A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry
A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry is an adventure and romance novel by Heinz G. Konsalik from 1973 , which deals with the fate of a young couple after a plane crash in the Brazilian jungle.
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Blurb
“A goddess who came from heaven. The plane shook. The engines roared. Then suddenly there was a thud, and a reddish, flickering flag shot out of the left engine. Crash over the Brazilian jungle. Only two people survive - a slim, strong man and a young, petite girl. The green hell is waiting for both of them. A breathtaking novel that only Konsalik can write in this perfection. It is the story of the seventeen-year-old blonde German Gloria Pfeil and the daring hydraulic engineer Hellmut Peters, who fell into the hands of headhunters in the jungle of Brazil. "
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The student nurse Gloria Margarete Pfeil is the daughter of the surgeon Eberhard Pfeil. She attends a Colombian nurses' school and visits her father regularly in Porto Velho . She flies in a mail plane with 10 other passengers. She was intensely prepared by her father for survival in the jungle. Other passengers are Sister Rudolpha, Father Juan Santo, Hellmut Peters, a hydraulic engineer who is leading a major project in Brazil, and Indians who have made a fabulous ruby discovery. An aircraft engine catches fire in flight. There is an emergency landing . Gloria lands unharmed on a high branch. Only Sister Rudolpha, Father Juan and Hellmut Peters survived. After three days the priest died of severe burns. Discussions arise as to whether they should wait for help or fight their way through the rainforest on their own until they encounter civilization. Your food will only last for three days.
The slight injury sister Rudolphas turns into a gangrene , her condition is deteriorating. An erotic mood builds up between Hellmut and Gloria . Gloria remains dismissive, even after Hellmut made her a declaration of love.
Shortly after the radio operator's SOS, search planes broke out, but the search stopped after five unsuccessful days. Sister Rudolpha's condition is steadily deteriorating. Getting food is a major problem. Hellmut does not succeed in killing animals. Therefore, they feed on cooked leaves, which lead to strong hallucinations, and also on goulash made from caterpillars, maggots and small tree snakes. Sister Rudolpha passes out and dies after five days. Gloria confesses her love to Hellmut at a weak moment, but then immediately takes on a dismissive position again.
Hellmut has strong delusions because of his excruciating hunger and wants to pickle Sister Rudolpha with salt and then eat it. There is an argument with Gloria, who is appalled about it. However, the plan is being implemented. Parts of Rudolpha's body are treated with brine and the remains are buried. The next morning there is a fight with a panther, which Gloria kills with a spear. The meat of the panther is also used. On the last night before they leave, their naked bodies meet.
The two make their way through the impenetrable rainforest. For orientation they use an imprecise map of the deceased pilot. The next human settlement would be 350 kilometers northeast in the Amazon basin, which means 350,000 meters through raging river kilometers, rapids , crocodile herds and murderous swarms of piranhas . The way through the undergrowth is extremely difficult and strenuous. They are accompanied by pesky howler monkeys , infested by leeches and plagued by mosquitoes . During the breaks in the march, Hellmut thinks about what it would be like to have children and a house with a garden with Gloria. In a clearing they discover ashes - a reference to people. Suddenly Gloria disappeared without a trace.
Gloria is in the hands of an unknown Indian tribe. It is naked and brightly painted men who frighten her. She is carried into the jungle by them. They have never seen a white woman and think she is some kind of sun that has come to earth. They transport them on a river upstream to a native village of the Ximbú (fictional Indian tribe).
Hellmut is desperate and has great problems surviving in the jungle. I.a. mosquitoes, red ants and leeches torment him. For food he eats the rain-soaked meat in which flies have already laid their eggs and maggots hatch. He is also plagued by fears of possible fever. He finally comes to a hidden beaten path and discovers a rag of Gloria's cotton shirt. Hellmut comes to a river and realizes that the people must have taken Gloria with them by boat - logically downstream.
Hellmut is stuck in the mud when a crocodile shoots at him. He drums on a tin pot and uses it to put the crocodile to flight. He continues his march, unwittingly walking away from Gloria's whereabouts. When suffering from a cataract , he comes across a fireplace and a hut belonging to the mestizo Antonio Serra. The tough forest walker and orchid collector invites him to a coffee . Hellmut asks him for help in finding Gloria. But Serra advises against it, as the Ximbú and the unknown area are dangerous. Serra is asking for USD 5,000 for his help . Hellmut agrees and promises to follow all Serra's instructions.
