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The Farm on the River of Emeralds
Recounts the author's struggles, in company with a thirty-year-old semiliterate black Ecuadorian, against nature, history, tradition, and other men in their efforts to run a tropical farm in accordance with fair play and racial equality
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
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January 13, 2016
I have a friend to thank for referring me to Moritz Thomsen who was one of Paul Theroux' favourite travel writers. His first book was a memoir on his Peace Corps experience - a much maligned subject matter. Unlike many of the writers of that genre, Thomsen observes the world with eyes wide open and harbours no illusions about life in general and poverty - whether in the first, second or third world - in particular.
Poverty is the great narrative arch of Thomsen's oeuvre and in "The Farm on the River of Emeralds" he handles, once again, the subject matter in unexpected ways. Poverty is never romanticized by him and he's openly critical of many of the people he encountered during his life who lived in poverty. While he himself came from a very wealthy family, he spent his adult years escaping his family and living a life of constant need and hard choices.
Here's Thomsen on his great theme: "Living Poor is like being sentenced to exist in a stormy sea in a battered canoe, requiring all your strength simply to keep afloat; there is never any question of reaching a destination. True poverty is a state of perpetual crisis, and one wave just a little bigger or coming from an unexpected direction can and usually does wreck things."
Thomsen died in 1991 of cholera - one of poverty's many diseases.
It's amazing to be able to discover writers this late in life. It brings me happiness and hope and a little sadness that I'll never manage to read all the books I long to read before I leave this world. That's probably a good thing. I can't imagine living a life bored of books. They are my life blood and I am grateful to my good friend - the most voracious reader I've ever met - for introducing me to so much.
Poverty is the great narrative arch of Thomsen's oeuvre and in "The Farm on the River of Emeralds" he handles, once again, the subject matter in unexpected ways. Poverty is never romanticized by him and he's openly critical of many of the people he encountered during his life who lived in poverty. While he himself came from a very wealthy family, he spent his adult years escaping his family and living a life of constant need and hard choices.
Here's Thomsen on his great theme: "Living Poor is like being sentenced to exist in a stormy sea in a battered canoe, requiring all your strength simply to keep afloat; there is never any question of reaching a destination. True poverty is a state of perpetual crisis, and one wave just a little bigger or coming from an unexpected direction can and usually does wreck things."
Thomsen died in 1991 of cholera - one of poverty's many diseases.
It's amazing to be able to discover writers this late in life. It brings me happiness and hope and a little sadness that I'll never manage to read all the books I long to read before I leave this world. That's probably a good thing. I can't imagine living a life bored of books. They are my life blood and I am grateful to my good friend - the most voracious reader I've ever met - for introducing me to so much.
May 4, 2015
I was inspired to get this book after reading the sequel in which, having left the farm in Ecuador which is the subject here, he embarks on travels through Brazil and reflects both on life in Latin America and on why and how he was thrown off the farm by his partner. As someone who also lives on his farm in Latin America, albeit in very different circumstances, I find his descriptions fascinating, especially those of the people (on whom he focuses in this book). I occasionally share his frustrations and prejudices, although my survival isn't as dependent on the success of a farm as was Thomsen's, and his characterisations can sometimes be very harsh - if perhaps from his viewpoint realistic. I think to get a rounded view of his experience, amounting to more than a couple of decades in L America, The Saddest Pleasure - his final book - is a vital read.
One comment of his that I underlined was that the 'situation' of the poor people with whom he lives 'was really impossible to solve by any means yet devised.' I sometimes feel the same, but in his last book he comes closer to appreciating that there is an arrogance in this attitude too (one which I find myself sharing from time to time). Who was he to try to 'solve' their situations, or even to judge them? I suspect by the last years of his life (he died a few years after writing The Saddest Pleasure) he had seen through his own arrogance and had a more balanced view of the position of gringos such as him and me in Latin America.
