The Lost City of Z

Next on the list was The Lost City of Z, by journalist David Grann.

The Lost City of Z was several true stories in one, centering around the last of the great explorers, Colonel Fawcett, who disappeared in the Amazon in 1925. Colonel Fawcett conjures up pictures of the explorer in the movie Up- a man determined even when no one else believed in him. The author, David Grann, was a journalist that heard about Colonel Fawcett during research for another story, and he was hooked.

The book was a tremendous adventure, and I absolutely recommend it! There's mystery, intrigue, clues galore, fraudulent claims... it leaves one contemplating the endless possibilities. A brutal account of the hardships that early explorers went through, I was disgusted by details and in awe of the people that, time and again, survived them. I'm a little afraid to tell certain people (coughcoughJeffandKevincoughcough) to read the book, for fear that they, too, would see the allure and run off to the Amazon.

Colonel Fawcett, an Englishman that had been in the army, ended up working for the Royal Geographic Society and mapped out much of Brazil and the Amazon as we know it. It's hard for me to picture a time when maps weren't accurate (especially on a century or so ago), but people died working on projects such as this. Fawcett eventually became obsessed with accounts of a lost city that he called Z, intertwined with accounts of El Dorado. I could go on and on (and on), but this is the gist of the setting of the book, so there you have it.

My favorite part was this: the history! Obviously, it's true, so there's history involved. Duh. But Grann does an amazing job of explaining the context for Fawcett's discoveries and other people that were adventuring similarly. Teddy Roosevelt's quotes come up frequently, mostly in support of Fawcett. Apparently, Fawcett was also an acquaintance of (Sir) Arthur Conan Doyle, who was also obsessed with the City of Z. Doyle, apparently, based his book The Lost World on Z, and even wrote Fawcett into one of his books as a main character. The legend of Z has permeated history in ways I would NEVER have realized, making it all the more fascinating! Many people have been bitten with "the Fawcett bug", and estimates are that over a hundred people have died trying to find out what happened to him.

What I didn't like: the thickness of the book. What I mean is that I felt like I was wading through a river in the book just getting through it. Grann does such a spectacular job of acclimating the readers with the necessary facts, that it was a little heavy. The book itself wasn't long (277 pages) but it had 60 pages of acknowledgements, citations, and even an index. It was a thick, heavy tale. I don't think it could have been written any other way, and I applaud Grann for going to such great lengths to write the story in its entirety, but boy, was it a tough one. I wish I wasn't trying to read it so quickly- I could have been kept attention by this book for weeks.

So please, let me know if you read this! And I beg you, don't go running off to the Amazon- you'll probably want to!