Susan Gordon, Ph.D.

About the Author:
Susan Gordon first went to Costa Rica in 1965 as a Peace Corps volunteer. She returned there in 1973 and stayed for another 8 years. During that time, she worked at the regional university center in Liberia, Guanacaste, a branch of the University of Costa Rica. She and her (now ex-) husband rented a small house which they shared with two parrots, a dog, and assorted other creatures. They tried farming corn, rice, and sorghum one year, garden vegetables another. In 1986 Susan received a Ph.D. from UCLA in Folklore & Mythology Studies. Her dissertation focused on the folklore and history of Costa Rica, especially Guanacaste.

After that Susan worked as Associate Director of the California Council for the Humanities in Los Angeles until 1995 and then as an historical photo archivist for CalMat, a rock products company. Around that time she and some fellow Peace Corps friends assembled and documented a collection of photographs and slides of their early years in various parts of Costa Rica to donate to the Costa Rican National Archives, where the collection currently resides. Susan’s last visit to Costa Rica was in 1994, but she continues to maintain close contact with various friends there.

Susan moved to Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1998.

About the Book:
Like the mirror chips in a rotating ball, this collection of short vignettes provides images of the shifting realities of a small world, Tempira, Guanacaste, before Costa Rica became the trendy vacation destination and retirement paradise it is today.

Delight in these intimate word portraits which paint honest, personal, sometimes funny, sometimes painful views of the human ironies and contradictions in relationships and experiences with people in the same community over many years. The author was not a visitor in Costa Rica. It was home. She writes about experiences that may provide texture to others’ “vacations in paradise.”

Stories depict realities and customs of religion, children, courtship & marriage, drinking, folk beliefs & medicine, and much more.

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