One comment of his that I underlined was that the 'situation' of the poor people with whom he lives 'was really impossible to solve by any means yet devised.' I sometimes feel the same, but in his last book he comes closer to appreciating that there is an arrogance in this attitude too (one which I find myself sharing from time to time). Who was he to try to 'solve' their situations, or even to judge them? I suspect by the last years of his life (he died a few years after writing The Saddest Pleasure) he had seen through his own arrogance and had a more balanced view of the position of gringos such as him and me in Latin America.
January 28, 2024
I think that the first half of this second book in Thorsen's trilogy of life in Latin America flows better, coheres smoothly, and displays his growing knack for constructing a solid narrative. Like Living Poor (1969, see my review), he examines scrupulously his motives for coming down to Ecuador, although in River, he's freed from his Peace Corps obligation. He teams up with Ramon, who he first met in his assignment at Rioverde.
They become partners in running a large farm with diverse crops which they hack out of the coastal jungle on the Pacific coast. The usual spate of hardships and successes for a while manages to keep the pair solvent. But as with Living Poor, difficulties arise with the lack of a consistent work ethic among the locals they hire to help run the spread. The second half of the account starts to resemble a Joseph Conrad novel, rather than a stereotypical gringo adventure down south of the border. The tale takes place in the first half of the 1970s. Acclimated to life on another continent, with about a decade living rough in Ecuador, it seems that he won't be able to adapt, as a man in his later fifties, to his California upbringing as a privileged scion. The tone darkens markedly as the storyline progresses. It's a sobering parable about idealism and of hubris.
They become partners in running a large farm with diverse crops which they hack out of the coastal jungle on the Pacific coast. The usual spate of hardships and successes for a while manages to keep the pair solvent. But as with Living Poor, difficulties arise with the lack of a consistent work ethic among the locals they hire to help run the spread. The second half of the account starts to resemble a Joseph Conrad novel, rather than a stereotypical gringo adventure down south of the border. The tale takes place in the first half of the 1970s. Acclimated to life on another continent, with about a decade living rough in Ecuador, it seems that he won't be able to adapt, as a man in his later fifties, to his California upbringing as a privileged scion. The tone darkens markedly as the storyline progresses. It's a sobering parable about idealism and of hubris.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2018
While perusing my favorite books above my desk today, I realized that I’d never reviewed a book of my favorite Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Moritz Thomsen. He is best known for Living Poor, published in 1969, which is rated as one of the best Returned Peace Corps Volunteer memoirs of all time. My personal favorite is The Farm on the River of Emeralds, the sequel, which tells a tale of endless reverses as a part owner of a farm on the northwestern coast of Ecuador—close to a hot, muggy, dirty, fishing village. The author struggles with his much younger, semi-literate black Ecuadorian partner, Ramon, and his wife Esther, battling nature, history and tradition in his efforts to develop a tropical farm in accordance with fair play and racial equality.
The author was a modest man, a farmer who considered that his passions centered around farming. He was honest to a fault, a brilliant story teller. He used simple language and had a speaking voice that was both grave and humorous. His writing could be morbid and ghoulishly humorous.
He describes the impact of his hatred for his father - a domineering man who condemned him for joining those “communists” at the Peace Corps – in this book, as well as the others he’s authored over the years. His anger, fear and pain become apparent throughout the book.
He was unique in several ways. He joined the Peace Corps at 53, dropping out of the privileged society he’d known in Seattle, to return to the jungles of Ecuador. And, he stayed around-- twenty years after his Peace Corps experience. He was committed to the place and the local population he got to know as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He put down roots, which allowed him to immerse himself in the local culture and economy and understand its dynamics like few other ex-pats. This allowed him to enter the skin and psyche of his neighbors and describe their passions and ignorance with immense candor. As fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and author, Paul Theroux, puts it, “Thomsen is one those rare, gifted, inventive and courageous Americans with a strong stomach and a dark sense of humor, who went away and never came back—just kept going.”
