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The Lost City of Z by Grann, David. (Vintage,2010) [Paperback]
Lost City of Z (09) by Grann, David [Paperback (2010)]
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First published February 24, 2009
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March 18, 2010
We’ve all been wrong on this whole rainforest issue. We don’t need to SAVE the rainforest. We need to DESTROY the rainforest. Immediately.
I knew that the Amazon was a hostile environment, but I was really shocked at the variety of horrific ways that the jungle will kill a person. You’ve got your standard malaria and yellow fever. Then there’s the piranha, the electric eels, the anacondas, the coral snakes or the poisonous toads that are so toxic that one of them could kill a hundred people. Still not convinced? How about the tiny fish that will swim into any orifice and proceed to do things so terrible that sometimes men had to be castrated to survive.
That’s not even talking about the bugs. Sure, the mosquitoes spread disease, but there’s also a variety of maggot that will infect living tissue. Ants that can eat your clothes in a single night. Chiggers that eat human tissue. Cyanide squirting millipedes. Parasitic worms that cause blindness. Bugs that plant larvae under the skin where it will hatch later. ‘Kissing bugs’ that bite the lips but the victim doesn’t die until 20 years later when their brain or heart swells.
Even if that doesn’t kill you, you’d probably starve to death in what is described as a counterfeit paradise. Because even though there’s all kinds of plants and animals, good luck finding anything edible. Avoid the animals, the disease, the bugs, injury, and starving to death, and you’re still screwed when hostile natives catch you, eat you and use your skull as their favorite coffee mug.
To hell with the Amazon. Burn or bulldoze all of it and sow the earth with salt. That treacherous hellhole has to be obliterated before it can spread. And I don’t want to hear about global warming or any nonsense about generating most of the world’s oxygen. We can breathe shallow, people!
Old Percy Fawcett was a veteran explorer who mounted several expeditions into the Amazon and somehow managed to escape with his life. But he got obsessed with finding the mythical ruins of an El Dorado-type city and led his son and another poor bastard to some kind of gruesome deaths. The mystery of what happened to him led to countless deaths from other dumb asses trekking into the jungle to look for them.
The guy who wrote the book knew all this and he was still stupid enough to go in there. He somehow lived through it, but I think the message is clear. Stay out!
I knew that the Amazon was a hostile environment, but I was really shocked at the variety of horrific ways that the jungle will kill a person. You’ve got your standard malaria and yellow fever. Then there’s the piranha, the electric eels, the anacondas, the coral snakes or the poisonous toads that are so toxic that one of them could kill a hundred people. Still not convinced? How about the tiny fish that will swim into any orifice and proceed to do things so terrible that sometimes men had to be castrated to survive.
That’s not even talking about the bugs. Sure, the mosquitoes spread disease, but there’s also a variety of maggot that will infect living tissue. Ants that can eat your clothes in a single night. Chiggers that eat human tissue. Cyanide squirting millipedes. Parasitic worms that cause blindness. Bugs that plant larvae under the skin where it will hatch later. ‘Kissing bugs’ that bite the lips but the victim doesn’t die until 20 years later when their brain or heart swells.
Even if that doesn’t kill you, you’d probably starve to death in what is described as a counterfeit paradise. Because even though there’s all kinds of plants and animals, good luck finding anything edible. Avoid the animals, the disease, the bugs, injury, and starving to death, and you’re still screwed when hostile natives catch you, eat you and use your skull as their favorite coffee mug.
To hell with the Amazon. Burn or bulldoze all of it and sow the earth with salt. That treacherous hellhole has to be obliterated before it can spread. And I don’t want to hear about global warming or any nonsense about generating most of the world’s oxygen. We can breathe shallow, people!
Old Percy Fawcett was a veteran explorer who mounted several expeditions into the Amazon and somehow managed to escape with his life. But he got obsessed with finding the mythical ruins of an El Dorado-type city and led his son and another poor bastard to some kind of gruesome deaths. The mystery of what happened to him led to countless deaths from other dumb asses trekking into the jungle to look for them.
The guy who wrote the book knew all this and he was still stupid enough to go in there. He somehow lived through it, but I think the message is clear. Stay out!
April 16, 2025
Be careful when you pick this book up. You won’t want to put it down. In 1925, Percy Harrison Fawcett, armed with information only he had unearthed, accompanied by his son, his son’s best friend and a small company of bearers and support personnel, headed off into the Amazonian wilderness in search of a large, ancient, fabled city, the City of Z. Fawcett, his son, Jack, and Jack’s friend, Raleigh, were never seen again. There were many attempts by later explorers of varying levels of expertise to find Fawcett, or at least to learn definitively of his fate. Professional writer David Grann joins that horde, armed with little or no experience as an outdoorsman and having his athletic prowess honed by years as a subway-riding resident of Brooklyn. Not, perhaps, the likeliest starting point. He sets out on a strenuous enterprise in an attempt to explain this 80 year old mystery.
David Grann
While Grann’s book is non-fiction, it reads like an H. Rider Haggard action adventure novel. You will feel palpable excitement as Grann digs up first one then another then another clue as to where Fawcett might have wound up. He follows research directions ignored or unsuspected by prior investigators, to great advantage. I won’t spoil the ending by telling what he does or does not find. That is almost beside the point.
A still from the film
It is the journey that counts here, and part of that journey is the window Grann offers on a part of the history of exploration, the sort of people who were drawn to it, their reasons, their personalities, the effect of their quests (or obsessions, depending) on their careers, families and on the body of human knowledge. We learn also of competing theories about the potential for the Amazon to support a large, urban population. Grann shows, as well, the challenges, the horrors of trying to traverse one of the most unwelcoming areas on earth. This is a very entertaining, very informative and very engaging journey.
The Film was released in the USA - 4/14/17 - sadly, it is a sure cure for insomnia
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages
New York Times: January 14, 2012 - Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon’s Lost World
David Grann
While Grann’s book is non-fiction, it reads like an H. Rider Haggard action adventure novel. You will feel palpable excitement as Grann digs up first one then another then another clue as to where Fawcett might have wound up. He follows research directions ignored or unsuspected by prior investigators, to great advantage. I won’t spoil the ending by telling what he does or does not find. That is almost beside the point.
A still from the film
It is the journey that counts here, and part of that journey is the window Grann offers on a part of the history of exploration, the sort of people who were drawn to it, their reasons, their personalities, the effect of their quests (or obsessions, depending) on their careers, families and on the body of human knowledge. We learn also of competing theories about the potential for the Amazon to support a large, urban population. Grann shows, as well, the challenges, the horrors of trying to traverse one of the most unwelcoming areas on earth. This is a very entertaining, very informative and very engaging journey.
The Film was released in the USA - 4/14/17 - sadly, it is a sure cure for insomnia
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages
New York Times: January 14, 2012 - Once Hidden by Forest, Carvings in Land Attest to Amazon’s Lost World
August 24, 2019
”How easily the Amazon can deceive.
It begins as barely a rivulet, this, the mightiest river in the world, mightier than the Nile and the Ganges, mightier than the Mississippi and all the rivers in China. Over eighteen thousand feet high in the Andes, amid snow and clouds, it emerges through a rocky seam--a trickle of crystal water.”
By the time it reaches the ocean, the estuary of the Amazon river at the mouth is 202 miles wide. A trickle becomes one of the mightiest forces on the planet.
Colonel Percy Fawcett, the legend that launched a thousand explorers.
Candice Millard, in her book about Theodore Roosevelt’s trip through the Amazon, summed it up nicely: ”The rainforest was not a garden of easy abundance, but precisely the opposite. Its quiet, shaded halls of leafy opulence were not a sanctuary, but rather the greatest natural battlefield on the planet, hosting an unremitting and remorseless fight for survival that occupied every single one of its inhabitants, every minute of every day.”
David Grann, the author, became fascinated with Colonel Percy Fawcett after he stumbled upon a treasure trove of his journals. He wasn’t alone. Thousands have also found his story fascinating; hundreds have been so inspired by him as to go into the Amazonian jungle in search of him, their heads dancing with visions of being the next Henry Morton Stanley to find a famous missing explorer.
There are as many visions of what El Dorado looks like as there are explorers to look for it.
On his final journey to the Amazon in 1925, Fawcett was determined to finally find El Dorado, or the City of Z as he liked to call it, but he…disappeared without a trace.
Not that it is difficult to disappear in a jungle as dangerous as the Amazon. Everything from the most microscopic insect to infections to pumas are trying to kill you, not to mention the local tribesmen who may think you are interesting enough to let live or even more interesting to roast on a spit. There was one description that made me shiver: ”Espundia, an illness with even more frightening symptoms. Caused by a parasite transmitted by sand flies, it destroys the flesh around the mouth, nose, and limbs, as if the person were slowly dissolving. ‘It develops into...a mass of leprous corruption.’”
So why do Amazonian explorers insist on trying to conquer such an inhospitable place?
Because it is there.
But also because there are people who feel an itch so intense that they have to go somewhere as far away from people as possible. ”Indeed, some might say that explorers become explorers precisely because they have a streak of unsociability and a need to remove themselves at regular intervals as far as possible from their fellow men.” I resemble that comment, but my solution is less glamorous. I’m more likely to descend into the bowels of my library and let my books take me to Istanbul, Manchu Picchu, Gettysburg, or even, yes, to places as inhospitable as the Amazon. I can navigate the river without coming down with some hideous infection or being drained dry by a vampire bat because my arm flopped outside the netting in the middle of the night or feel the sting of a poisonous arrow puncturing my neck. My martini stays dry and at the proper temperature, too.
Besides the desire for discovery, Fawcett was fortunate to have an iron constitution. While other members of his party were dropping like flies from a host of illnesses or injuries, he just marched on. He lost several key years to the trenches of WW1, and when he emerged from the war to start finding funding for his final trip, he discovered that his patron, the Royal Geological Society, was broke. He had to find financing elsewhere. America beckoned.
Fawcett believed in small parties rather than large, heavily armed parties for exploring the Amazon. He had a rule that I think said a lot about his character, but also about his depth of wisdom. ”Die if you must, but never kill.” Unlike other European and American explorers, he was not in love with his guns. He was there to explore and discover, not conquer.
Percy’s son Jack Fawcett looking very fit for his venture into the jungle.
Decades after his final dispatch from the jungle, Fawcett’s wife and remaining family (he took his teenage son Jack with him) continued to believe that one day he would emerge from the jungle with a tale so epic that only Homer could tell it properly. Grann, too, like so many others before him, became infatuated with what became of Fawcett. He is not made in the same mold as Fawcett, or really any explorer. He is short, pudgy, and not athletic, but he is helped by some modern conveniences that Fawcett would have snickered at the prospect of using. If you so dare, strap on your machete and hack your way through the Amazon with Fawcett, and see if the jungle will eat you or make you into a legend.
”Those whom the Gods intend to destroy they first make mad!”
The movie was released April 17th, 2017. I have not had a chance to watch it yet.
As a companion volume, I would recommend reading Candace Millard’s equally fascinating book The River of Doubt.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
It begins as barely a rivulet, this, the mightiest river in the world, mightier than the Nile and the Ganges, mightier than the Mississippi and all the rivers in China. Over eighteen thousand feet high in the Andes, amid snow and clouds, it emerges through a rocky seam--a trickle of crystal water.”
By the time it reaches the ocean, the estuary of the Amazon river at the mouth is 202 miles wide. A trickle becomes one of the mightiest forces on the planet.
Colonel Percy Fawcett, the legend that launched a thousand explorers.
Candice Millard, in her book about Theodore Roosevelt’s trip through the Amazon, summed it up nicely: ”The rainforest was not a garden of easy abundance, but precisely the opposite. Its quiet, shaded halls of leafy opulence were not a sanctuary, but rather the greatest natural battlefield on the planet, hosting an unremitting and remorseless fight for survival that occupied every single one of its inhabitants, every minute of every day.”
David Grann, the author, became fascinated with Colonel Percy Fawcett after he stumbled upon a treasure trove of his journals. He wasn’t alone. Thousands have also found his story fascinating; hundreds have been so inspired by him as to go into the Amazonian jungle in search of him, their heads dancing with visions of being the next Henry Morton Stanley to find a famous missing explorer.
There are as many visions of what El Dorado looks like as there are explorers to look for it.
On his final journey to the Amazon in 1925, Fawcett was determined to finally find El Dorado, or the City of Z as he liked to call it, but he…disappeared without a trace.
Not that it is difficult to disappear in a jungle as dangerous as the Amazon. Everything from the most microscopic insect to infections to pumas are trying to kill you, not to mention the local tribesmen who may think you are interesting enough to let live or even more interesting to roast on a spit. There was one description that made me shiver: ”Espundia, an illness with even more frightening symptoms. Caused by a parasite transmitted by sand flies, it destroys the flesh around the mouth, nose, and limbs, as if the person were slowly dissolving. ‘It develops into...a mass of leprous corruption.’”
So why do Amazonian explorers insist on trying to conquer such an inhospitable place?
Because it is there.
But also because there are people who feel an itch so intense that they have to go somewhere as far away from people as possible. ”Indeed, some might say that explorers become explorers precisely because they have a streak of unsociability and a need to remove themselves at regular intervals as far as possible from their fellow men.” I resemble that comment, but my solution is less glamorous. I’m more likely to descend into the bowels of my library and let my books take me to Istanbul, Manchu Picchu, Gettysburg, or even, yes, to places as inhospitable as the Amazon. I can navigate the river without coming down with some hideous infection or being drained dry by a vampire bat because my arm flopped outside the netting in the middle of the night or feel the sting of a poisonous arrow puncturing my neck. My martini stays dry and at the proper temperature, too.
Besides the desire for discovery, Fawcett was fortunate to have an iron constitution. While other members of his party were dropping like flies from a host of illnesses or injuries, he just marched on. He lost several key years to the trenches of WW1, and when he emerged from the war to start finding funding for his final trip, he discovered that his patron, the Royal Geological Society, was broke. He had to find financing elsewhere. America beckoned.
Fawcett believed in small parties rather than large, heavily armed parties for exploring the Amazon. He had a rule that I think said a lot about his character, but also about his depth of wisdom. ”Die if you must, but never kill.” Unlike other European and American explorers, he was not in love with his guns. He was there to explore and discover, not conquer.
Percy’s son Jack Fawcett looking very fit for his venture into the jungle.
Decades after his final dispatch from the jungle, Fawcett’s wife and remaining family (he took his teenage son Jack with him) continued to believe that one day he would emerge from the jungle with a tale so epic that only Homer could tell it properly. Grann, too, like so many others before him, became infatuated with what became of Fawcett. He is not made in the same mold as Fawcett, or really any explorer. He is short, pudgy, and not athletic, but he is helped by some modern conveniences that Fawcett would have snickered at the prospect of using. If you so dare, strap on your machete and hack your way through the Amazon with Fawcett, and see if the jungle will eat you or make you into a legend.
”Those whom the Gods intend to destroy they first make mad!”
The movie was released April 17th, 2017. I have not had a chance to watch it yet.
As a companion volume, I would recommend reading Candace Millard’s equally fascinating book The River of Doubt.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
July 21, 2017
Reading this book helped clarify one of my life goals, which is TO NEVER GET STRANDED IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE.
Seriously, that place would kill me. There's the threat of piranhas, electric eels, venomous snakes, vampire fish, vampire bats, disease-carrying mosquitoes, dangerous spiders, poisonous plants... and about a hundred other scary things. I fear the jungle because I respect it.*
I also respect those who have set out to explore the jungle — many of whom have died or disappeared. Some of those folks are the subject of David Grann's fascinating book, The Lost City of Z. Grann himself became a bit obsessed with the Amazon, hoping to discover what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who went missing in the Amazon in 1925. Fawcett had been searching for an ancient civilization, nicknamed Z, and after he disappeared, dozens of people also went into the Amazon trying to find him and the lost city. Some never returned.
This book is part travelogue, part history, part outdoor adventure. I really enjoyed reading it (even though descriptions of the jungle are terrifying) and I'm looking forward to watching the movie that is based on this book. This is the third Grann book I've read this year — I also recommend Killers of the Flower Moon and The Devil and Sherlock Holmes — and I've become such a fan of Grann's work that I'll happily read his future books.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go buy some antivenom and mosquito nets. JUST TO BE SAFE.
*Note: Another great-and-terrifying book about the Amazon jungle is Candice Millard's The River of Doubt. Highly recommended.
Meaningful Passage
"For nearly a century, explorers have sacrificed everything, even their lives, to find the City of Z. The search for the civilization, and for the countless men who vanished while looking for it, has eclipsed the Victorian quest novels of Arthur Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard — both of whom, as it happens, were drawn into the real-life hunt for Z. At times, I had to remind myself that everything in this story is true: a movie star really was abducted by Indians; there were cannibals, ruins, secret maps, and spies; explorers died from starvation, disease, attacks by wild animals, and poisonous arrows; and at stake amid the adventure and death was the very understanding of the Americas before Christopher Columbus came ashore in the New World."
Seriously, that place would kill me. There's the threat of piranhas, electric eels, venomous snakes, vampire fish, vampire bats, disease-carrying mosquitoes, dangerous spiders, poisonous plants... and about a hundred other scary things. I fear the jungle because I respect it.*
I also respect those who have set out to explore the jungle — many of whom have died or disappeared. Some of those folks are the subject of David Grann's fascinating book, The Lost City of Z. Grann himself became a bit obsessed with the Amazon, hoping to discover what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who went missing in the Amazon in 1925. Fawcett had been searching for an ancient civilization, nicknamed Z, and after he disappeared, dozens of people also went into the Amazon trying to find him and the lost city. Some never returned.
This book is part travelogue, part history, part outdoor adventure. I really enjoyed reading it (even though descriptions of the jungle are terrifying) and I'm looking forward to watching the movie that is based on this book. This is the third Grann book I've read this year — I also recommend Killers of the Flower Moon and The Devil and Sherlock Holmes — and I've become such a fan of Grann's work that I'll happily read his future books.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go buy some antivenom and mosquito nets. JUST TO BE SAFE.
*Note: Another great-and-terrifying book about the Amazon jungle is Candice Millard's The River of Doubt. Highly recommended.
Meaningful Passage
"For nearly a century, explorers have sacrificed everything, even their lives, to find the City of Z. The search for the civilization, and for the countless men who vanished while looking for it, has eclipsed the Victorian quest novels of Arthur Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard — both of whom, as it happens, were drawn into the real-life hunt for Z. At times, I had to remind myself that everything in this story is true: a movie star really was abducted by Indians; there were cannibals, ruins, secret maps, and spies; explorers died from starvation, disease, attacks by wild animals, and poisonous arrows; and at stake amid the adventure and death was the very understanding of the Americas before Christopher Columbus came ashore in the New World."
April 22, 2011
Incredible reviews, national best seller, interesting subject matter, well written, extensively researched and yet it did nothing for me. EPIC FAIL. Not sure why but I had a hard time getting through it without falling asleep every other page. Too many details, too many names, too many stories, too much repetition (I get it, the AMAZON is incredibly dangerous). The first half just dragged and dragged. I am glad that I made myself finish it otherwise I would have nothing positive to say. I will admit after trudging through the back story, the intensity took off and my interest was held until the end. Unfortunately, more than half the book had been begrudgingly read by then. To illustrate: first half took two and a half weeks, last half took two days. Might not have been my thing but I can totally see why others would find it compelling and I did learn some things that I would otherwise not know. Apparently, there is a PBS special on Fawcett and this last expedition and I wouldn't mind watching it based on reading this book so evidently it wasn't a total loss. Hate to be sexist but it seems that men enjoyed this book more than women. As for me, I must be too practical and without an adventuresome bone in my body because I kept screaming "Stop going in to that godforsaken jungle, people!".
May 6, 2017
A terrific adventure story, full of suspense and intrigue and lots of historical detail to keep the reader interested. I am not really a reader of adventure strories but every now and again one comes along that catches my interest and when a trusted Goodread's friend recommend this I just had to give it a try and see exactly what the Lost City of Z was all about.
In 1925, British explorer Percy Fawcett and his son journey into the Amazon jungle, in search of what for centuries Europeans believed the jungle was holding secret...... " The ancient city of Z" an advanced civilization that many believed to have once inhabited the jungle. Unfortunately the party never returned and over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of the party and the place they called “The Lost City of Z.” In this book David Grann traces their steps.
I really enjoyed this non fiction read about Percy Fawcett and his obsession and adventures in the Amazon. I particulary enjoyed how the author weaved suspense, history and geography together in this book and I was entertained as well as educated which really added to my enjoyment of the read.
Its an extremely well written and entertaining book and I couldn't help but admire these exporers (and their families) who risked everything for adventure. I think readers who like non fiction and adventure and history will really enjoy this book.
I listened to this one on audio and the nattation was excellent but as always with audio I cant help wondering if the hard copy had photos and maps which I would have missed out on in the audio.
In 1925, British explorer Percy Fawcett and his son journey into the Amazon jungle, in search of what for centuries Europeans believed the jungle was holding secret...... " The ancient city of Z" an advanced civilization that many believed to have once inhabited the jungle. Unfortunately the party never returned and over the years countless perished trying to find evidence of the party and the place they called “The Lost City of Z.” In this book David Grann traces their steps.
I really enjoyed this non fiction read about Percy Fawcett and his obsession and adventures in the Amazon. I particulary enjoyed how the author weaved suspense, history and geography together in this book and I was entertained as well as educated which really added to my enjoyment of the read.
Its an extremely well written and entertaining book and I couldn't help but admire these exporers (and their families) who risked everything for adventure. I think readers who like non fiction and adventure and history will really enjoy this book.
I listened to this one on audio and the nattation was excellent but as always with audio I cant help wondering if the hard copy had photos and maps which I would have missed out on in the audio.
June 6, 2014
This will make you feel like a kid again! It will ignite a Jonny Quest kind of desire for adventure, to dive into the jungle in search of lost worlds.
This will also quench most desires to ever take one step closer to a jungle.
