- Paperback: 278 pages
- Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre / Not Applicable (Oct 1 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0374521999
- ISBN-13: 978-0374521998
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 14 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 318 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #918,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
An erudite yet absorbing adventure story.A book full of riches—stylistic, sensory, visual. -- New York Times Book Review
Extraordinary. -- The New Yorker --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Extraordinary. -- The New Yorker --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
A composer, fleeing an empty existence in New York, takes a journey with his mistress to the remote upper reaches of a South American river, imagining he is retracing the lost steps of mankind. The author - who was amongst the first to use "magic realism" - has also written "The Chase".
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Latin American Classic,
By
This review is from: Lost Steps (Paperback)
This great adventure novel was first published in 1953 and many of the scenes in this book seem prototypes for others I've come across in Latin American fiction. It is a story of a modern, educated, well traveled man, fleeing from the horrors of Europe leading up to WWII, to the Americas, who is then transposed into a world where the people still live in the stone age, a hidden city in the jungle and a bubble in time. Our hero & narrator dreamed when young of becoming a great musician, but has long since sold himself out just for the sake of earning a living. He rarely sees his wife, an actress, because they both have busy schedules that seldom coincide. One day a fated encounter with a museum curator he knew in his youth leads him to a mission into the jungle to find and bring back the most primitive of musical instruments and to gain anthropological insights on the origins of music. The musician, who begins the trip with his mistress, ends up on his own cut off from civilization. In the jungle he at last able to find an inner peace and happiness, he finds a new woman, regains his health & vigor and at last is able to release the musical score he has always known was inside him. By the time his wife has a plane sent in as a publicity stunt to rescue him, he does not want to return. This novel is deeply philosophical, in the end our musician can no longer find a place in either world, and the message is we can't go back, also theories about early humans which have been arrived at only by studying archaeological artifacts can only be flawed, to quote "New worlds had to be lived before they could be analyzed".
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most memorable novels I've ever read,
By Experienced seminar leader (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lost Steps (Paperback)
I've read thousands of novels that I cannot remember clearly, and this is one that has stayed with me for more than 20 years. I have thought of it repeatedly the last few months while walking in the woods and observing how the trails change with the seasons (a crucial part of the plot) and thinking about what life would be like if we were cut off from civilization the way the main character in this book is. The theme of this book is as beautifully executed as a classic opera and is especially meaningful if you are a music lover. I'm delighted to know that the book is still in print so that I can easily reread it and give it as a gift to people important to me.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
my favorite novel,
By listener "cs" (Hilo, HI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lost Steps (Paperback)
Every once in a while I pick up The Lost Stepsand savour it again. Each paragraph is a magical adventure. Reading The Lost Steps is like taking a mystical journey into the soul of Latin America. Harriet de Onis's translation captures the magic.
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