Green Cathedrals

As a child, he dreamed of Tarzan and jungles; as an adult, journalist Alexander discovered that rain forests fell short of his dreams. In fact, he says, they are miserable places to live because of poverty and disease. He gives a breezy account of his travels to seven rain forests and a sensitive portrait of the people who live there. In the Tamen Negara in Malaysia, reputedly the world's oldest tropical rain forest, he found a hotbed of politics, development, ethnic and religious strife. In Guatemala's Peten forest, some 32 separate organizations were working on a project to save the forest. Alexander was enchanted with tiny Dominica, in the Caribbean, but dubious about its schemes to attract tourists. In New Zealand's Whirmaki forest, a Maori woman wearing an Elvis T-shirt asked him to take her to Memphis. There were other adventures in Alaska, Panama and Brazil. Alexander gives us a fresh and disquieting look at these exotic places. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Nov.)