INTO THE HEART: ONE MAN'S PURSUIT OF LOVE AND KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE YANOMAMA, by Kenneth Good, with David Chanoff

This is probably the best memoir I've ever read. Right from the start, we are there with Kenneth in the Amazon rain forest as he learns to adapt to a life utterly unlike anything he has ever experienced. We read greedily because we want to know how Kenneth makes it through his trials (We know that he does make it through them because the dust-jacket unfortunately tells us so.)

Good is an anthropology PhD student when he goes to the Amazon to study “Protein capture” among the Yanomama (sometimes called Yanomami), a tribe that was, in the 1980s, mostly uncontacted by the outside world. There were the occasional boats coming down the river with malaria medicine for them and sometimes a researcher or two, but most of the tribespeople had never seen anything but rain forest. They didn't wear clothes and lived communally in one large dwelling, with each family having its own hearth.

We see Kenneth as he gradually adapts to the sub-tribe he has chosen, and they to him. He begins by building a hut a short walk from their communal home but then moves closer and finally moves into the dwelling itself. (It would be a stretch to call it a house because it doesn't have walls.) Meanwhile, a little girl especially likes him and after Kenneth has been there a number of years (with absences to obtain more supplies – he doesn't eat their food – and renewal of the permit he needs to be legally in a protected area of Venezuela), he is betrothed to this girl. When she finally has her menses, it is time for them to be husband and wife in the traditional way.

But Kenneth's long absences are a huge problem. An unattended woman is considered fair game by other men in the community and his wife, Yarima, suffers from this. After a particularly long absence because of trouble getting another permit and funding to continue his research – Good is continuing to research the Yamomama  even as he integrates into the community – the decision is made to leave and return to the States.

The description of how Yarima first encounters what we take for granted in this complex world of cars, supermarkets, clothing, and so much else is fascinating. But then again, the whole book is fascinating. I credit the co-author with helping make the book such an exciting read because I have read more than my share of anthropological writing and it is boring in the extreme.

Unfortunately, I already knew what happens after the events in this book because I had read Kenneth's son, David's book, written after he became an adult. (See the post here, "Writing a Memoir for the Best Reason.") It's best to read this one first.