The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
Today I finished the saga of an incredible man. In this true tale of adventure, the author (a reporter) digs up the past in an attempt to unveil the mystery of Percy H. Fawcett’s disappearance in the Amazon in the early 20th century. The book pieces together Colonel Fawcett’s many treks into the jungle in the pursuit of properly mapping out the Amazonian region and finding his theorized ‘Lost City of Z’. During his last adventure into the wild, his party goes missing and is never heard from again. Can the author retrace the once famous explorer’s footsteps and solve the mystery so many others have failed at?
I found myself lost in this book from start to finish. I was fascinated at the history of exploration during this era. There was so little equipment or safeguards to assist in the journeys through the dangerous jungles, yet these brave men had such a curiosity that they toiled on anyways. I thought it was interesting to see how romanticized these expeditions were in England and American, while the true accounts of the travels were brutal and terrifying. I often forgot that this was a nonfictional book because it seemed no one could survive what these men would go through.
As it suggests in the title, the overarching theme in this book is obsession. First, with the Fawcett family’s struggle to write history by finding proof of the oral accounts of a great civilization in the Amazon (many called it El Dorado, P.H.F. called it Z). Colonel Fawcett sacrificed his money, family, and even his life in the pursuit. After his disappearance, his wife spent a lifetime trying to find him and defend his name; later, his son tried to follow his trail to discover what had happened to his father. And as most mysteries do, P.H.F’s unknown end caused many Westerners to become obsessed in finding an answer. There were an estimated 100 men who set off into the jungles of the Amazon on the same trail that Fawcett had last been seen, only to be swallowed up themselves.
I would recommend this book to those who like Indian Jones adventures, those who enjoyed James Rollins Amazonia, or people who like history and nonfictions. If maggots and gangrene aren’t up your alley, maybe go watch Dream Work’s The Road to El Dorado instead.
Malia's Pizza Rating
Cassava bread pizza (bread made in the Amazon).