Volume 35, Number 7 · April 28, 1988
Down There on a Visit
By Janet Malcolm
Where the Spirits Dwell: An Odyssey in the New Guinea Jungle
by Tobias Schneebaum
Grove Press, 209 pp., $17.95
Toward the end of this memoir of homoerotic experience in the jungle of New Guinea, a Dutch missionary's wife makes a brief appearance. When the author and two European male companions arrive by canoe at the minister's house, the wife, standing on the banks of the river, tells them that her husband is 'working on his sermon for Sunday and cannot be wasting time with visitors.' Schneebaum notices the woman's 'faded print dress, stockings, and shoes' and the 'deep crevices of bitterness on her face.' One of his companions strides up to her and says unpleasantly, 'We don't ask anything of you. We don't need you.' The missionary suddenly appears and takes the men into the house, over the wife's protests, and the woman vanishes from the book, dispatched by a single pettish sentence: 'In spite of her antagonism, she made tea and offered delicious-looking cookies that we left untouched.'
Review, 2475 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |