the story was awful. could barely read any of it but the book arrived quickly, was cheap and in fabulous condition. thanks for the business.

The Storyteller hypnotized me with its rhythmic myths of the Machinguenga storytellers. I was captivated with the imagined scene of gathering around a fire with a group of entranced people listening to the calming lilt of the voice of the storyteller and the comfortingly familiar (to them) stories of Tasurinchi. I could really imagine what it would be like to feel that this was important in their lives. The storyteller was like a medicine man or a shaman whose words were like a healing balm for a people who felt misplaced in the world as it was becoming for them. Mascarita had the soul of a storyteller because he perhaps carried an unconscious identification with his ancestors who wandered as nomads in the desert; a people with no permanent home. For this and many other reasons, he understood what it meant to have no solid ground on which to stand.

Is it better for an anthropologist, as one who studies other cultures, to keep an academic distance from the people who are his subjects? How far should participant observation be taken? Saul Zuratas took it all the way. He abandoned the modern world and joined with a culture that was trying to avoid being assimilated into the world of zombies. The Machinguenga is a culture that is deeply imbued with meaning in every area. Globalization says that progress is king. If a `traditional' culture is impacted by global culture, that is just part of life. Do we hold `traditional' cultures back by wanting them to stay frozen in the past? Or are we `helping' them by bringing them up-to-date with our modern world? I sometimes think it is a battle of meaning versus modernization. Can the two be compatible?

Every once in a while an author creates an unbelievable book; this is NOT one of those books. This books plot is possible the worst of any book I have ever read. It contains no action, and no climax. The books storyline goes absolutely nowhere. On top of a terrible story line the narrator randomly throws in stories. For example the author might be talking about his trip in the Amazon jungles and suddenly there is a random story thrown in. These random stories make the book extremely confusing and force you to read the same passage two or three times and thereby frustrating the reader even further. Without the edition of these stories the book would be 100 pages instead of 227pages. Basically the stories are simply a way to take up space the book also uses magical realism that is completely random and unbelievable. Like in one of the stories a guy gets stung on the penis by a wasp while he is urinating then his penis grows and then later he gets it cured to go back to normal size. On top of everything else the book takes forever to get started and just when you think something important is going to happen nothing does. This book also lacks a climax, which is critical to a book, and basically goes around in a big circle. The Storyteller is simply a waste of time to read and I would not suggest it. However if you want to become frustrated and raise your blood pressure go ahead and read the book otherwise I would never suggest reading it. Bottom line: this book is better used for kindling for a fire than reading.

There are good books and there are bad ones, this is a bad one. Llosa introduced the characters well, Saul at least, I understood where his beliefs lie and what he looks like, which kind of sets the stage for the rest of the book. However, the book went downhill FAST after the first chapter or two. I can honestly say that if I were not forced to read this novel, I would have set it down after about the first 50 pages. The plot gets lost when it transitions into the "storyteller mode," which has no relavence to the novel other than to make it longer. I read to the end anticipating something to happen, but it never did. It had a beginning, but no middle and no end.
Who is Tasurinchi?
The Storyteller was way to confusing; at one time, it would be the narrator talking, then it would be the storyteller, and if there were no chapters it would seem that the author belongs in a mental institution. It is all in first person, which also makes it confusing. Also, there is no climax. The book leads the reader up to this one point that isn't there. He just accepts the fact and it ends.

My opinion of this book is that it has a slow plot, no action, and is difficult to follow. In the beginning, the narrator is in an art gallery in Venice, Italy.(This you don't even find out until the end of the book). During this flashback, there are storys within the flashback, you can never tell whether it is a memory or a fictious story about the native tribes. Throughout the whole book, you believe that the narrator is searching for his lost friend saul, when in fact he is just remembering the past experiences he had during his time spent in South America.
The book has no action at all. Near the end, about 200 pages into the book you expect a climax or a life threatening situation, but you are quickly dissapointed as you near the end of the book, about page 235, because there has not been any action. There wasn't even an instance in the book where a tribesman or any other person in the book faced a dillema.
When you near the end of the book, it is evident that the book had not gone anywhere, it ended in the same place it started, back in the art gallery in Venice. The plot is dry, also. To make the story somewhat interesting, the author decided to add mythical machiguenga story's passed down for over one thousand years. These instances are where the book gets confusing, because the author does not specify where these story's come into play in the book, they often pop up in the middle of a thought or paragraph. If the author had not "padded" his story with these irrelivant story's, the book would be half as long, and thus, half as boring.
My opinion is this book is dry, boring, long, and seems to drag on. On top of all this, the book is very confusing, and the chapters are so spread out that it is hard to stop reading in the middle of a chapter, or you will be lost the next time you pick up the book. This is not a recommended book by me.