Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 5, 1993 TAG: 9308290315
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: reviewed by Kenneth M. Locke
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
These days about the only people one meets who are willing to give up lives of American materialism for something simpler are missionaries and eco-warriors. Louis Sarno is the rare exception who happily gave up his life in America for primitive music.
"Song from the Forest" is Sarno's account of his seduction by the songs and lifestyle of the Ba-Benjelle pygmies of the Central African Republic. It is an engrossing, mercilessly personal account of his transformation from observer and recorder to participant and member of one of the world's few remaining primitive cultures.
His enthusiasm and genuine concern for the pygmies is evident in the wonderfully descriptive passages of their day to day activities: hunting, courtship, his own efforts at courtship and marriage, birth and death rituals, hut construction, their near addiction to alcohol and other drugs, and most of all their music. One can almost hear the music Sarno describes with such affection. And one can understand how it changed his six-month visit into a permanent change in residence and lifestyle. Don't be afraid of
this book. It is not a treatise on music or anthropology. It is rather a work of love meant for people like you and me: armchair adventurers, novice music lovers, amateur anthropologists, and anyone who admires those who follow their bliss.
It will leave you pining for a sequel.
\ Kenneth M. Locke is a Radford pastor.
by CNB