"Z" is supposedly a long lost South American city of a once powerful people. Think El Dorado. Did it ever really exist? Finding out was the self-imposed task of an almost legend of a man who lives up to the myth:
Famous British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett...
A military man with an athlete's physique and a cast iron constitution, Fawcett made the perfect explorer. As fortune would have it, he lived in a time and place where conquering the last of our Earth's unknowns was in high fashion: Victorian England.
I've read a few of these sorts of books and I've come to expect the unavoidable asides. After all, to take this book as an example, there is always going to be more to the story than just one man trying to find one lost city. The Lost City of Z is fattened by many an aside discussing the myriad of Victorian era explorers who threw themselves into harm's way for glory and adventure. It was almost like a game to them, a great race to see who could get there first, be it the depths of the jungle or the arctic pole.
Author David Grann juggles these stories well, never dropping the main story, at least no more than necessary to incorporate the interesting details from these off-shoot tales that help the reader to better understand the mindset of the times or to underscore the perils of such treks into the unknown.
In the process of putting this book together, tracking Fawcett became Grann's adventure. However, it turned out to be one shared by many.
Fawcett went on numerous South American explorations with varying degrees of success and always emerging - though slightly worse for wear - in relatively good health compared to the many who perished along the way. However, after disappearing into the jungle one last time, with his son and a friend in-tow on this occasion, Fawcett disappeared forever. In the years that followed, finding Fawcett became a new kind of sport that swept the world. Many expeditions set out to find and bring the man back, dead or alive.
As you read The Lost City of Z you begin to form the opinion that "dead" is the only possible outcome for anyone foolish enough to set foot in the jungle. Grann's descriptions of the jungle's deprivations felt to me like watching a David Attenborough nature program in Feel-o-vision...every sting, bite and virulent disease feels like its invading your body. I itched unconsciously at every mention of the ubiquitous insects. I swore my skin creeped and I could feel a fever coming on. So, if you've got Indiana Jones aspirations, this is the cure!
This will also quench most desires to ever take one step closer to a jungle.
"Z" is supposedly a long lost South American city of a once powerful people. Think El Dorado. Did it ever really exist? Finding out was the self-imposed task of an almost legend of a man who lives up to the myth:
Famous British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett...
A military man with an athlete's physique and a cast iron constitution, Fawcett made the perfect explorer. As fortune would have it, he lived in a time and place where conquering the last of our Earth's unknowns was in high fashion: Victorian England.
I've read a few of these sorts of books and I've come to expect the unavoidable asides. After all, to take this book as an example, there is always going to be more to the story than just one man trying to find one lost city. The Lost City of Z is fattened by many an aside discussing the myriad of Victorian era explorers who threw themselves into harm's way for glory and adventure. It was almost like a game to them, a great race to see who could get there first, be it the depths of the jungle or the arctic pole.
Author David Grann juggles these stories well, never dropping the main story, at least no more than necessary to incorporate the interesting details from these off-shoot tales that help the reader to better understand the mindset of the times or to underscore the perils of such treks into the unknown.
In the process of putting this book together, tracking Fawcett became Grann's adventure. However, it turned out to be one shared by many.
Fawcett went on numerous South American explorations with varying degrees of success and always emerging - though slightly worse for wear - in relatively good health compared to the many who perished along the way. However, after disappearing into the jungle one last time, with his son and a friend in-tow on this occasion, Fawcett disappeared forever. In the years that followed, finding Fawcett became a new kind of sport that swept the world. Many expeditions set out to find and bring the man back, dead or alive.
As you read The Lost City of Z you begin to form the opinion that "dead" is the only possible outcome for anyone foolish enough to set foot in the jungle. Grann's descriptions of the jungle's deprivations felt to me like watching a David Attenborough nature program in Feel-o-vision...every sting, bite and virulent disease feels like its invading your body. I itched unconsciously at every mention of the ubiquitous insects. I swore my skin creeped and I could feel a fever coming on. So, if you've got Indiana Jones aspirations, this is the cure!
November 25, 2008
I picked up this book and was immediately lost between the covers and could not stop reading until I had finished the entire thing. That's how good this book is.
The author sets forth the story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British explorer who in 1925 set out on an expedition to the Amazon to find what he had named the "lost city of Z." He was convinced that an ancient and "highly cultured" people lived in the Amazon of Brazil, untouched by modern civilization, and that they lived in a great city in a valley somewhere. He spent years doing research and gathering evidence for the existence of this place in order to get funding for expeditions into Brazil's interior. On the 1925 expedition, he took his son, Jack, and Jack's best friend, both eager to be part of a mission that would make history. But shortly after they had arrived into the Amazon area, all communications ceased, and while their movements were traced to a point, nothing concrete was ever heard regarding the three explorers. Their disappearance, and the publicity following the mission from which they never returned, prompted years worth of explorers trying to locate any trace of Fawcett, his son, and his son's friend, even as late as 1996. Too bad for those left behind, Fawcett, who was facing a lot of competition from others exploring the Amazon at the time, and worried that these other explorers might find the lost city of Z before he would, kept his route a very closely guarded secret, so it was pretty much impossible for anyone to go in to either locate bodies, effect a rescue or even trace with any accuracy the steps taken by Fawcett and his group. Although Fawcett's wife refused to believe that her husband and son were gone, they had pretty much just vanished off the face of the earth. Grann, who writes for the New Yorker, decided to try to find Fawcett's route and discover what had happened to him once and for all. This book not only traces Grann's efforts, but takes the reader back into the Victorian period, at the peak of the British Empire, to look at exactly who Percy Fawcett was. It also examines old and modern views of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon as well as offers a glimpse of the fate of the rain forest in modern times.
Simply stunning and superb, I loved this book so much that I pre-ordered a copy for when it is released for the general reading public. The writing is excellent, the mystery surrounding Fawcett's disappearance is well portrayed, and the amount of effort that Grann went to in his research is very much apparent here. If you are looking for something entirely different that will mesmerize you instantly, you cannot miss this book. I had never heard about any of this up until now, & my curiosity has been sparked enough that I made notes and took down book titles to fill in some holes in my knowledge.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I would like to thank Doubleday for sending me this book and also those on Shelf Awareness for offering it as an ARC. It is an excellent piece of writing.
The author sets forth the story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a British explorer who in 1925 set out on an expedition to the Amazon to find what he had named the "lost city of Z." He was convinced that an ancient and "highly cultured" people lived in the Amazon of Brazil, untouched by modern civilization, and that they lived in a great city in a valley somewhere. He spent years doing research and gathering evidence for the existence of this place in order to get funding for expeditions into Brazil's interior. On the 1925 expedition, he took his son, Jack, and Jack's best friend, both eager to be part of a mission that would make history. But shortly after they had arrived into the Amazon area, all communications ceased, and while their movements were traced to a point, nothing concrete was ever heard regarding the three explorers. Their disappearance, and the publicity following the mission from which they never returned, prompted years worth of explorers trying to locate any trace of Fawcett, his son, and his son's friend, even as late as 1996. Too bad for those left behind, Fawcett, who was facing a lot of competition from others exploring the Amazon at the time, and worried that these other explorers might find the lost city of Z before he would, kept his route a very closely guarded secret, so it was pretty much impossible for anyone to go in to either locate bodies, effect a rescue or even trace with any accuracy the steps taken by Fawcett and his group. Although Fawcett's wife refused to believe that her husband and son were gone, they had pretty much just vanished off the face of the earth. Grann, who writes for the New Yorker, decided to try to find Fawcett's route and discover what had happened to him once and for all. This book not only traces Grann's efforts, but takes the reader back into the Victorian period, at the peak of the British Empire, to look at exactly who Percy Fawcett was. It also examines old and modern views of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon as well as offers a glimpse of the fate of the rain forest in modern times.
Simply stunning and superb, I loved this book so much that I pre-ordered a copy for when it is released for the general reading public. The writing is excellent, the mystery surrounding Fawcett's disappearance is well portrayed, and the amount of effort that Grann went to in his research is very much apparent here. If you are looking for something entirely different that will mesmerize you instantly, you cannot miss this book. I had never heard about any of this up until now, & my curiosity has been sparked enough that I made notes and took down book titles to fill in some holes in my knowledge.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and I would like to thank Doubleday for sending me this book and also those on Shelf Awareness for offering it as an ARC. It is an excellent piece of writing.
September 26, 2018
After reading KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, I was desperate for more nonfiction and, especially, more David Grann. Well, THE LOST CITY OF Z did not disappoint! The joy of Grann's writing isn't just in the sense of action and adventure he offers in his works, but the incredible reportage and detail he puts into each of his books. Fawcett, a man larger than life and one who might seemingly be impossible to capture in the antiquated medium of the written word, comes alive like few other historic characters I have come across. His adventures into the Amazon in the early 20th century had my inner explorer feeling jealous and envious—that is until I came across the vivid descriptions of the horrors that awaited all explorers to this remote section of the world...
During Fawcett's time, the Amazon was truly the last uncharted area on the map of the world (and in some ways, this is still the case in our present day). Once thought of as an impenetrable and harsh world of greenery and things that will kill you, certain brave souls went searching for lost worlds and hidden treasures. And while Fawcett was certainly no gold hunter, his mounting obsession with the lost city of "Z" had me truly wondering just what could be out in that dense and surprisingly delicate land of life.
As with all of Grann's works, it is the mystery of the unknown that lurks at the heart of the story: what is possible, what is out there, and can we reach it? Grann attempts to answer all of these questions in his book and does so in such a way that it becomes one of the most thrilling and exciting nonfiction books I've read recently. I highly recommend this book for fans of "Indiana Jones," early 20th century history stories, and just those tired of sitting on their lounger at home and wondering whether or not they should drop everything and run off into the jungle. (Hint: PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA TO RUN OFF INTO THE JUNGLE.)
During Fawcett's time, the Amazon was truly the last uncharted area on the map of the world (and in some ways, this is still the case in our present day). Once thought of as an impenetrable and harsh world of greenery and things that will kill you, certain brave souls went searching for lost worlds and hidden treasures. And while Fawcett was certainly no gold hunter, his mounting obsession with the lost city of "Z" had me truly wondering just what could be out in that dense and surprisingly delicate land of life.
As with all of Grann's works, it is the mystery of the unknown that lurks at the heart of the story: what is possible, what is out there, and can we reach it? Grann attempts to answer all of these questions in his book and does so in such a way that it becomes one of the most thrilling and exciting nonfiction books I've read recently. I highly recommend this book for fans of "Indiana Jones," early 20th century history stories, and just those tired of sitting on their lounger at home and wondering whether or not they should drop everything and run off into the jungle. (Hint: PROBABLY NOT A GOOD IDEA TO RUN OFF INTO THE JUNGLE.)