Thomsen's unique worldview is reflected in this statement: "Living poor is like being sentenced to exist in a stormy sea in a battered canoe, requiring all your strength simply to keep afloat; there is never any question of reaching a destination. True poverty is a state of perpetual crisis, and one wave just a little bigger, or coming from an unexpected direction, can, and usually does, wreck things.”
As a volunteer who also returned to my host country to carry on my work, I can appreciate the important lessons Moritz teaches about the limitations of imposing one’s will on a society that rejects much of what we teach and is unwilling or unable to make the changes we promote. His actions reflect a humility and the value of appreciating one’s limitations as agents of change.
Although Moritz didn’t marry into his host country’s society, as I and many other Returned Peace Corps volunteers did, he held a very special place in Ecuador. A younger generation of Ecuadorian writers found Moritz’s works worthy of rediscovery and celebration, and along with ex-pat writers, staged an International Conference to honor Moritz in Quito. According to fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, author and friend, Tom Miller, the “conference filled large tables in Quito restaurants with foreigners and locals, energized by his analysis and pending posthumous works.” (At least one more manuscript is still out there and unpublished…) The city of Quito posthumously named him an honorary citizen, and eventually a street was named in his memory.
Since 1992, the Peace Corps Writers Group awards an annual prize known as the Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award. Several scholarly studies affirm and confirm the idea, widespread among a broad group of readers, that Moritz Thomsen is one of the most important, but least known, of the second part of the twentieth century American writers.
In 1991, he died of cholera, a poor man’s disease, in Guayaquil. He didn’t leave a will so the distribution of his limited possessions was complicated, especially the control over his writing. Yet his influence on authors—both Returned Peace Corps Volunteers as well as Ecuadorians - continues to this day.
The author was a modest man, a farmer who considered that his passions centered around farming. He was honest to a fault, a brilliant story teller. He used simple language and had a speaking voice that was both grave and humorous. His writing could be morbid and ghoulishly humorous.
He describes the impact of his hatred for his father - a domineering man who condemned him for joining those “communists” at the Peace Corps – in this book, as well as the others he’s authored over the years. His anger, fear and pain become apparent throughout the book.
He was unique in several ways. He joined the Peace Corps at 53, dropping out of the privileged society he’d known in Seattle, to return to the jungles of Ecuador. And, he stayed around-- twenty years after his Peace Corps experience. He was committed to the place and the local population he got to know as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He put down roots, which allowed him to immerse himself in the local culture and economy and understand its dynamics like few other ex-pats. This allowed him to enter the skin and psyche of his neighbors and describe their passions and ignorance with immense candor. As fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and author, Paul Theroux, puts it, “Thomsen is one those rare, gifted, inventive and courageous Americans with a strong stomach and a dark sense of humor, who went away and never came back—just kept going.”
Thomsen's unique worldview is reflected in this statement: "Living poor is like being sentenced to exist in a stormy sea in a battered canoe, requiring all your strength simply to keep afloat; there is never any question of reaching a destination. True poverty is a state of perpetual crisis, and one wave just a little bigger, or coming from an unexpected direction, can, and usually does, wreck things.”
As a volunteer who also returned to my host country to carry on my work, I can appreciate the important lessons Moritz teaches about the limitations of imposing one’s will on a society that rejects much of what we teach and is unwilling or unable to make the changes we promote. His actions reflect a humility and the value of appreciating one’s limitations as agents of change.
Although Moritz didn’t marry into his host country’s society, as I and many other Returned Peace Corps volunteers did, he held a very special place in Ecuador. A younger generation of Ecuadorian writers found Moritz’s works worthy of rediscovery and celebration, and along with ex-pat writers, staged an International Conference to honor Moritz in Quito. According to fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, author and friend, Tom Miller, the “conference filled large tables in Quito restaurants with foreigners and locals, energized by his analysis and pending posthumous works.” (At least one more manuscript is still out there and unpublished…) The city of Quito posthumously named him an honorary citizen, and eventually a street was named in his memory.