Gloria lies in the village square of a tree house settlement and is guarded by the warriors. They are of the opinion that the gods descended and brought her the sun (Gloria). They wear shrunken heads and perform wild tribal dances. Suddenly Gloria is no longer afraid of the wild - in memory of an experience in the past with her father, who as a doctor was able to help natives in an as yet undiscovered village where a deadly tuberculosis epidemic was rampant.
Gloria is a white goddess in the eyes of the Ximbú. She impressed the Indians, among other things, by showing them a Polaroid camera. Just not the young chief Numé. He demands from Gloria that she kill him as a sign of her power, which she does not do, and thus shows weakness in the eyes of the Indians. For Numé a non-punishing goddess is powerless and from now on he is her enemy. Later the tribe breaks out in ecstasy . The night is celebrated with a festival of fertility. Numé follows her and makes advances (" Numé, the strong man wanted to fertilize the goddess." ), But she beats him to flight with the camera flash. The medicine man Xéré knocks down Numé.
Hellmut and Serra argue about which direction to take. There were arguments, Hellmut insulted Serra and Serra punched him in the face. Then they continue on their way and stay within reach of the river. It is difficult to locate the Ximbú settlement because they have retreated into the depths of the forest. Serra reports that the neighboring Yinca tribe has already lost almost fifty people to the Ximbú as shrunken heads. While Serra sleeps, Hellmut steals knives and pistols from him. Then he orders him at gunpoint to continue looking for Gloria without any detours and takes over command.
Xéré watches over Gloria. Numé is tied up in a cruel way and has to struggle all the time not to strangle himself. Gloria wants to end the brutal torture, but the tribe does not allow it. Finally Numé is strangled by a liana loop. Days go by. Gloria wants to have a boat built because a trip by canoe seems too dangerous to her because of the piranhas. Lots of gold and precious stones are stored in the valley of a dried up river .
Hellmut drives Serra along. He thwarted a surprise attack by Serra with a warning shot. Serra torments Hellmut with the fact that Gloria may have long been beheaded and made into a shrunken head. While they wade through the water, there is danger from water snakes and poisonous lancet fish . Serra is certain that they have already been discovered by the Ximbú and that an attack may follow. You encounter a squad of yinca known to Serra. With them he often exchanged salt for orchids. They meet their cruel chief Xinxaré. Serra explains to Hellmut that the gemstone deposits represent great wealth. Serra plans to usurp the treasures later, retire with the fortune and found a large brothel . This time the chief demands an exchange for rifles because his people feel threatened by the Ximbú. He mentions that a white goddess fell from the sky among the Ximbú. Hellmut realizes that this is Gloria. The two whites are ready to join a war against the Ximbú: Hellmut because of Gloria, Serra because of the treasures.
The old chief of the Ximbú wants to give the gemstones to Gloria, but she refuses and wants a raft to get back to Hellmut. A yinca spy has been captured. Gloria prevents his head from being cut off. The Yinca envies the Ximbú for the "white goddess". Gloria makes it clear to them that all she wants is peace and friendship. This triggers a power struggle between her and the medicine man, since he too has recognized that she is not a goddess, but just an ordinary woman.
The prisoner is released, returns to his village and reports that the white goddess saved him from death. Hellmut knows that it is Gloria. Serra sees the danger that Gloria's behavior could trigger a tribal war. They plan an attack during the night. The Yinca want to burn out the Ximbu village. Hellmut fears for Gloria's life. Serra wants to convince Xincaré to steal the Ximbú, the white goddess. The chief admits the whites to first carry out a kind of "commando operation" for this purpose.
In the absence of the “white goddess”, the Yinca also decide to go to war, and war preparations begin. Xéré, who has been promised to another woman, has fallen in love with the "white goddess". The medicine man, who knows that Gloria is only human, announces to Xéré that the white goddess must die after the campaign because she is no longer needed. Xéré decides to kill Xumina to save Gloria.
The Yinca combat groups want to attack the Ximbú. They pick up dynamite and hand grenades at Serra's hut . The warriors get drunk with the white man's supplies of gin and fall into a coma. For a moment Serra thinks about slaying her in her sleep, which Hellmut prevents. Serra plans to return with an armed squad at a later date to snatch the gems from them. Hellmut threatens to involve the authorities because of it. They now want to get to the Ximbú village before the warriors, to save Gloria and then disappear as quickly as possible.