May 18, 2020
4+ stars - This is the third book I’ve read by David Grann. I enjoy his journalistic and research-oriented writing style. He knows how to weave a yarn and draw the reader in; I was captivated by this story of one man’s obsession with finding the lost city of Z. Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett is an intrepid explorer who mapped areas of South America previously unknown to Europeans. Only Indian tribes lived there, some very hostile and with good reason. Many had been enslaved by the Spanish conquistadores; many others had been murdered. According to Grann’s research, Fawcett was impressive physically and seemed to never tire. During his South American ventures, Fawcett heard tales of El Dorado, an ancient civilization in the Amazon, where “The Great Lord...goes about continually covered in gold dust, as fine as ground salt.” According to legend, there were also groves of cinnamon trees in the kingdom, a spice that was highly valued at the time. The Incan empire had at one time consisted of nearly two million square kilometers and was peopled by more than ten million. Discoveries like this fueled Fawcett’s obsession of finding El Dorado, which he called Z.
Grann delves into Fawcett’s past, his marriage to Nina, a very cultured daughter of a magistrate in Ceylon, his exploits in South America, his service as a Lt. Colonel during World War I, and his dealing with spiritualists, including the controversial Madame Blavatsky. What I enjoyed most about Grann’s account is that he reveals his protagonist’s flaws along with his idolized characteristics. Some of the bad include his surly nature after spending time with his family, his preference for his son Jack over his other two children, and his tendency to intimidate men he considered physically inferior or not up to his standards. On these long treks into the Amazon, even the slightest injury could prove fatal. Fawcett would prefer to abandon men rather than lose time taking them to a neighboring village to be cared for. Fawcett’s almost infallible constitution, his courage, the dignity and respect he almost always shows the Indian tribes are just a few of his most highly idolized attributes.
In April 1925, Fawcett entered the Amazon accompanied by his twenty-one-year-old son, Jack, and Jack’s best friend, Raleigh Rimell. Jack, as fit and muscular as Fawcett, seemed to his father the ideal explorer’s companion. Raleigh, whose father had been a surgeon in the Royal Navy, was also a muscular young man, known to have a joyful and clownish nature. As their journey is well underway, Raleigh suffers from an infected foot and becomes despondent and gloomy. Fawcett begins to worry that Raleigh will keep him from his goals. He takes him aside, encouraging him to return with the guides. I want to whisper in Raleigh’s ear, “Go!,” to shout in his dreams, “Leave!” Raleigh has written to his brother, “Two’s company--Three’s none.” Jack is like his father, turned on and energetic with the adventure. Raleigh has no desire for glory or fame and longs for “a small business and to settle down with a family.”
While writing this book, Grann pursues his own journey into the heart of the Amazon. I would have been disappointed had he not mentioned the Amazon’s current state, it’s decimation, the difference between Fawcett’s time and now. Grann writes,
“I kept looking out the window, expecting to see the first signs of a fearsome jungle. Instead, the terrain looked like Nebraska--perpetual plains that faded into the horizon. When I asked Taukane where the forest was, he said, simply, “Gone.” A moment later, he pointed to a fleet of diesel-belching trucks heading in the opposite direction, carrying sixty-foot logs.”
What destiny does Fawcett meet in the jungle? I was impressed by Grann’s research and his attention to detail. As well, he is thorough. I felt like I was getting a full picture of Fawcett, the man, and explorer, as well as insight into early twentieth-century events. The ending felt a little contrived but suits Grann’s particular storytelling method. Above journalistic and research-oriented, Grann is above all, a grand storyteller.
Grann delves into Fawcett’s past, his marriage to Nina, a very cultured daughter of a magistrate in Ceylon, his exploits in South America, his service as a Lt. Colonel during World War I, and his dealing with spiritualists, including the controversial Madame Blavatsky. What I enjoyed most about Grann’s account is that he reveals his protagonist’s flaws along with his idolized characteristics. Some of the bad include his surly nature after spending time with his family, his preference for his son Jack over his other two children, and his tendency to intimidate men he considered physically inferior or not up to his standards. On these long treks into the Amazon, even the slightest injury could prove fatal. Fawcett would prefer to abandon men rather than lose time taking them to a neighboring village to be cared for. Fawcett’s almost infallible constitution, his courage, the dignity and respect he almost always shows the Indian tribes are just a few of his most highly idolized attributes.
In April 1925, Fawcett entered the Amazon accompanied by his twenty-one-year-old son, Jack, and Jack’s best friend, Raleigh Rimell. Jack, as fit and muscular as Fawcett, seemed to his father the ideal explorer’s companion. Raleigh, whose father had been a surgeon in the Royal Navy, was also a muscular young man, known to have a joyful and clownish nature. As their journey is well underway, Raleigh suffers from an infected foot and becomes despondent and gloomy. Fawcett begins to worry that Raleigh will keep him from his goals. He takes him aside, encouraging him to return with the guides. I want to whisper in Raleigh’s ear, “Go!,” to shout in his dreams, “Leave!” Raleigh has written to his brother, “Two’s company--Three’s none.” Jack is like his father, turned on and energetic with the adventure. Raleigh has no desire for glory or fame and longs for “a small business and to settle down with a family.”
While writing this book, Grann pursues his own journey into the heart of the Amazon. I would have been disappointed had he not mentioned the Amazon’s current state, it’s decimation, the difference between Fawcett’s time and now. Grann writes,
“I kept looking out the window, expecting to see the first signs of a fearsome jungle. Instead, the terrain looked like Nebraska--perpetual plains that faded into the horizon. When I asked Taukane where the forest was, he said, simply, “Gone.” A moment later, he pointed to a fleet of diesel-belching trucks heading in the opposite direction, carrying sixty-foot logs.”
What destiny does Fawcett meet in the jungle? I was impressed by Grann’s research and his attention to detail. As well, he is thorough. I felt like I was getting a full picture of Fawcett, the man, and explorer, as well as insight into early twentieth-century events. The ending felt a little contrived but suits Grann’s particular storytelling method. Above journalistic and research-oriented, Grann is above all, a grand storyteller.
March 23, 2016
I wish this book would have been fiction so the reader would find out the ending. It seems to me that the story begins over and over but there is no closure.
September 27, 2017
Rating: 4.5* of five
This review has been revised and can now be found at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
Real-life Indiana Jones doesn't come back from this one.
2017 Movie News: Go watch the trailer for this Amazon Studios film. I'll wait. Okay, now go read the Rotten Tomatoes aggregation. Won't take long.
Now. A four-plus star book review from me and a host of other sources, agreement among critics from Den of Geek all the way to The Nation, and a cast of pretty, pretty actors...plus the fact that it's an Amazon Studios original appearing hot on the heels of their Golden Globe-winning Manchester by the Sea, makes this a super-promising April 2017 must-see. Amazon might very well be Satan, I can't say I agree but there's a chorus of unhappy people from contractors to suppliers to anti-globalization zealots who say it is, but Satan's offering us a lot of really great inducements to forget his agenda. Amazon's Prime streaming service alone is worth the $100 a year it costs. I love that so much of Amazon Studios' output is book-based. Calculated or not, it's a great thing to see the filmed entertainment industry gain a player that mines the immense vein of unadapted written work instead of churning out sequels and comic book heroes and the occasional bland screensaver-level movie.
But...having Prime-watched it...it is a disappointing film, and I was so hoping for something outstanding. It's gorgeous. It's utterly gorgeous. It's a Prime freebie and deserves watching for the cinematography. The WWI bits are pornily lovely, in love with their violence but curiously unmoving like porn. But the damned film isn't anything like as effective as the book! I am not, as you who read my reviews regularly are aware, a knee-jerk book's better boy. In this case, goddammit, the book's better at getting you in the feelz. PS Charlie Hunnam is gorgeous but wrong for this role. He does a creditable job with some slim writing but isn't pulling Percy out of his pockets. Robert Pattinson is outstanding as his second-in-command. I don't care about Sienna Miller anyway, and Nina is forgettable.
This review has been revised and can now be found at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
Real-life Indiana Jones doesn't come back from this one.
2017 Movie News: Go watch the trailer for this Amazon Studios film. I'll wait. Okay, now go read the Rotten Tomatoes aggregation. Won't take long.
Now. A four-plus star book review from me and a host of other sources, agreement among critics from Den of Geek all the way to The Nation, and a cast of pretty, pretty actors...plus the fact that it's an Amazon Studios original appearing hot on the heels of their Golden Globe-winning Manchester by the Sea, makes this a super-promising April 2017 must-see. Amazon might very well be Satan, I can't say I agree but there's a chorus of unhappy people from contractors to suppliers to anti-globalization zealots who say it is, but Satan's offering us a lot of really great inducements to forget his agenda. Amazon's Prime streaming service alone is worth the $100 a year it costs. I love that so much of Amazon Studios' output is book-based. Calculated or not, it's a great thing to see the filmed entertainment industry gain a player that mines the immense vein of unadapted written work instead of churning out sequels and comic book heroes and the occasional bland screensaver-level movie.
But...having Prime-watched it...it is a disappointing film, and I was so hoping for something outstanding. It's gorgeous. It's utterly gorgeous. It's a Prime freebie and deserves watching for the cinematography. The WWI bits are pornily lovely, in love with their violence but curiously unmoving like porn. But the damned film isn't anything like as effective as the book! I am not, as you who read my reviews regularly are aware, a knee-jerk book's better boy. In this case, goddammit, the book's better at getting you in the feelz. PS Charlie Hunnam is gorgeous but wrong for this role. He does a creditable job with some slim writing but isn't pulling Percy out of his pockets. Robert Pattinson is outstanding as his second-in-command. I don't care about Sienna Miller anyway, and Nina is forgettable.
November 18, 2019
You can see how someone, perhaps someone who goes by the alias of Kemper, would read this book and come to the conclusion that we need to destroy the rainforest immediately (see review and comments that follow for a glimpse at the behaviors of peoples who have never before come into contact with sarcasm).
Seriously though, as noted in my review of Candice Millard's The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, and further evidenced in reading this tale, the jungle is a punishing, dangerous place. As per usual, I'll refer to Sterling Archer for wisdom (see River of Doubt review), "Everything out here either wants to eat me or give me malaria!"*
The hunt for the City of Z follows the footsteps of professional explorer and part-time crazy person, Percy Fawcett (below, in an image which also suggests he may have been a Sherlock Holmes cosplay enthusiast), who went down jungle-yonder in search of the real-world, lost civilization equivalent of El Dorado.
Fawcett would probably be appalled by any comparisons with Roosevelt, but they did both take their sons into the unforgiving tropical environs and raise the hackles of the culturally-competent Marechal Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (below yucking it up with an indigenous peoples).
Big difference between Fawcett and TR? Fawcett never came back. Seen below with fellow explorer and guide Raleigh Rimell shortly before the expedition vanished, Fawcett's story, in the hands of David Grann was equal parts River of Doubt and Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper as tales unravel of the many minds and/or lives lost in attempts to solve the mystery of a missing man.
So what's Grann's take on all this jungle business? Well, pretty darn similar to Millard's who he, in fact, quotes in her description of the deathcage smackdown that is Amazonia:
Why such hysteria? Well you've got your classics- poisonous snakes, jaguars, and crocodiles ("aka the world's most deadliest predators"- Archer's words, not Grann's). There's also a boatload of clever camouflage going down, para exaple (Portuguese) a caterpillar that makes itself look like a viper.
