It grieves me to know that Moritz Thomsen will never write another novel. His brutal honesty, his self-effacing style, his humility and acceptance of his human flaws, makes his story captivating. Never before has a book filled me with such feelings; rage at his father, joy for his victories, compassion for the difficult life he led, saddness for a life ended. It brought me to tears. This book is a fitting epitaph for a man of astonishing virtues and abilities.

This book is the story of a man who had a dominating father and lived in the dominating world of war. Moritz Thomsen was this man and he tells his own personal stories of the war with his father and the second World War. He captivates his audience with the knowledge of how rough life can be. His father was a rich man that lost all of his families money and still kept spending. He ruled everyone in his family to the point of being called a tyrant. His knowledge of the "feelings" of war are tremendous. He explains and analyzes every detail so that it is possible to believe that you experienced it along with him. It is sad to know that Moritz Thomsen will never write another story about his life. In closing I thought that this was an awesome book that I will never forget.

Devoted readers of the late Moritz Thomsen's first three books needn't be reminded that Moritz wrote better on a bad day than 99% of the authors, living or dead, who have tried their hand at English prose. Just like his classic Living Poor, The Farm on the River of Emeralds, and The Saddest Pleasure, My Two Wars is searingly honest, funny, heartbreaking, compelling ‹ in short, vintage Thomsen. It's more than just obligatory reading for the cognoscenti, however. It documents Thomsen's "involvement with two outrageous catastrophes," his father, and the shorter war he fought against the various forces, insanities, and outrages of WW II as a B-17 bombardier in Europe. The two wars are by no means unrelated. The longer narrative is devoted to military service that began as a draftee. Regarding the longer war, if only half of the outrages Charlie Thomsen visited upon his family are true, "catastrophe" still euphemizes the man. The wartime account is fantastic, but the final scene in which Moritz returns from hell as a decorated officer to confront Charlie, wallowing in drunken bitterness over having been robbed of the prospect of being the father of a dead war hero son, has to be read to be believed. God bless you, Moritz, for an amazing life and for your final gift to us

I had heard neither of book nor author when I unexpectedly received this book from a friend. She mentioned its being a book which presented a strong sense of place. It is indeed that, but rather more as well. Moritz Thomsen lived in Ecuador for a number of years, but then, for various reasons, launched on an extended voyage around Brazil, from Rio up the coast, around to Bélem, and then along the Amazon to Manaus. The real voyage, however, was along the twisted, frazzled byways of his soul, a journey so painful that no physical hardship could rival it. Thomsen is no doubt a good writer, because the ultimate picture we get is exactly the one he saw---peering out at Brazil through the miasmic forests of his excruciating memories. We meet a few strange or pathetic characters---but very few, mostly other foreigners---we view Brazil through his jaded, pessimistic lens, and most of all we delve into his past. He takes us along two rivers---the Amazon in a boat, and a jungle river in western Ecuador in his mind---but there is no retrieving him from the tangled mess of an awful life. The book is excellently constructed, it is honest in the style of Tobias Wolff, it has riveting descriptions of nature and of a life among poor Ecuadorians that few outsiders, save Peace Corps Volunteers, might ever have known. Thomsen understands and describes very accurately the deep exploitation of millions of people in Latin America, an oppresion that is nearly impossible to break, given the policies of rich countries. But ultimately, how you like this book is going to depend on your own personality, your own taste in tragedy. Thomsen starts with a quotation from Paul Theroux about travel being the saddest of pleasures. I felt that Thomsen did not prove the point. He is a man who spent most of his life rejecting everything that he could have been, everything that his arrogant, abusive father wanted him to be. He accomplished very little, made a total mess out of his life, had no (visible)lasting relationships, and at last came to a vague realization in his sixties that he was a 'writer'. I doubt if he can ever escape from the clutches of his long-dead father---will he ever be able to write anything beyond that endless battle ? Describing his life was no doubt the saddest of his pleasures and reading it, for some people, may be labelled a close second. In a way, I wish I had not read THE SADDEST PLEASURE. I prefer my pleasures separate from my tragedies and while such separation is not always possible, I do not savor the juxtaposition.

I found out about Thomsen from a Paul Theroux reference and like many of Theroux's references to other writers and books, this turned out to be a winner. It's the story of an expatriate, perhaps running from his father, or looking for life's answer, joins the Peace Corps at the age of 48. After leaving the Corps, he remains in Ecuador and scrapes out a living on a farm. After being forced off the farm by a younger co-worker, Thomsen embarks on a journey that takes him to Brazil and the Amazon basin. The journey is described from the poor travler's point of view with many sad recollections of his life.

Thomsen touches on so many aspects of the struggle to assimilate with an adopted culture only to realize that we can only be native to one culture. For as much as Living Poor is the handbook for current and future PCVs, The Saddest Pleasure may the best COS material available.