Gloria is guarded by Xéré in the tree house. Xumina wants to kill Gloria, Xéré beats him, kills him with a blowpipe and poison arrow and takes him to the village square. It appears that Xumina died praying. Gloria instructs Xéré to build a raft for her out of tree trunks and lianas. She makes it clear to him that she comes from another world and cannot stay with them. Preparations for war have been completed among the Ximbú. Gloria advises Xéré to stay with his people as they will leave the village at sunrise. Xéré is more willing to kill Gloria than to let her go and anesthetizes her with a sap.
At first light, both warring parties break out. Hellmuts and Serra's raft is drifting towards the Yinca Territory. You reach the Ximbú village undetected and see Gloria. However, to protect them from spies, they must remain motionless on the raft until dark. They go ashore in the dark. Serra kills Xéré with a knife and Hellmut throws dynamite sticks. He manages to pull Gloria onto the raft. The dynamite causes a great fire in the native village and causes confusion. The whites regret the ruin they caused with it. Serra is injured and Gloria is sad that Xéré died. Serra insists on the reward Hellmut promised him, which he wants to drink and whore. The three finally drift towards civilization on the raft.
main characters
- Gloria Margarete Pfeil (17 y): German-Brazilian convent student
- Hellmut Peters (26 y): German hydraulic engineer
- Dr. Eberhard Pfeil: tropical doctor and Gloria's father
- Antonio Serra: ranger and alleged orchid collector
- Xumina: Medicine Man of the Ximbú (Tree People)
- Numé: young chief of the Ximbú
- Xéré: Gloria's friend with the Ximbú
- Xinxaré: Chief of the warring Yinca (river people)
linguistic style
“And they heard their hearts beating against each other, young, strong and demanding of life. The next day, at dawn, they set out. "
A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry is written in the style of typical Konsalik prose . Extremely verbose and using romantic, delicate, but also powerful to crude images.
Reviews
According to Spiegel, “Konsalik paraphrases the moral imperative of not letting oneself get under” in the title. The novel is rated as exciting and entertaining. A scene in which the priest suffocates from his burns is seen as "hard to digest". There are always tough moments where a decision has to be made between life and survival. It's about the hopelessness of people in a hostile nature and mastering difficult situations. The encounter of cultures when Gloria comes to the native village and shows objects of civilization there that the Indians had never come into contact with is exciting. Konsalik does not portray the life and way of thinking of the indigenous people in a sensitive way, but rather through exoticism and superficial primitiveness. Otherwise, wisdom and questions of morality are the subject of this book, which, with only 205 pages, is quite short for a “typical Konsalik”. The moral foundation of the story is: "Man can unintentionally cause war and destruction." Gloria's encounter with the natural people is similar to the encounter with prehistoric times.
“The uncertainty was great. The grumpy, aged faces, these gray-brown mud masks with the lively, questioning eyes, wavering between belief in gods and murder, stared at Gloria and waited for a sign. "
A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry reminiscent of the wave of Italian cannibal films , which also come from this era and had their sad climax with Mondo Cannibale (1972), Naked Among Cannibals (1977) and Naked and Mangled / Cannibal Holocaust (1980). While Konsalik often makes use of nudity, extreme sadistic violence, as in the films mentioned, is the exception. The novel has a neocolonialist attitude towards supposedly "underdeveloped" indigenous peoples.
"'You have to be her friend or her god!" Arrow said then. Of both, God is the most certain. One must never forget that for them a human life outside of their clan is nothing more than an animal life. Whoever has the power to dispose of it exercises it. '"
Text output
- Heinz G. Konsalik: A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-453-00407-8 .
Web links
- Heinz G. Konsalik: A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry. (PDF)
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-453-00407-8 , p. 96.
- ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-453-00407-8 .
- ↑ : The jungle goddess is not allowed to cry . In: Spiegel Online . tape 50 , December 6, 1976 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 4, 2019]).
- ↑ A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry - Heinz G. Konsalik. Review on Rezension.org
- ↑ Review on Büchertreff on May 10, 2017
- ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-453-00407-8 , p. 61.
- ↑ Heinz G. Konsalik: A jungle goddess is not allowed to cry. Heyne Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-453-00407-8 , pp. 77-78.