If you manage to avoid getting a fish lodged in your orifices, you still have disease to contend with. In addition to quotidien little things like Malaria, there's espundia.
"an illness...caused by a parasite transmitted by sand flies, it destroys the flesh around the mouth, nose, and limbs, as if the person were slowly dissolving."
Obviously there are pictures of what that little gem of an illness can do on the internet, but even I have my limits. Oh, and also the reaction to white men waltzing into a camp of natives isn't always predictable.
A fascinating, fun read that probably would have been a bit more riveting if I hadn't read The River of Doubt quite so recently. Three and a half stars!
Bonus Archer Jungle Zing:
*Yes, I know that's from Pipeline Fever, which takes place in the everglades, but it still applies. Who am I lead storyboard artist Chad Hurd?
Seriously though, as noted in my review of Candice Millard's The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, and further evidenced in reading this tale, the jungle is a punishing, dangerous place. As per usual, I'll refer to Sterling Archer for wisdom (see River of Doubt review), "Everything out here either wants to eat me or give me malaria!"*
The hunt for the City of Z follows the footsteps of professional explorer and part-time crazy person, Percy Fawcett (below, in an image which also suggests he may have been a Sherlock Holmes cosplay enthusiast), who went down jungle-yonder in search of the real-world, lost civilization equivalent of El Dorado.
Fawcett would probably be appalled by any comparisons with Roosevelt, but they did both take their sons into the unforgiving tropical environs and raise the hackles of the culturally-competent Marechal Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (below yucking it up with an indigenous peoples).
Big difference between Fawcett and TR? Fawcett never came back. Seen below with fellow explorer and guide Raleigh Rimell shortly before the expedition vanished, Fawcett's story, in the hands of David Grann was equal parts River of Doubt and Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper as tales unravel of the many minds and/or lives lost in attempts to solve the mystery of a missing man.
So what's Grann's take on all this jungle business? Well, pretty darn similar to Millard's who he, in fact, quotes in her description of the deathcage smackdown that is Amazonia:
The rainforest was not a garden of easy abundance, but precisely the opposite. Its quiet, shaded halls of leafy opulence were not a sanctuary, but rather the greatest natural battlefield anywhere on the planet, hosting an unremitting and remorseless fight for survival that occupied every single one of its inhabitants, every minute of every day.
Why such hysteria? Well you've got your classics- poisonous snakes, jaguars, and crocodiles ("aka the world's most deadliest predators"- Archer's words, not Grann's). There's also a boatload of clever camouflage going down, para exaple (Portuguese) a caterpillar that makes itself look like a viper.
If you manage to avoid getting a fish lodged in your orifices, you still have disease to contend with. In addition to quotidien little things like Malaria, there's espundia.
"an illness...caused by a parasite transmitted by sand flies, it destroys the flesh around the mouth, nose, and limbs, as if the person were slowly dissolving."
Obviously there are pictures of what that little gem of an illness can do on the internet, but even I have my limits. Oh, and also the reaction to white men waltzing into a camp of natives isn't always predictable.
A fascinating, fun read that probably would have been a bit more riveting if I hadn't read The River of Doubt quite so recently. Three and a half stars!
Bonus Archer Jungle Zing:
"What? I don't think it's racist to assume that a previously uncontacted tribe of indigenous peoples might react unpredictably, perhaps even wildly, to a bunch of white guys who walk up and hand them a goddamn M16!"
*Yes, I know that's from Pipeline Fever, which takes place in the everglades, but it still applies. Who am I lead storyboard artist Chad Hurd?
April 12, 2018
A well-researched tale by journalist David Grann about Percy Fawcett, the intrepid explorer who disappeared in the Amazon jungle on his search for the city he called 'Z'.
The part in this book that I appreciated the most was Fawcett's struggle to learn about and appreciate the cultures of the people he discovered in the Amazon, while at the same time, juggling his own biases against any culture other than his own.
In some ways, he was a product of his time, but the fact that Fawcett at least tried to understand different cultures made him different than other explorers of his age.
It's only a small part in a larger tale full of adventure, exploration and discovery.
The tid-bits about the jungle, mentioned by other reviewers on Goodreads, I first learned about in The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
The narrative in River of Doubt was more focused than this novel, but Millard was talking about one trip, not multiple trips or explorers.
There's a lot of weird stuff that goes on in the jungle. Read either of these books to find out all about it.
Recommended for fans of non-fiction. If you're looking for a more straight-forward adventure tale than this wandering title, choose River of Doubt.
The part in this book that I appreciated the most was Fawcett's struggle to learn about and appreciate the cultures of the people he discovered in the Amazon, while at the same time, juggling his own biases against any culture other than his own.
In some ways, he was a product of his time, but the fact that Fawcett at least tried to understand different cultures made him different than other explorers of his age.
It's only a small part in a larger tale full of adventure, exploration and discovery.
The tid-bits about the jungle, mentioned by other reviewers on Goodreads, I first learned about in The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
The narrative in River of Doubt was more focused than this novel, but Millard was talking about one trip, not multiple trips or explorers.
There's a lot of weird stuff that goes on in the jungle. Read either of these books to find out all about it.
Recommended for fans of non-fiction. If you're looking for a more straight-forward adventure tale than this wandering title, choose River of Doubt.
May 18, 2018
Part biography, of renowned British explorer Percy Fawcett and part autobiographical travelogue interspersed with bits of history of myriad obsessive attempts across centuries to explore and reveal the location of the legendary city of El Dorado
The description of Fawcett's expeditions felt harrowing and blood-curling at times, them being plagued by incessant deadly mosquitoes, fleas, poisonous snakes & plants, bodies being invaded by maggots, vampire bats, pirhanas and not to forget the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon.
The character of Fawcett unfurled as the book progressed from perfect English gentleman, a fearless army colonel to an accomplished explorer but so obsessed with his cause that it rendered him bankrupt during his last days. I can't say I appreciated the man as I got to know more about him as the book progressed.
So all in all an interesting 3.25 starred read, there was no closure to the mystery after-all....
The description of Fawcett's expeditions felt harrowing and blood-curling at times, them being plagued by incessant deadly mosquitoes, fleas, poisonous snakes & plants, bodies being invaded by maggots, vampire bats, pirhanas and not to forget the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon.
The character of Fawcett unfurled as the book progressed from perfect English gentleman, a fearless army colonel to an accomplished explorer but so obsessed with his cause that it rendered him bankrupt during his last days. I can't say I appreciated the man as I got to know more about him as the book progressed.
So all in all an interesting 3.25 starred read, there was no closure to the mystery after-all....
March 21, 2023
For a book about an adventurer who is presumed to have died/been killed while exploring the Amazon, The Lost City of Z fairly boring and repetitive in many places. The story picks up steam late when the author makes his own trek into the Amazon to see if he can discover what happened to Fawcett. The author gets some measure of closure, on both what happened to Fawcett and on the existence of Z.
I probably would have preferred a long magazine article to this novel-length tale, though this was a pretty quick read. Overall, The Lost City of Z is ... fine. Recommended, but just for fans of the genre.
I probably would have preferred a long magazine article to this novel-length tale, though this was a pretty quick read. Overall, The Lost City of Z is ... fine. Recommended, but just for fans of the genre.
February 5, 2011
What a great read. For really the first time I understood the fascination with the phrase 'armchair traveller.' In other circumstances, I always thought it was somewhat absurd to think that reading about a thing was as fun as doing it. In this case, it was a lot more fun to read about it than to do it. Pit vipers, swarms of biting insects, interminable wet, death by maggots...and in all of it, a frustrating mystery. At its heart, this is a story of the search for a magnificent civilization in the heart of the Amazon, with vast earthworks paralleled only by great cities on the European continent. This is a book to make you think about what man is: his determination, his understanding, his folly, his ego, and how some of us have these things in greater measure than others.
December 20, 2020
**3.5 stars**
“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, (Invisible Monsters)
I had been planning to pick up a book from this particular category for a long time, due to my personal fascination to Amazonia. And this one did seem a safe choice.
This one was the first proper-lengthy work by Mr. Grann that I picked up, after going some of his journalistic works, which proved to be promising enough. The book reads pretty much the same way, more like a rigorous piece of unflavored yet salubrious dish, that may or may not be enjoyed by all. I went somewhere in the middle, unfortunately, as I really thought it would be on a par with Krakauer’s works. Elucidated, you will love it if you fancy reading factual articles from Wikipedia over, say, articles from The New Yorker.
Percy Harrison Fawcett, the protagonist of the tale, “was the last of the great Victorian explorers who ventured into uncharted realms with little more than a machete, a compass, and an almost divine sense of purpose. ” Basically, he’s one of those characters I’m sure most of us had dreamt of becoming, after reading the likes of Tarzan…or maybe of Livingstone. But pessimists have convinced the best of us that being an explorer sounds much better in the pages, for struggling to survive inside a forest with the probability of being jeopardized almost tending to one, isn’t really something most of us “civilians” will crave for. Lucky for them, or rather, “us”, Fawcett wasn’t one of those, but actually one of those who took his job way more seriously than, probably for his own good. It’s better to say “surely”, for till this day nothing has been known of how he or his courageous son met their end. Even if you try to sound optimistic, that was almost a century ago.
However, truth be told it’s more of a tale of obsession, than of exploration. However, infatuation from a rational point of view can always be considered authentic. On the tale, I really hoped for a more of Mr. Costin’s part of narrative, that would have added some more shades of jade to the story.
You can find a bit of similarity to the famous biography of Christopher McCandless, and that’s where the tale shines, too. We all love to think of forest as something more of a chum than something to walk away from…and this tale doesn’t preach us either. It just asks you to be instinctive. Sometimes, you got to care more for your loved ones than the general welfare, even if you’re accused of avarice.
“ You will never find Z as long as you look for it in this world. ”
“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks wrong and stupid and foolish.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, (Invisible Monsters)
I had been planning to pick up a book from this particular category for a long time, due to my personal fascination to Amazonia. And this one did seem a safe choice.
This one was the first proper-lengthy work by Mr. Grann that I picked up, after going some of his journalistic works, which proved to be promising enough. The book reads pretty much the same way, more like a rigorous piece of unflavored yet salubrious dish, that may or may not be enjoyed by all. I went somewhere in the middle, unfortunately, as I really thought it would be on a par with Krakauer’s works. Elucidated, you will love it if you fancy reading factual articles from Wikipedia over, say, articles from The New Yorker.
Percy Harrison Fawcett, the protagonist of the tale, “was the last of the great Victorian explorers who ventured into uncharted realms with little more than a machete, a compass, and an almost divine sense of purpose. ” Basically, he’s one of those characters I’m sure most of us had dreamt of becoming, after reading the likes of Tarzan…or maybe of Livingstone. But pessimists have convinced the best of us that being an explorer sounds much better in the pages, for struggling to survive inside a forest with the probability of being jeopardized almost tending to one, isn’t really something most of us “civilians” will crave for. Lucky for them, or rather, “us”, Fawcett wasn’t one of those, but actually one of those who took his job way more seriously than, probably for his own good. It’s better to say “surely”, for till this day nothing has been known of how he or his courageous son met their end. Even if you try to sound optimistic, that was almost a century ago.
