Lead Review (Red Road Green: A tale of the Amazon)
- Book: Red Road Green: A tale of the Amazon
- Location: Amazon Rainforest, Brazil
- Author: Jonathan Franklin
The novel opens with Idenea, working in a brothel. She clearly has history, her son has been stolen from her but she continues to be driven to look for him. The narrative soon switches to Bobby, driving the local cattle northwards to Mutum (interestingly, the curious cattle were originally imported from Nellore in India). We have a sense early on of Bobby’s backstory, and he and his fellow workers land for the night at Hotel da Paz Perfeito, where Indenea happens to be working. Idenea and Bobby soon fall in love.
Going back a few years, Idenea was born into the Saladini family, who were tempted by the government’s offer to head 2000 kms north, to settle in pristine jungle and cultivate a patch of land assigned to them. The family group struggled for weeks along unmade roads, to get to their designated plot, which was literally in the middle of nowhere.
The author details how between 1960 and 1985 two million people struggled up Highway BR 364, right into the Amazon, in search of a better life. This constituted the largest migration in the 20th Century outside war.
The Saladinis tried to cultivate their land but were soon exploited by criminals, whose only aim was to make a fast buck at the expense of the largely uneducated settlers. The descriptions of the felling and burning of trees, the impact on wildlife and the encroaching despair are potently brought to life. The mosquitoes carrying malaria are unrelenting… The heat of the jungle is vividly brought to life in this novel.
I guess this whole period of history in the Amazon was something new to me and therefore enlightening. It is sobering given the level of political violence, corruption and brutality with which average citizens had to contend, and how hard it was to try and make some kind of living. The author has a fluid writing style, with quite a masculine portrayal of events and characters, and on occasion some elements proved to be a little visceral for my taste.
The author donates a percentage of royalties to Survival International.
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