Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I absolutely love books which tell the story of people and places most of us will never have a chance to encounter in real life. In these stories (fiction or nonfiction), I absolutely must get the impression that the author has an in-depth knowledge of the locale he or she is describing and a multilayered understanding of the local societies and cultures. Ann Patchett provides a bland, stereotyped, pretentious portrayal of the jungle, the local tribal people, and the professors that are apparently on some sort of rogue medical adventure (their research going unreported to the drug company that continues to fund them.....not a plausible scenario in real life). I have a degree in Anthropology from a world renowned university and never once did I ever hear one of my professors (even the old, white haired, spectacle sporting types)refer to indigenous people as "an intractable race. Any progress you advance to them will be undone before your back is turned". Granted, it is the harsh, unlikable 'Dr. Swensen' who says this, however, after years in the jungle and multiple degrees I highly doubt any professor would make such an ignorant statement. In another passage, after the Lakashi tribe swims out in an attempt to board a boat, one of the other banal, dumb doctors in the jungle, makes the statement "They only want a little recognition. If you don't acknowledge what they're doing they just keep doing it. Frankly, I don't think they're such good swimmers. You can't drown half the tribe on the way to the trading post". Is this Patchett's attempt at a joke? As if a group of people living on the banks of the Amazon would allow their tribe to drown trying to get on a boat with a bunch of crotchety, white doctors. Quite frankly, if it came down to a competition as to who could survive the Amazon River, I'm sure it would be the tribal people with the last laugh. Throughout the entire novel the local people have no agency, no voice. They are a barely clad, spear waving, hallucinogen ingesting, silent, ignorant stereotype. One gets the feeling that Patchett herself hates the jungle and has based her entire novel on early colonial descriptions of encounters with exotic peoples and places. It does not even appear she has ever watched the National Geographic Channel, for god-sakes. This novel contains absolutely no wonder whatsoever. The characters are weak and boring, especially the main character, Marina, who is also as dumb as a box of rocks (terrified by seeing a local boy jump in the water, thinking he will drown, she breaks into tears, never mind that he was raised on the Amazon River). It's as if some suburb dwelling, uneducated, white evolutionist has written a novel about what they believe a dangerous, 'primitive' jungle would be like. I prefer to read novels that convey a sense of wonder and respect. Don't waste your time with this book.