However, truth be told it’s more of a tale of obsession, than of exploration. However, infatuation from a rational point of view can always be considered authentic. On the tale, I really hoped for a more of Mr. Costin’s part of narrative, that would have added some more shades of jade to the story.
You can find a bit of similarity to the famous biography of Christopher McCandless, and that’s where the tale shines, too. We all love to think of forest as something more of a chum than something to walk away from…and this tale doesn’t preach us either. It just asks you to be instinctive. Sometimes, you got to care more for your loved ones than the general welfare, even if you’re accused of avarice.
“ You will never find Z as long as you look for it in this world. ”
July 17, 2019
“Loneliness is not intolerable when enthusiasm for a quest fills the mind.”
I keep finding justifications for my (primarily) solitary life of reading and writing—as if I needed any further convincing.
“Exploration … no longer seemed aimed at some outward discovery; rather, it was directed inward …”
The Lost City of Z vacillated between a 3 and 4 star read. At times it felt like I was slogging through text right alongside the jungle trekkers. However, the ending was satisfactory enough to make me want to give the movie a chance.
There is something inherently romantic about the idea of lost cities and pilgrimages. Don't we all feel that tug deep in our psyche? That perpetual urge to find/experience/accomplish/see/do/have the next unattainable thing, to catch the carrot that's always dangling just out of reach?
“Civilization has a relatively precarious hold upon us and there is an undoubted attraction in a life of absolute freedom once it has been tasted. The ‘call o’ the wild’ is in the blood of many of us and finds its safety valve in adventure.”
Although I'm eternally grateful to be alive now, this era of adventure and exploration must have been an exciting time to be alive.
I keep finding justifications for my (primarily) solitary life of reading and writing—as if I needed any further convincing.
“Exploration … no longer seemed aimed at some outward discovery; rather, it was directed inward …”
The Lost City of Z vacillated between a 3 and 4 star read. At times it felt like I was slogging through text right alongside the jungle trekkers. However, the ending was satisfactory enough to make me want to give the movie a chance.
There is something inherently romantic about the idea of lost cities and pilgrimages. Don't we all feel that tug deep in our psyche? That perpetual urge to find/experience/accomplish/see/do/have the next unattainable thing, to catch the carrot that's always dangling just out of reach?
“Civilization has a relatively precarious hold upon us and there is an undoubted attraction in a life of absolute freedom once it has been tasted. The ‘call o’ the wild’ is in the blood of many of us and finds its safety valve in adventure.”
Although I'm eternally grateful to be alive now, this era of adventure and exploration must have been an exciting time to be alive.
September 29, 2017
Two stars is probably generous. The rating stems from having known but little about the Amazon rainforest from an experiential point of view. Had I even taken more than a few trips to the National Zoo's only-slightly-muggy version largely without free-roaming pestilence, my rating would probably have been lower. So expectations and foreknowledge are everything here. The more you already know about what a godforsaken wasteland the Amazon is (from a nontropical, industrialized, rocking-chair, artisanal beer-swilling perspective), the weaker I imagine this book will appear.
On that note, perhaps you're interested in reading about the exciting new disoveries that analysis of satellite imagery and carbon dating combined with sympathetic boots on the ground are lending to the field of pre-Columbian anthropology in the Americas. This is not that book. That book, referenced here only at page 284, is apparently Charles Mann's 1491 and one which I look forward to reading at some point.
Perhaps your interests are less expansive, limited to Michael Heckenberger's work with and in proximity to the Kuikuro and Kalapalo tribes in the Amazonian Xingu region, presumably near to Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett’s last-known whereabouts in his quest for the burg whose romantic name The Lost City of Z serves as the title of this book. You know, a book documenting a theory that represents a paradigm shift away from the 20th century view of Amazonia as a “counterfeit paradise” incapable of sustaining population density sufficient to yield a complex culture. Well, this is not that book, either. That book, referenced here a mere four pages from the end of his narrative at page 273, is Heckenberger’s own work called The Ecology of Power and has been described by archaeologists and geographers (as related by David Grann) as “extraordinary,” “monumental,” “transformative,” and “earth-shattering,” which sounds worthy of at least a browse.
Perhaps..., perhaps really you’re a fan of quirky travel, adventure, and outdoorsy exotica of the type to be found in Douglas Adams’ amusing Last Chance to See or Jon Krakauer’s harrowing exposes of human folly and hubris Into the Wild or Into Thin Air and hoping to find here a biography of intrepid Edwardian explorer Fawcett that will match Adam Hochschild’s telling of Lord Stanley’s disturbing exploits in the Belgian Congo in King Leopold’s Ghost. Alas, none of those terrific books are this one, either.
In fact, it’s hard to say what this book is, as David Grann doesn’t seem himself to know. Here’s how he opens the book: Preface – the author is lost and alone deep in the Amazon in pursuit of his story (this is actually not the case, but does self-destructively set the stage for the frustrating futility which the reader will perceive throughout the book). Chapter 1 - introducing Fawsett onboard ship destined for Brazil and what will become his last documented trip into the rainforest in 1925. Chapter 2 – introducing James and James, Jr. Lynch, wealthy bankers who managed to survive their own “In Search of…” quest into the Green Hell in 1995 only by ransoming themselves to a hostile kidnapping tribe (give ‘em a hand, folks, as they will be returning only once later in this story in a cameo role). Now here comes Chapter 3, melodramatically surtitled, “The Search Begins” (for what? the dimly-charted border between Bolivia and Brazil? Ninety-year old undocumented human remains which in the best of conditions would surely have vanished within the first decade of disappearance? the fact that water is wet, heat hot, and indigenous cultures mercilessly exploited and victimized? quel surprise!) and we’re back with the author in first person again as he documents what will ultimately prove to be only his own pointless, journalistic narcissism. Thus bumblingly shifting through multiple points of view, Grann exhausts readers’ patience and sympathy for the characters intended to be their surrogates. As no one even arrives at the jungle until nearly 80 pages in, this book even fails as a member of the nature-as-monster genre.
You do pick up some interesting facts about life in the Amazon (via the author’s ultimate encounters with Heckenberger) and a bit of Edwardian-era explorer gossip (via mildew-spotted correspondence with the Royal Geographic Society circa 1911), but nothing worth a book-length investment. I read this in anticipation of a book talk and am now dying to find out why this particular work was chosen. I’m hoping Heckenberger will turn out to be the speaker. If it’s Grann, I won’t waste my lunch hour.
On that note, perhaps you're interested in reading about the exciting new disoveries that analysis of satellite imagery and carbon dating combined with sympathetic boots on the ground are lending to the field of pre-Columbian anthropology in the Americas. This is not that book. That book, referenced here only at page 284, is apparently Charles Mann's 1491 and one which I look forward to reading at some point.
Perhaps your interests are less expansive, limited to Michael Heckenberger's work with and in proximity to the Kuikuro and Kalapalo tribes in the Amazonian Xingu region, presumably near to Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett’s last-known whereabouts in his quest for the burg whose romantic name The Lost City of Z serves as the title of this book. You know, a book documenting a theory that represents a paradigm shift away from the 20th century view of Amazonia as a “counterfeit paradise” incapable of sustaining population density sufficient to yield a complex culture. Well, this is not that book, either. That book, referenced here a mere four pages from the end of his narrative at page 273, is Heckenberger’s own work called The Ecology of Power and has been described by archaeologists and geographers (as related by David Grann) as “extraordinary,” “monumental,” “transformative,” and “earth-shattering,” which sounds worthy of at least a browse.
Perhaps..., perhaps really you’re a fan of quirky travel, adventure, and outdoorsy exotica of the type to be found in Douglas Adams’ amusing Last Chance to See or Jon Krakauer’s harrowing exposes of human folly and hubris Into the Wild or Into Thin Air and hoping to find here a biography of intrepid Edwardian explorer Fawcett that will match Adam Hochschild’s telling of Lord Stanley’s disturbing exploits in the Belgian Congo in King Leopold’s Ghost. Alas, none of those terrific books are this one, either.
In fact, it’s hard to say what this book is, as David Grann doesn’t seem himself to know. Here’s how he opens the book: Preface – the author is lost and alone deep in the Amazon in pursuit of his story (this is actually not the case, but does self-destructively set the stage for the frustrating futility which the reader will perceive throughout the book). Chapter 1 - introducing Fawsett onboard ship destined for Brazil and what will become his last documented trip into the rainforest in 1925. Chapter 2 – introducing James and James, Jr. Lynch, wealthy bankers who managed to survive their own “In Search of…” quest into the Green Hell in 1995 only by ransoming themselves to a hostile kidnapping tribe (give ‘em a hand, folks, as they will be returning only once later in this story in a cameo role). Now here comes Chapter 3, melodramatically surtitled, “The Search Begins” (for what? the dimly-charted border between Bolivia and Brazil? Ninety-year old undocumented human remains which in the best of conditions would surely have vanished within the first decade of disappearance? the fact that water is wet, heat hot, and indigenous cultures mercilessly exploited and victimized? quel surprise!) and we’re back with the author in first person again as he documents what will ultimately prove to be only his own pointless, journalistic narcissism. Thus bumblingly shifting through multiple points of view, Grann exhausts readers’ patience and sympathy for the characters intended to be their surrogates. As no one even arrives at the jungle until nearly 80 pages in, this book even fails as a member of the nature-as-monster genre.
You do pick up some interesting facts about life in the Amazon (via the author’s ultimate encounters with Heckenberger) and a bit of Edwardian-era explorer gossip (via mildew-spotted correspondence with the Royal Geographic Society circa 1911), but nothing worth a book-length investment. I read this in anticipation of a book talk and am now dying to find out why this particular work was chosen. I’m hoping Heckenberger will turn out to be the speaker. If it’s Grann, I won’t waste my lunch hour.
November 5, 2018
A great non-fiction account of British explorer Percy Fawcett and he’s attempt to find what he believed to be lost city in the Amazon during 1925.
Journalist David Grann try’s to piece together Fawcett journey.
I wasn’t aware of this story until the movie adaptation, it was such a fascinating read.
It gave a real sense of what the conditions would have been like for Fawcett.
Journalist David Grann try’s to piece together Fawcett journey.
I wasn’t aware of this story until the movie adaptation, it was such a fascinating read.
It gave a real sense of what the conditions would have been like for Fawcett.
August 21, 2023
Absolutely Phenomenal.
December 21, 2023
La ciudad perdida de Z
Libro sobre la vida del gran explorador inglés Percy H. Fawcett, que dedicó gran parte de su carrera en la búsqueda del nuevo El Dorado en el Amazonas.
La leyenda de El Dorado nace cuando los conquistadores españoles buscaban las riquezas que se suponía había en el nuevo mundo y estaba sustentada por relatos de los indios, ya sea por antiguas creencias suyas, ya sea por sacarse de encima al pesado conquistador que solo quería oro. Esta búsqueda duró varios siglos en los que se cobró centenares de vidas y enloqueció a unos cuantos (Aguirre).
