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| Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest | 
| Author: Sy Montgomery
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $25.99 (100%)
New (6) Collectible (2) from $10.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 351608
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.4 x 1
ISBN: 068484558X
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.538
EAN: 9780684845586
ASIN: 068484558X
Publication Date: March 9, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 This book corks my blowhole December 10, 2001
14 out of 26 found this review helpful
To the author: Let me get this straight: You applied with a flimsy pretext to go observe dolphins, to "find the soul" of the Amazon. (Funny how no one writes about the search for the soul of New Jersey. It's always someplace that increases the aspirant's status as interpreter. The Amazon has been prostituted since its discovery, even BEFORE its discovery --in myth; why you suppose your frothy rehash is anything but the same extractivist, exoticizing discourse the West uses to plunder the source-country Americas, is a mystery.) Where was I? Oh, yes. Then you repeat your tourist guides by rote -The rubber barons sent their laundry to Europe, the Meeting of the Waters, so many football fields destroyed, blah blah blah, we know already. Then, not knowing an iota of Portuguese (or lingua geral, better still), you take on underlings to ferry you around and see to your comfort. So there's garbage in the ports? --Any idea where that comes from?
Then, do you acknowledge your privileged vantage? -in one line, yes, you note that tourists can do harm to the very area they wish to see. Would that that stopped you! Then you take Ayahuasca, the cosmological and neurological Virgil of the indigenes and caboclos, and this is the unreal part, you do it to summon dolphin spirits! Sacred vine as recreational trophy for bourgeois day-trippers. Then, as a capper, you relate a slumber party of your half-researched blatherings --endless second- and third-hand accounts of fables, offering no links, context, etymologies, insights to speak of (for example, at one point you tell us the Iquitos prostitutes used to file their teeth like piranhas', but then you don't SPECULATE or reflect critically at all on why that is. Does it have to do with the degradation of women in Latin America or some of kind of reversal of the dynamics of erotic conquests (a topic apropos of your ladykiller/dolphin)? What is the relationship and affective connection of the animal kingdom in general to the Amazonians? Do THEY care about dolphins? (Why not, if not?) Does that effect their ecology? Should WE care about them, besides for the fact they're pretty? What link are they in the river food chain? What of a discussion --in passing at least-- of the complicated politics of First-World ideas of conservation vs. their making a living? Too many things are given unproblematically or unreflectively in this book. And by the way, speaking English deliberately in front of Amazonian river people is RUDE, not to mention paternalistic.
To the editor: Many books about the Amazon are hyperinflated, breathless, and rhetorical by far. They should be purged of HALF of their adjectives. And virtually ALL their adverbs (e.g. here, "dazzingly" , "unimaginably" and for God's sake, "unfathomably".) Where is your blue pencil on sentences like "[We] wanted the same thing: to save this toweringly cruel and nourishing dawn world from fading to twilight." (p. 245)?
Also, virtually all the Portuguese in the book is wrong, save one or two phrases.
To the bookseller: File this under "d" for "dilletanterie".
To the reader: Go find Candace Slater's Dance of the Dolphin instead, which offers real field research.
To Oprah's Book Club: You gotta get this book!
 Wonderful narrative of an Amazon adventure! July 17, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book was a wonderful story of a quest to follow the Amazon's pink river dolphins or botos. The author tells the tale of her adventure while giving a true feel of life along the Amazon; the river, the land, the people, the animals.She also touches on native folklore which is quite interesting. A must read for any dolphin or nature lover. People who are interested in rain forest preservation would also like it.
Armchair Adventure June 27, 2001
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
While this book doesn't provide an in depth zoological study of pink dolphins it does take the reader on a thrilling journey through the Amazon. We learn snippets about local legends, colonial horrors, and the rich stew of life that the river teems with. Tarantula's, dart shooting plants, ancient turtles, and of course the enigmatic river dolphins are woven together into a fascinating read. So, if you want hard facts, look elsewhere, but if you want an armchair adventure-you've come to the right book.
Stunningly beautiful look at the pink dolphins & the Amazon April 9, 2001
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I first learned about this book when the library where I work ordered the hardcover edition for the shelves. Then I began looking at the book reviews on Amazon -- and my imagination was stirred by the legends told about them. We still don't have the book at the library where I work -- but I do have the book at home now; in fact, I managed to finish the book!And what a fascinating account it is! True, there isn't all that much scientific info on the pink dolphins of the Amazon (known by Peruvians as the bufeo colorado and by Brazilians as the boto) in the book, since these dolphins are still very mysterious, though bold as well; but what we do have is an intriguing account of two women's journey to understand these dolphins, ultimately succeeding by listening to the natives and those scientists who know the dolphins best. What's almost as intriguing is the way Sy Montgomery is able to connect the search for the pink dolphins with efforts to preserve the world of the Amzaon jungle, a beautiful though potentially deadly world which nonetheless should be respected, not exploited. I would say that the small amount of scientific information and the large amount of non-scientific info on these dolphims means that those who are looking for a strict scientific account probably should either abandon their preconceptions (which I recommend), or look elsewhere. But those who can become interested in a book with a mixture of pure storytelling and science should love Montgomery's book! I know I loved it! Belle Book
 I couldn't agree more February 27, 2001
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
David Marsland's review is right on the money. I couldn't say it better myself so I won't try. :)
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