Elizabeth Marshall Thomas reviewed the book for
The New York Times, and wrote that Raspail "seems rather critical of the Kaweskar, calling them seafarers who 'never even invented the sail,' having them perform unlikely, pointless acts (impotently throwing a stone in imitation of a cannonball, for example) and describing their food from a European viewpoint, which certainly makes it seem disgusting." Marshall Thomas was positive about the author's negative portrayal of Europeans, especially that of
Charles Darwin: "Mr. Raspail's portrait of him deserves applause". The critic continued: "The victims and their oppressors seem equally squalid, ignorant, pathetic, as the two groups inexorably re-enact the age-old pageant known as Man's Inhumanity to Man". Marshall Thomas questioned Raspail's decision to portray an already extinct nation, rather than one at the risk of vanishment: "Yes, the last Kaweskar has gone to heaven, and we're sorry. But what about those like him who remain here below? They want to live. They too are 'The People.' Remember them?" Jack Schmitt wrote in
Los Angeles Times: "In two recent works,
Bruce Chatwin (
The Songlines) and
Mario Vargas Llosa (
El Hablador (The Speaker) ) convincingly draw the reader into the soul-life, the Earth-bound myths and legends of the Australian Bushmen and the Peruvian
Machiguengas, respectively. Raspail is far less successful in a parallel attempt with the Alacalufs, and the fault is not in Jeremy Leggatt's translation, which is excellent. Despite that limitation, Raspail's story, inscribed in the dialogue of cultures so characteristic of our age, is a fine version in historical fiction of a true story loud with ethical reverberations." ==References==