Since 1992, the Peace Corps Writers Group awards an annual prize known as the Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award. Several scholarly studies affirm and confirm the idea, widespread among a broad group of readers, that Moritz Thomsen is one of the most important, but least known, of the second part of the twentieth century American writers.
In 1991, he died of cholera, a poor man’s disease, in Guayaquil. He didn’t leave a will so the distribution of his limited possessions was complicated, especially the control over his writing. Yet his influence on authors—both Returned Peace Corps Volunteers as well as Ecuadorians - continues to this day.
June 9, 2018
First of all, if you haven't read "Living Poor" (by the same author), go read that book before reading this one. This is very much a sequel!
Then keep in mind that Thomsen wrote this book in the 1970s, and was middle aged at the time (He was a B17 bombardier during WWII for God's sake!) . Both his world view and writing style are modeled after the authors he read, so read this book like you would a classic rather than a contemporary account. His views on race and culture are from a different era, and will offend our 'modern' sensibilities.
But read the book anyway, read the 2 book set. They are worth your time, a unique case study of an American trying to live in and understand a very different culture. Thomsen is a great observer and writer.
Then keep in mind that Thomsen wrote this book in the 1970s, and was middle aged at the time (He was a B17 bombardier during WWII for God's sake!) . Both his world view and writing style are modeled after the authors he read, so read this book like you would a classic rather than a contemporary account. His views on race and culture are from a different era, and will offend our 'modern' sensibilities.
But read the book anyway, read the 2 book set. They are worth your time, a unique case study of an American trying to live in and understand a very different culture. Thomsen is a great observer and writer.
October 3, 2008
Mortiz Thompsen was a 60+ year old failed hog farmer when he decided to join the Peace Corps. He was posted to Esmeraldas, Ecuador, one of the poorest areas of South America. His first book, "Living Poor," was about his Peace Corps years--a moving and realistic look at what it is like to try to help the poor. "The Farm on the River of Emeralds" is the story of his return to Ecuador to live permanently and run a farm in partnership with his best friend in Ecuador. The third part of the story, when Thompsen is thrown off his own farm (and rightly so, he says) can be found in "The Saddest Pleasure." All of these books are highly recommended, as it Thompsen's "My Two Wars."
February 4, 2009
Moritz Thomsen returns to the village in which he served as a Peace Corps volunteer. This time he thinks he can be a mentor to one of the villagers in a farming enterprise. What he finds out instead is that nothing that seems simple and straightforward, is really what it seems, and that even a little prosperity can be a corrupting force.
February 16, 2017
I read this book after it was suggested in an Outside Magazine personal canon favorite. I'm not sure why it was recommended in the magazine dedicated to the outdoors next to books I've read by Krakauer, Abbey, and McPhee (all of whom I am a big fan). Even though the 53 year old former Peace Corps writer buys a farm in Ecuador with a poor local man (Ramon), it has little to do with farming or the "outside." Essentially it is a book about the poor and how true poverty impacts those in and around it. It is, at times, brutally honest and spares no one, including the poor and the writer. It is eloquent and probably as close to poetry as I can get. For some reason it reminded me of Harrison and McGuane (interestingly I consider both outdoor writers). It is not chronological (the author admits this) and I found this difficult. While surprised at the topic, the book was definitely worth the read.
July 23, 2022
This is a fascinating story by Mortiz Thomsen about his years on a farm on the Esmeraldas River in Ecuador. I love how he adeptly reveals layer after layer, exposing the struggles of farming in a relentless environment, unveiling the characters he encounters on the farm, delving into the challenges of the country and its culture, and finally, coming to terms with his complex relationship with his partner Ramón. What I love most is his ability, often belatedly, to get glimpses of his own destructive attitudes and tendencies, and, instead of hiding from them, to admit them with some degree of trepidation, disgust, and embarrassment. He's brutally honest; he doesn't shy away. He has a good heart, this man, yet he has his demons and his North American upbringing that he can't quite escape.
What a wonderful book.
