...in Fawcett’s mind, what he had been taught his whole life about the superiority of Western civilization clashed with what he experienced beyond its shores. “I transgressed again and again the awful laws of traditional behavior, but in doing so learned a great deal..” [loc. 650]
In which journalist David Grann becomes fascinated by the story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in the Amazon jungle in 1925 (along with his son and his son's best friend) while searching for a mythical Lost City that he codenamed Z. Grann does a certain amount of following-in-the-footsteps, but he's as intrigued by Fawcett's failings as by the legends that were his obsession.
Fawcett (who travelled with a stone idol, gifted to him by H Rider Haggard) was, by all accounts, a martinet: he was also somewhat less racist than his peers, though still couldn't quite accept that any 'superior civilisation' in the hidden depths of South America might have arisen independently of white Europeans. He respected the 'Indians' who dwelt in the forest, and adopted many of their medicines and their survival techniques, surviving where others failed. His final expedition most likely ended in a swift death at the hands of an unfriendly tribe.
What I liked most about this book was Grann's reactions to Fawcett's story, from his own expedition into the Amazon -- perhaps discovering the city that Fawcett searched for -- to his research in the archives of the National Geographical Society, and his interactions with the present-day inhabitants of the area. Grann includes a good overview of the history, ecology, geography and anthropology of the Amazon (coincidentally, I was listening to a novel featuring Sir Clements Markham just as his name popped up in The Lost City of Z) and, though he clearly admires Fawcett's singlemindedness, he's also critical of his approach to exploration.
I read an interesting article about how this book is 'a very long way from the truth': I'm willing to believe that, but it is still a great adventure story and very readable.
Fulfils the ‘Mobile’ rubric of the Annual Non-Fiction Reading Challenge. People exploring are ... on the move.
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