This is not a conventional ethnography. The author says it is not a novel, and I find it difficult to suggest a type of which it is an example—perhaps this concern is irrelevant. Certainly one finds many of the questions derived from a conventional approach unanswered.
Even given the author’s perspective, there seem to me to be some shortcomings. A part of his thesis is that the Colombian economic system broadly dictates the economic roles of the inhabitants of San Pedro, as the government does their political acts, and an old, international cultural-religious system their ordinary behavior. However, the contents of the chapters dealing with economics, politics, and religion do not support or illustrate these ideas as well as one might expect. More information on the large number of immigrants might be valuable in an attempt to articulate San Pedro and the larger Colombian socio-cultural milieu.
Richardson has an enviable facility with English. Some of his descriptions and analyses, often metaphorical, appear to indicate considerable literary talent. I think these qualities are what readers will remember most.