Fawcett también estaba obsesionado con esta búsqueda, en este caso, la ciudad de Z, al escuchar a los indios rumores sobre una antigua civilización. Para ello no dudó en organizar expediciones ya sea para cartografiar zonas sin explorar o directamente para encontrar Z.
El autor cuenta la vida del explorador en forma de ensayo más que si de una novela se tratase. Tremendamente bien documentado, quizás hasta el exceso, logrando que nos perdamos en algún momento, narra paso a paso la trayectoria de Fawcett desde sus sorprendentes inicios como espía hasta hacerse el mayor explorador del Amazonas.
El mismo autor ha viajado a la zona donde estuvo Fawcett en busca de Z.
El libro está muy bien ya que cuenta los viajes a la selva y los terribles padecimientos que sufrieron los expedicionarios según se cuenta en los diarios de los protagonistas, pero no es una historia novelada. La narración va saltando entre estos viajes, unas pocas lecciones de historia desde los conquistadores y el presente del autor y su viaje a la zona.
Hay una película basada en este libro (Z, La ciudad perdida, (2016)) que logra plasmar lo que Grann intenta contar sobre Fawcett. Para el que no haya leído el libro se quedará contento con la historia. Para los que lo hayan leído no serán suficientes sus 2h 20m que dura la película. Y es que, es imposible contar todos los viajes, idas y venidas y padecimientos que sufrió el explorador en su obsesión por encontrar su destino.
Libro sobre la vida del gran explorador inglés Percy H. Fawcett, que dedicó gran parte de su carrera en la búsqueda del nuevo El Dorado en el Amazonas.
La leyenda de El Dorado nace cuando los conquistadores españoles buscaban las riquezas que se suponía había en el nuevo mundo y estaba sustentada por relatos de los indios, ya sea por antiguas creencias suyas, ya sea por sacarse de encima al pesado conquistador que solo quería oro. Esta búsqueda duró varios siglos en los que se cobró centenares de vidas y enloqueció a unos cuantos (Aguirre).
Fawcett también estaba obsesionado con esta búsqueda, en este caso, la ciudad de Z, al escuchar a los indios rumores sobre una antigua civilización. Para ello no dudó en organizar expediciones ya sea para cartografiar zonas sin explorar o directamente para encontrar Z.
El autor cuenta la vida del explorador en forma de ensayo más que si de una novela se tratase. Tremendamente bien documentado, quizás hasta el exceso, logrando que nos perdamos en algún momento, narra paso a paso la trayectoria de Fawcett desde sus sorprendentes inicios como espía hasta hacerse el mayor explorador del Amazonas.
El mismo autor ha viajado a la zona donde estuvo Fawcett en busca de Z.
El libro está muy bien ya que cuenta los viajes a la selva y los terribles padecimientos que sufrieron los expedicionarios según se cuenta en los diarios de los protagonistas, pero no es una historia novelada. La narración va saltando entre estos viajes, unas pocas lecciones de historia desde los conquistadores y el presente del autor y su viaje a la zona.
Hay una película basada en este libro (Z, La ciudad perdida, (2016)) que logra plasmar lo que Grann intenta contar sobre Fawcett. Para el que no haya leído el libro se quedará contento con la historia. Para los que lo hayan leído no serán suficientes sus 2h 20m que dura la película. Y es que, es imposible contar todos los viajes, idas y venidas y padecimientos que sufrió el explorador en su obsesión por encontrar su destino.
May 23, 2017
A question for my nonfiction-loving friends: what is it you love about nonfiction?
I ask this question not because I have an inherent dislike for the factual, more that I find fiction much more compelling, readable, and entertaining. It’s why I’ve switched to taking in the bulk of my nonfiction through audio: I just find it easier to get through in that medium. Still, I like to take the occasional foray into reading my nonfiction. With The Lost City of Z, then, I’m confused as to what I make of the whole experience.
On one hand, the story is wild in every sense of the word. Grann chose well in his subject as Fawcett’s obsession over a hidden city in the Amazon is compulsively readable. Unfortunately, I found I was taken out of the story by the endless exposition. Hey, I get it. This is a superbly researched and probably hella accurate book, but I’m not pulled in by tidbits unveiling whose journal documented Fawcett’s journey, I just want to read about the journey.
Despite the fact that this book caused me to struggle with my relationship to nonfiction, I was rather taken with the concept. In fact, I think if I had listened to this book rather than read it, I’d be all over it. Grann brings the exploratory culture of the early 1900s to life through tales of warm weather, mysterious jungle, and some truly gnarly infectious diseases. Fawcett’s slow circle of the drain towards toxic obsession is also really interesting. We get to see the man take dangerous and almost superhuman treks into the wilderness with an almost blatant disregard for those who come with him.
My favourite sections were those in which Grann tells his parallel tale of discovering Fawcett and developing his own obsessions about the explorer’s unknown fate. It was these passages that kept me turning the pages between brief tedium. Throughout the whole book, Grann maintains an objective style that is to the point and well-organized.
So, overall, I’m a little bummed out about this one. I had really been looking forward to reading it, but I found it slow and it took me way longer to read than I had anticipated. I’ll be checking out more of Grann’s work through Audible though, since I am impressed with his thorough research even if I wasn’t always entertained by it.
I ask this question not because I have an inherent dislike for the factual, more that I find fiction much more compelling, readable, and entertaining. It’s why I’ve switched to taking in the bulk of my nonfiction through audio: I just find it easier to get through in that medium. Still, I like to take the occasional foray into reading my nonfiction. With The Lost City of Z, then, I’m confused as to what I make of the whole experience.
On one hand, the story is wild in every sense of the word. Grann chose well in his subject as Fawcett’s obsession over a hidden city in the Amazon is compulsively readable. Unfortunately, I found I was taken out of the story by the endless exposition. Hey, I get it. This is a superbly researched and probably hella accurate book, but I’m not pulled in by tidbits unveiling whose journal documented Fawcett’s journey, I just want to read about the journey.
Despite the fact that this book caused me to struggle with my relationship to nonfiction, I was rather taken with the concept. In fact, I think if I had listened to this book rather than read it, I’d be all over it. Grann brings the exploratory culture of the early 1900s to life through tales of warm weather, mysterious jungle, and some truly gnarly infectious diseases. Fawcett’s slow circle of the drain towards toxic obsession is also really interesting. We get to see the man take dangerous and almost superhuman treks into the wilderness with an almost blatant disregard for those who come with him.
My favourite sections were those in which Grann tells his parallel tale of discovering Fawcett and developing his own obsessions about the explorer’s unknown fate. It was these passages that kept me turning the pages between brief tedium. Throughout the whole book, Grann maintains an objective style that is to the point and well-organized.
So, overall, I’m a little bummed out about this one. I had really been looking forward to reading it, but I found it slow and it took me way longer to read than I had anticipated. I’ll be checking out more of Grann’s work through Audible though, since I am impressed with his thorough research even if I wasn’t always entertained by it.
Read
May 22, 2018The tale of Colonel Percy Fawcett--what a name--an Edwardian explorer of the most fantastically Rider Haggard kind. Derring do, apparent natural malaria resistance, absurd physical courage and endurance, mad as a spoon, obsessed with the Amazon. He mapped the borders between various South American countries, but became obsessed with finding El Dorado and the fabled Lost City of Z. No, really.
At the time received wisdom was that the indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin were inferior, weak, savage, blah blah Victorian racism. Fawcett was a man of his time in many bad ways but achieved a kind of doublethink morality that let him treat the locals as human (using radical tactics like 'not shooting them on sight' and 'learning their language' and 'grasping that enslavement and genocide had rather put the survivors off Europeans') and he became convinced that great ancient civilisations had existed in this insanely hostile dangerous 'green hell', as Europeans called it while flocking there for adventure or profit and dying in swathes. I had no idea how horrendously dangerous the Amazon was. Anacondas and maggots and diseases that make your face rot off. Argh.
This is the interwoven tale of Fawcett's increasingly obsessed search for a great ancient city in the jungle and his eventual mysterious disappearance, which was a worldwide sensation, and the author's pursuit of evidence about his fate. Generally these sorts of stories can be rather unsatisfying--let's face it, he and his party died and something ate them and we'll never know more--but this one manages an ending that I found magnificent (probably because I was coming from a position of total ignorance of the entire topic but hey). A really enjoyable, engaging read of a vanished civilisation, by which I mean crazed Edwardian explorers obviously.
At the time received wisdom was that the indigenous tribes of the Amazon basin were inferior, weak, savage, blah blah Victorian racism. Fawcett was a man of his time in many bad ways but achieved a kind of doublethink morality that let him treat the locals as human (using radical tactics like 'not shooting them on sight' and 'learning their language' and 'grasping that enslavement and genocide had rather put the survivors off Europeans') and he became convinced that great ancient civilisations had existed in this insanely hostile dangerous 'green hell', as Europeans called it while flocking there for adventure or profit and dying in swathes. I had no idea how horrendously dangerous the Amazon was. Anacondas and maggots and diseases that make your face rot off. Argh.
This is the interwoven tale of Fawcett's increasingly obsessed search for a great ancient city in the jungle and his eventual mysterious disappearance, which was a worldwide sensation, and the author's pursuit of evidence about his fate. Generally these sorts of stories can be rather unsatisfying--let's face it, he and his party died and something ate them and we'll never know more--but this one manages an ending that I found magnificent (probably because I was coming from a position of total ignorance of the entire topic but hey). A really enjoyable, engaging read of a vanished civilisation, by which I mean crazed Edwardian explorers obviously.
September 3, 2016
Excellent engaging read of a quest of a quest. Grann, a non-athletic journalist in New York, becomes obsessed with the obsession of an early 20th century British explorer, James Fawcett, with the uncharted areas of the Amazon near the boundaries of Bolivia and Brazil. His fame for several expeditions between 1905 and 1915 skyrocketed to nearly Airhart proportions when he disappeared with his son and his friend on a 1925 journey into the vast Mato Grosso wilderness of Brazil in search the ruins of an ancient civilization Fawcett codes as the "Lost City of Z."
Rumors of a lost civilization and clues to its general location was what was driving him, not unlike the quest since the time of the Conquistadors for a gold rich El Dorado. Grann deftly charts the origins of Fawcett's character from his Victorian family upbringing, the worship of antecedent explorers like Burton, and an early experience looking for ruins in Ceylon while in the colonial army. His charisma and competence were sufficient to garner the backing of the Royal Geological Society and later the U.S. counterpart. On the ugly side, he had little empathy for anyone in his party who could not keep up with his pace, and he neglected his family. Paradoxically, Fawcett respected the many Indian tribes enough to avoid violent encounters at all costs, yet believed along with nearly all Europeans in their genetic inferiority.
Fawcett came to believe that Amazon dwellers achieved a high civilization before the arrival and destructive impact of colonialism and European disease (e.g. Machu Picchu found in 1911). However, he bought into the idea that such civilization had been spread by ancient Phoenicians.
