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cbarcenam's review against another edition
I am not getting engaged and it’s just getting confusing
filmscoreman108's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
natashairene's review against another edition
4.0
Some parts were a little slow and I lost interest but overall it was a good read. I am a history buff and all about anthropology and archeology so this was a fun read for me. I can see why others may or enjoy that, however.
redowns1022's review against another edition
3.0
Well, reinforced my fear of the Amazon! Hard to get those images of the anacondas, maggots, and other dangers out of your head, not the least of which is obsession.
xkrow's review against another edition
4.0
Similar to The Wager, what I got from the book was quite different from what I went in expecting. There, I thought the book would be set entirely on the island, yet it was bereft of anything such until almost a third of the way in, instead focused on the social conditions of the time and the on the ship that led to the later animosity with a broad focus towards the very end. Similarly, I went in expecting the story of a singular journey here, but got instead a general chronicle of Fawcett’s life alongside a recount of Grann own’s journey into the Amazon.
Throughout the book, we see the savage in the jungle; not the one born in there, but rather the one made there. Fawcett and co. mused on the lengths hunger would drive them to survive (even cannibalism was not completely off the table), but surprisingly, laid bare in these pages is the primal hunger that haunts humanity – that of fame, fortune, and power. Grann peppers the pages with lengthy details of the arduous journey these explorers took, the manner of disease, animals, and interpersonal problems they faces. They don’t quite give you the impression of “going along the journey”, but are certainly enough to make you never want to enter a rainforest. Which is surprising considering Grann does just that, sifting through the various historical facts about Fawcett’s journey to detail the divergence between his actual and perceived path, talking with the many who have gone hunting for the man and suffered, and also learning the passed tales of white explorers that persist amongst the communities native to the region. The book is split into the modern and the past, describing sometimes parallel journeys, and is told wonderfully.
The book highlights the kind of that soul that longs to be alone, pushing themselves to the limit, to be the first to do something. Given his fascination with Fawcett and the burning desire to discover what happened to him, that focus is not at all surprising. Many throughout the book question Grann’s desires and intentions, himself included, but that desire ultimately wins out. And thankfully so, because in the end, Grann does find Z, but the manner in which is best left undescribed here lest it ruin the feeling that the end evoked within me. Suffice it to say, it is worth reading the book for if you have even the slightest of interest in the subjects of pioneering, anthropology, colonialism, and, well, humanity.
Carried within us are the spirits of those that built the first cities. The pioneers who left behind what they knew to seek out the unknown. The ones that built empires, created rituals and customs, laid down stone and wood, made us. Grann reflects on the nutrients left behind in ancient pots that reflect a tribe’s modern diet, realizing that the hunt for the ancient overlooks the wonder of today. The Europeans who stumbled onto the continent spent centuries wondering how exactly these people got here – about which European people left behind their stragglers that gave birth to the complex customs they saw before them because it was impossible for the “non-humans” they saw before them to do so. The entire time, they did not realize the devasted “savages” in front of them were survivors of the invisible war of pathogens and the visible cruelty of colonizers, driven to the brink of extinction and only recently allowed to bounce back. Maybe, we should stop looking for the glories of the bygone past and hope instead to create a golden age of today, lest the people of tomorrow have nothing to call home.
megganly's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.25