diff --git a/r/configure b/r/configure
index 28f6a73ac7ef5..b227e0ea7f297 100755
--- a/r/configure
+++ b/r/configure
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ if [ "$INCLUDE_DIR" ] || [ "$LIB_DIR" ]; then
 elif [ "$PKGCONFIG_CFLAGS" ] || [ "$PKGCONFIG_LIBS" ]; then
   echo "Found pkg-config cflags and libs!"
   PKG_CFLAGS=${PKGCONFIG_CFLAGS}
-  PKG_LIBS=${PKGCONFIG_LIBS}
+  #PKG_LIBS=${PKGCONFIG_LIBS}
+  PKG_LIBS="-larrow -lparquet" # hard coded! what is the right way to do this?
 elif [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
   if [ "$(command -v brew)" ]; then
     BREWDIR=$(brew --prefix)