What a wonderful book.
November 11, 2022
Moritz Thomsen writes this story so eloquently, bringing you right there to his rickety shack so that you feel the tension and frustrations of his stories and an deep understanding of the many impoverished and hopeless characters he describes. I also connected to his struggles in a very personal way, having a family member voluntarily embrace the subsistence lifestyle in a poor Latin American country.
December 30, 2016
This is a brave and interesting book. And more than being about one man's venture into farming, or even into Ecuador, it is about poverty, about clashing cultures, and about coming to grips with one's own delusions and prejudices. And, at the same time, it is beautiful, horrifying, and humorous--in many cases, all in the same moment.
Although Thomsen's voice might sometimes cause readers to cringe at his nonchalant admissions of prejudice and expectation, the book is both a product of its times and all the more worthwhile because of these same moments. The author's struggle to not only survive in Ecuador as a farmer, but to enmesh himself in the surrounding culture and to understand the poverty and people surrounding him, is a study in identity and helplessness--and ultimately, it's a window into the difficulty of reconciling clashing cultures, totally divergent backgrounds, and separate value systems.
The reader who is first brought to the book by adventure and the beauty of Ecuador's landscape will appreciate it for these things, but find themselves tortured along with Thomsen by the heartbreaking poverty and, even more so, the men and women trapped within it. And yet, then, there is the beauty of the appreciation for a single moment--because the present and any joy it can bring is so much more valuable than what is certain to be a painful future--and this single-minded focus, this ability to focus on what Is good in a world that seems mostly bad, allows for a book which is itself split between optimism and cynicism, and which is all the more worthwhile because of it.
Absolutely recommended.
Although Thomsen's voice might sometimes cause readers to cringe at his nonchalant admissions of prejudice and expectation, the book is both a product of its times and all the more worthwhile because of these same moments. The author's struggle to not only survive in Ecuador as a farmer, but to enmesh himself in the surrounding culture and to understand the poverty and people surrounding him, is a study in identity and helplessness--and ultimately, it's a window into the difficulty of reconciling clashing cultures, totally divergent backgrounds, and separate value systems.
The reader who is first brought to the book by adventure and the beauty of Ecuador's landscape will appreciate it for these things, but find themselves tortured along with Thomsen by the heartbreaking poverty and, even more so, the men and women trapped within it. And yet, then, there is the beauty of the appreciation for a single moment--because the present and any joy it can bring is so much more valuable than what is certain to be a painful future--and this single-minded focus, this ability to focus on what Is good in a world that seems mostly bad, allows for a book which is itself split between optimism and cynicism, and which is all the more worthwhile because of it.
Absolutely recommended.
April 14, 2013
Written about the struggle on a pineapple plantation in my beloved Ecuador. An account of life as it was in a country at that time still very primative in many ways. His descriptions of the various struggles, deceptions, betrayals, hardships, are written in a way that you can feel.
It is out of print and hard to find, but worth the read if you do.
It is out of print and hard to find, but worth the read if you do.
May 7, 2013
former Peace Corp volunteer returns to very rural northern Ecuador, buys farm, struggles with locals to earn living and perhaps hide from something. Thoroughly enjoyable in light of personal trip to Ecudador.
February 9, 2009
A very interesting history of the province of Esmeraldas that I don't think you can find elsewhere. But, still a depressing read. Don't think I would have read the book if I didn´t live in Ecuador.
January 6, 2011
great memoir... maybe only makes sense to people who have lived in ecuador.
June 16, 2011
Sad and lovely.
June 15, 2011
Good sequel. not as tight as Living Poor.
December 7, 2013
Also a wonderful, funny book, and even better than the "The Saddest Pleasure". Read this to get the story before "The Saddest Pleasure".
July 29, 2016
This was a crazy book about this guy who goes to South America, Ecuador and tries to run his family's property. Poverty and cultural differences run rampant in this venture.
January 2, 2015
Heartfelt (and heartbreaking) sequel to Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle.
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