Grann's research among Fawcett's letters and descendents led him to pursue his own foray to Brazil to uncover the mysteries of his disappearance and the potential real foundation for the lost city. In this, he was following along in the footsteps of numerous expeditions from the first in 1928 to the last one in 1996, all of which ended in failure and led to perhaps 100 deaths. It is hard to consider that there can be a spoiler to a journalistic memoir, but there is a surprise bit of archaeology at the end. Grann had to know about it, but he kept it tucked away to enhance the drama. I didn't appreciate this bit of showmanship in what otherwise passed as an objective account.
Rumors of a lost civilization and clues to its general location was what was driving him, not unlike the quest since the time of the Conquistadors for a gold rich El Dorado. Grann deftly charts the origins of Fawcett's character from his Victorian family upbringing, the worship of antecedent explorers like Burton, and an early experience looking for ruins in Ceylon while in the colonial army. His charisma and competence were sufficient to garner the backing of the Royal Geological Society and later the U.S. counterpart. On the ugly side, he had little empathy for anyone in his party who could not keep up with his pace, and he neglected his family. Paradoxically, Fawcett respected the many Indian tribes enough to avoid violent encounters at all costs, yet believed along with nearly all Europeans in their genetic inferiority.
Fawcett came to believe that Amazon dwellers achieved a high civilization before the arrival and destructive impact of colonialism and European disease (e.g. Machu Picchu found in 1911). However, he bought into the idea that such civilization had been spread by ancient Phoenicians.
Grann's research among Fawcett's letters and descendents led him to pursue his own foray to Brazil to uncover the mysteries of his disappearance and the potential real foundation for the lost city. In this, he was following along in the footsteps of numerous expeditions from the first in 1928 to the last one in 1996, all of which ended in failure and led to perhaps 100 deaths. It is hard to consider that there can be a spoiler to a journalistic memoir, but there is a surprise bit of archaeology at the end. Grann had to know about it, but he kept it tucked away to enhance the drama. I didn't appreciate this bit of showmanship in what otherwise passed as an objective account.
March 16, 2022
One of the rare times where the movie is better. The great cast is also a plus!
May 5, 2018
Percy Fawcett, a famous British explorer in the 20th century, disappeared into the Amazon jungle with his son and his son's best friend in 1925. Fawcett was searching for an ancient lost city that he called Z. The 3 men were never seen again. Over the decades after their disappearance, several teams and even individuals ventured into the dense jungle to find the famed explorer. Some of them reappeared weeks or months later sick and emaciated, and some were never seen again. No real trace of Fawcett was ever found. Plenty of rumors and lies......but no bodies or real evidence as to their fate. Fawcett's wife was never the same again. Flash forward to modern times, and New Yorker writer David Grann also goes to the Amazon jungle in search of evidence of Fawcett's fate.
I love history and tales of the old style explorers....the men who trekked off into the unknown just because it was unknown. Not the sort of people who explored to make money, or to gain renown. But real explorers....the ones who mapped the world, discovered indigenous peoples and didn't plot to murder them all or evangelize them, the ones who climbed, trekked and discovered new places just because they were there. Fawcett was one of these men. Unfortunately, as with many explorers, his belief in himself, his obsession with his quest and his feelings of invincibility eventually caught up with him -- and he took two young men with him. He escaped fate multiple times.....but it catches up with everyone eventually. In 1925, he walked into the jungle in a valiant attempt to search for the Lost City of Z that he knew to his soul was there, and disappeared forever into the mysteries and tall tales that grow from such stories.
Just a head's up for readers -- this is not a fictionalized story. This is a non-fiction account of the history of exploration in the Amazon jungle, the story of Fawcett's life and treks around the world, the fate of other explorers of the time, facts about his son and friend that went along on the 1925 trip, and the aftermath of the disappearance. There is also an accounting of David Grann's trip to the Amazon to glean facts about the fate of Fawcett, the local indigenous peoples and how the area has changed since the 1920s. Readers who don't like historical accounts of facts and information might want to pass this book by. But, for those who enjoy history....this story is awesome!! I loved this book! Anyone who enjoyed Douglas Preston's recent book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, will also enjoy this book.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book. Read by Mark Deakins, the audio is just over 10 hours long. Deakins reads at a nice pace with an even, pleasant tone. I have hearing loss but was easily able to understand this entire book.
It is obvious that Grann did a lot of detailed research into Amazon exploration, Fawcett and many other treks around the world at the time. He gives details of Fawcett's journals and news stories from the time, and information gleaned from Amazon natives and others. Such an interesting and intriguing story!!
Because the book includes information gleaned from writings, journals and other sources from the time, there are some racist overtones in portions of this story. Many scientists, explorers, politicians, journalists -- hell, even the general white populus -- viewed indigenous peoples (or people of color in general) as lesser human beings, stating that there is no possible way they ever created a large society because it would be impossible for them to do so. At times as I listened, I found myself making snarky remarks to these long-dead idiots. Some of those old views were what started horrible and asinine beliefs/movements like eugenics, or cultural destruction by evangelization. Oh, we are white and must go to these countries and whitesplain to the natives that they are inferior, and must mold to our moral ideals or perish. Blah, blah, blah. What a load of racist crap. My take on the entire matter is this: how could anyone believe themselves superior to people who can survive and thrive in the most hazardous and inhospitable parts of the world when the whites who ventured there died in droves?? But as they were venturing into the jungle and dying of disease, starvation, accidents, predation, and native attacks, they wholeheartedly believed themselves freaking superior because of the color of their skin and their fat, sheltered lives in the modern world. Really?? Seems to me the people that can survive and feed themselves in that place are the superior ones.
Amazon has released an original movie based on this book. I wanted to watch it, but had to follow my rule of always reading the book first. Now that I've read the book, I can enjoy the film! :) I hope it keeps the integrity of Grann's research and doesn't fall into over-grandizing fiction, rather than the interesting true facts of the case.
David Grann is the author of several books including The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession. I'm definitely going to be reading more of his books!
I love history and tales of the old style explorers....the men who trekked off into the unknown just because it was unknown. Not the sort of people who explored to make money, or to gain renown. But real explorers....the ones who mapped the world, discovered indigenous peoples and didn't plot to murder them all or evangelize them, the ones who climbed, trekked and discovered new places just because they were there. Fawcett was one of these men. Unfortunately, as with many explorers, his belief in himself, his obsession with his quest and his feelings of invincibility eventually caught up with him -- and he took two young men with him. He escaped fate multiple times.....but it catches up with everyone eventually. In 1925, he walked into the jungle in a valiant attempt to search for the Lost City of Z that he knew to his soul was there, and disappeared forever into the mysteries and tall tales that grow from such stories.
Just a head's up for readers -- this is not a fictionalized story. This is a non-fiction account of the history of exploration in the Amazon jungle, the story of Fawcett's life and treks around the world, the fate of other explorers of the time, facts about his son and friend that went along on the 1925 trip, and the aftermath of the disappearance. There is also an accounting of David Grann's trip to the Amazon to glean facts about the fate of Fawcett, the local indigenous peoples and how the area has changed since the 1920s. Readers who don't like historical accounts of facts and information might want to pass this book by. But, for those who enjoy history....this story is awesome!! I loved this book! Anyone who enjoyed Douglas Preston's recent book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, will also enjoy this book.
I listened to the audiobook version of this book. Read by Mark Deakins, the audio is just over 10 hours long. Deakins reads at a nice pace with an even, pleasant tone. I have hearing loss but was easily able to understand this entire book.
It is obvious that Grann did a lot of detailed research into Amazon exploration, Fawcett and many other treks around the world at the time. He gives details of Fawcett's journals and news stories from the time, and information gleaned from Amazon natives and others. Such an interesting and intriguing story!!
Because the book includes information gleaned from writings, journals and other sources from the time, there are some racist overtones in portions of this story. Many scientists, explorers, politicians, journalists -- hell, even the general white populus -- viewed indigenous peoples (or people of color in general) as lesser human beings, stating that there is no possible way they ever created a large society because it would be impossible for them to do so. At times as I listened, I found myself making snarky remarks to these long-dead idiots. Some of those old views were what started horrible and asinine beliefs/movements like eugenics, or cultural destruction by evangelization. Oh, we are white and must go to these countries and whitesplain to the natives that they are inferior, and must mold to our moral ideals or perish. Blah, blah, blah. What a load of racist crap. My take on the entire matter is this: how could anyone believe themselves superior to people who can survive and thrive in the most hazardous and inhospitable parts of the world when the whites who ventured there died in droves?? But as they were venturing into the jungle and dying of disease, starvation, accidents, predation, and native attacks, they wholeheartedly believed themselves freaking superior because of the color of their skin and their fat, sheltered lives in the modern world. Really?? Seems to me the people that can survive and feed themselves in that place are the superior ones.
Amazon has released an original movie based on this book. I wanted to watch it, but had to follow my rule of always reading the book first. Now that I've read the book, I can enjoy the film! :) I hope it keeps the integrity of Grann's research and doesn't fall into over-grandizing fiction, rather than the interesting true facts of the case.
David Grann is the author of several books including The Devil & Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness & Obsession. I'm definitely going to be reading more of his books!
August 29, 2018
Another superb book from David Grann. I read this after reading his later Killers of the Flower Moon.
Grann researches, and then replicates, Amazon explorers' efforts to find the El Dorado (or "Z") of the Amazon. As in KFM, he focuses on the story of one individual, Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, and his extensive efforts.
We take satellite pictures and maps of the world for granted, but Grann shows so much of the world remained unmapped until the 1900s, and that the Royal Geographic Society supported scientific efforts to do so.
A stellar and exciting nonfiction read with a great twist ending.
Grann researches, and then replicates, Amazon explorers' efforts to find the El Dorado (or "Z") of the Amazon. As in KFM, he focuses on the story of one individual, Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, and his extensive efforts.
We take satellite pictures and maps of the world for granted, but Grann shows so much of the world remained unmapped until the 1900s, and that the Royal Geographic Society supported scientific efforts to do so.
A stellar and exciting nonfiction read with a great twist ending.
February 24, 2009
The Lost City of Z by David Grann is exceptional book that I can altogether recommend to every variety of reader. This well-rendered and deeply researched biography of Percy Fawcett, centers on his all consuming obsession with the Lost City of Z (evidence of a great but forgotten jungle civilization), the international fever that follows his mysterious disappearance and some of the more exciting tidbits of Grann’s journey to piece together Fawcett’s tale.
The book is unrelenting in its portrayal of everything Fawcett—you will find yourself deep in the Amazonian Jungle from the first page and racing through the subsequent pages to a surprising conclusion. It boasts unbelievably TRUE stories of savages, cannibalism, kidnappings, murder, torture, mutiny, starvation, massive hoaxes, madness and exotic deaths. Not only is this a astonishing biography, it’s also a fantastic adventure story.
The book is unrelenting in its portrayal of everything Fawcett—you will find yourself deep in the Amazonian Jungle from the first page and racing through the subsequent pages to a surprising conclusion. It boasts unbelievably TRUE stories of savages, cannibalism, kidnappings, murder, torture, mutiny, starvation, massive hoaxes, madness and exotic deaths. Not only is this a astonishing biography, it’s also a fantastic adventure story.
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