School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 UpA young teenage Indian girl narrates this engaging novel that deals with the impact of two American anthropologists who come to live for one year in her Peruvian jungle village. Alicia finds the outsiders interesting, although their ignorance and stinginess is a source of consternation and sometimes amusement. She has other concerns, tooshe is supposed to marry her sister's husband, and she rescues and adopts a baby who is at risk from its abusive Peruvian father. By the end of the novel, the baby has died and the two "old ladies" (in their late 20s) are leaving, but both peoples have learned a lot about one another's humanity. The life and customs of the Indians are presented in a matter-of-fact way by Alicia, whether she is telling the strangers that it is important to have sex with severalbut not too manymen in order to have strong babies, or that children must learn to lie well. Indian words and phrases flavor her speech. This compelling novel is based on the author's field work in the early 1970s; however, the group is given a fictional name and the information about their customs is anecdotal and never overwhelms the narrative. The spirited heroine evokes Karen Cushman's Catherine, Called Birdy (Clarion, 1994).Pam Gosner, formerly at Maplewood Memorial Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a 1998 Best Books citation, PW said, "This exquisite novel introduces readers to a sparkling world hidden deep within the Amazonian jungle." Ages 12-up. (July) n (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Set among a fictional tribe in the Peruvian jungle, the story is narrated by Alicia, a young girl who regards with suspicion the two American anthropologists who have come to study her people. By juxtaposing two radically different cultures (with attitudes toward sexuality prominent), Abelove provides humorous yet respectful insight into both, shining a light on a nearly hidden society and allowing readers to view our own through new eyes. From HORN BOOK Fall 1998, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
An anthropologist draws on personal experience for this eye-opening tale of two graduate students learning to live alongside one of the more remote branches of the human family. When ""two old white ladies,"" Margarita and Joanna, settle in her Peruvian jungle village for a year, Alicia regards them with interest and pity. They are so ignorant! They don't know to face upstream when they bathe, they make often-hilarious mistakes with the language, they harbor odd ideas about sex and family--but most of all, they are ""stingy,"" and don't know how to share their wealth of possessions properly. Through Alicia's eyes, readers will watch the outsiders' adjustments to the rhythms and customs they are studying, as they shed much of their physical and cultural baggage (but not their Grateful Dead and Beatles records), and discover wisdom in the Isabo way of life. By the end, while there are some gulfs that cannot be crossed (e.g., when her adopted baby daughter dies, Alicia believes that Joanna and Margarita exhibit unnecessarily prolonged grief), the villagers and visitors achieve a degree of mutual understanding. As in Nancy Farmer's A Girl Named Disaster (1996), readers will be convinced that they've been living in the head of a young woman whose world view is vastly different from their own, but whose values and mores ultimately come to be perfectly understandable. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 8^-10. Relatively few novels are published for children about "primitive" cultures, and most of those are historical fiction. So, right off the bat, Abelove's story of a Peruvian tribe in the 1970s has a freshness to it. An anthropologist, Abelove calls on her own experiences in the Amazon jungle to create the village of Poincushmana, where two American anthropologists arrive to spend a year. The story is told by one of the Peruvian teenagers, Alicia, a unique voice: "Two old white ladies came to our village late one day. . . . Everyone else ran down the riverbank to greet them. I stood at the top. I could see them fine from up there. I had better things to do than run to greet old white ladies." So begins Alicia's push-pull relationship with the women (whom the tribe considers old, even though they are in their twenties). Abelove's remarkable gift is letting readers see their own culture through the eyes of someone whose values are completely different. To Alicia and the villagers, the women are stingy--they rarely offer anything, and, when they do, it's not enough; they're stupid, because they waste their time studying things that happen naturally, such as babies and farming. At the same time, readers will learn about a community with views on life, death, sex, and marriage that are so different from their own that they will be pulled up short. Full of life and packed with characters that by turns irritate and enlighten, Go and Come Back is a startling, vibrant read. --Ilene Cooper
