
FYI for anyone reading, some spoilers in my review.
The book explores the clash of western attempts to convert traditional peoples to Christianity at all costs, even if it resulted in the death of the traditional peoples. Kill the savage to save him. Another conflict involves Lewis Moon's search for his identity. And a third conflict involving the idea of why man feels obligated to differentiate himself from animals. Is man really better than animal or is man insecure? Other minor stories exist,...more
At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a de-romanticized Dances with Wolves melded with an amplified The Poisonwood Bible with a little Heart of Darkness thrown into the mix. The characters are intriguing if not likeable, and the plot is unpredictable though at times convoluted. Like he did in Shadow Country, Peter Matthiessen populates a wilderness—in this case the jungles of the Amazon—with the exploiters and the exploited. Nothing about the story, however, is black and white. There are a lot of...more
I read this while travelling in S America for a couple months. I heartily endorse reading geographically related books while travelling, as it really ramps up the ambience and your immersion in where you are. The book itself is a great story and has it all -- naive missionaries, shady outlaws, indigenous tribes, and unforgiving jungle. The book was quesionably made into a movie starring Tom Berenger (but also starring Tom Waits!). But the book is fabulous novel written by one of best travel/natu...more
This one has been on my bookshelf for decades, I think, and I thought I'd read it, I guess because I saw the movie -- but I hadn't and now I have. I like Matthiessen's writing about nature a lot and this one is set in the Amazon as missionaries confront one of the last untouched groups of natives. Happy ending: missionaries lose. Matthiessen's sympathies are clearly with the indigenous people, although it's also clear that they are ultimately doomed by their contact with the outside world.
Well this book was plain unpleasant to read and yet I read the whole thing and since I imagine living in the Amazon jungle would be deeply unpleasant, I suppose his job was done. It is a story about men: I found the depiction of the female characters in the book to be annoying, since they were either young tribal girls in the town as unpaid prostitutes, or the two missionary wives, one blonde and somewhat ditsy, and a cause of the other husband 'stumbling', the other "plain" and "big-boned" and...more
Loved it! This book was written in the 60s, so some of the details may seem dated, but it is a fantastic character study. The juxtaposition of the earnest missionary and the bitter "gun for hire" is fascinating and disturbing. Their personal story is set within the larger story of how modern society has dealt with primitive peoples around the world. Join the author in the Amazonian jungle and test how well your preconceptions hold up!
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Peter Matthiessen was born in New York City in 1927 and had already begun his writing career by the time he graduated from Yale University in 1950. The following year, he was a founder of The Paris Review. Besides At Play in the Fields of the Lord, which was nominated for the National Book Award, he has published six other works of fiction, including Far Tortuga and Raditzer. Mr. Matthiessen's...more
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Jan 27, 2013 05:07pm