Betty Mindlin

Mindlin's exploration of Amazonian myths, particularly as they surround love/relationships, is a fascinating journey into oral storytelling and myth-building. With the author/collector having worked to retrieve the myths firsthand as told orally, from translators fluent in each given tribe's language as well as English (to the extent possible), the collection has an authenticity which comes through in each section and in the varied styles of story. Separated by the different tribes, the stories offer up unique perspectives from pockets of the Amazon and the peoples who've called it home for centuries, with a delivery of themes and tails that is as powerful as it is entrancing.

Throughout the book, there is extremely adult and potential triggering material. Most of the stories are short, so the individual plot points are generally short and less than graphic (though there is absolutely graphic material here, both in the way of sex and violence), but readers will want to beware that a number of the stories deal with cannibalism, incest, rape, violent murder, and mutilation.

Nevertheless, I'd absolutely recommend this book to anyone who's remotely interested. I'm glad to have read it, and I've got no doubt that the myths here would appeal to readers of weird fiction as well as those interested myth, anthropology, and the Amazon.… (mer)