So, for the two week break from which the weary, disillusioned interns are allowed to flee the hospital and and nurture our minds, our mates, our pets and our non-medical pastimes, James and I went to the tiny Central American country of Costa Rica. In between investigating poison dart frogs, cursing monkeys for dropping their seed pods onto our tin roof at 4am, and searching for the ever elusive jaguar, we read a ton of books. Several great ones. Here, a synopsis.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Marina Signh, A talented MD-turned-pharmacologist, diligently works on cholesterol drugs in her well funded lab, while her previous mentor, the acerbic Annick, has disappeared into the Amazon, along with millions of dollars of lab equipment and funding. Marina is sent to fetch her; to leave her comfortable and quiet lab and venture beyond the borders of her beloved Minnesota, and track down the rogue researcher. The last person they sent to do the job was Marina's friend, and he wound up dead, with a terse note from Annick weeks after the fact.
With a heavy heart, Marina flies to South America and begins the task of finding her mentor. Marina becomes lonely, and the special sat-phone that her boss, and lately lover, doesn't do the trick of cheering her up. When Marina finally manages to stumble upon Annick, she is taken on a long, dark voyage by boat up the jungle waterways to Annick's lab. Marina eventually begins to see the beauty of what they are creating, and becomes part of the lab community, which they share with the local tribe. The tribe holds the key to the working drug, and if completed, the drug would allow women in the developed world to bear children after menopause.
Delightfully interjecting himself into most activities is Easter, a 12 year old boy who belonged to a savage tribe, but was somehow able to escape, despite being deaf, and be adopted by Annick's scientific family. Easter officiously drives the boat, protects Marina from jungle insects and dangers, prepares her meals, and in him, she finds the son she never had.
The pinnacle of the book is a descent into a crater of darkness and a victory that is daring and provocative.
All Over the Map by Laura Frasier
It's fun to read travel books when you're traveling, and Ms. Frasier conjures up a book full of pleasures for her readers. The narrative starts with the end of a relationship to the French Professor, and continues on with a travel map thrown to the wind at the whim of travel magazines that she writes for. She describes a bicycling trip to France filled with lavender, incandescent wine, cheese, and other French culinary marvels. She details a provocative trip to the South Pacific to interview Tahiti's lady-boys, and the trip ends in fear and anxiety after she is assaulted. Shaken by this trip, the once aggressive Fraser becomes afraid and withdrawn, but eventually regains her strength, and on a lark, she buys a house in San Miguel de Allende. Her wanderings through Central Mexico are suffused with the magical realism in the heritage of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Paulo Coelho, which provides a lovely ending to a turbulent tale.
A Thousand Sisters by Lisa Shannon
Lisa Shannon travels into the dark void of the Congo to provide local women with small donations to help them start sustainable businesses. She unflinchingly details the horrors of the DRC, from the staggering statistics of rape (90% of all women in Congo), to the fluid relationship between military and paramilitary, to the everyday violence in the streets. The beauty of the book is in the sisters' eyes: their brown eyes sparkling with the hope of sponsorship and the transformations they create for themselves, their families, and for their proud communities. This book reiterates one of my favorite messages from volunteering in the third world- that a little bit of hope and a few small deeds go along way to transform lives.
A Couple of Our Costa Rican Friends
