The Lost City of Z

1) "Fawcett had determined that an ancient, highly cultured people still existed in the Brazilian Amazon and that their civilization was so old and sophisticated it would forever alter the Western view of the Americas. He had christened this lost world the City of Z. 'The central place I call 'Z'–our main objective–is in a valley... about ten miles wide, and the city is on an eminence in the middle of it, approached by a barreled roadway of stone,' Fawcett had stated earlier. 'The houses are low and windowless, and there is a pyramidal temple.'"

2) "From its source, the river descends sharply. As it gathers speed, it is joined by hundreds of other rivulets, most of them so small they remain nameless. Seven thousand feet down, the water enters a valley with the first glimmers of green. Soon larger streams converge upon it. Churning toward the plains below, the river has three thousand more miles to go to reach the ocean. It is unstoppable. So, too, is the jungle, which, owing to equatorial heat and heavy rainfalls, gradually engulfs the riverbanks. Spreading toward the horizon, this wilderness contains the greatest variety of species in the world. And, for the first time, the river becomes recognizable–it is the Amazon."

3) "Finally, in the nineteenth century, as the British Empire was increasingly expanding, several English scientists, admirals, and merchants believed that an institution was needed to create a map of the world based on observation rather than on imagination, an organization that detailed both the contours of the earth and everything that lay within them. And so, in 1830, the Royal Geographical Society of London was born. According to its mission statement, the Society would 'collect, digest and print... new interesting facts and discoveries;' build a repository of 'the best books on geography' and 'a complete collection of maps;' assemble the most sophisticated surveying equipment; and help launch explorers on their travels. All this was part of its mandate to chart every nook and cranny of the earth. 'There was not a square foot of the planet's surface to which Fellows of this Society should not at least try to go,' a later president of the institution vowed. 'That is our business. That is what we are out for.'"

4) "Poring through the log, I noticed a word on the margins of one page: 'DEAD.' I looked at it more closely and saw two other words alongside it. They spelled out 'DEAD HORSE CAMP.' Underneath them were coordinates, and I quickly flipped through my notebook where I had scribbled down the position of the camp from Exploration Fawcett. They were significantly different. For hours, I went through the diaries, taking notes. I thought there was nothing left to glean, when Rolette appeared and said that she wanted to show me one more item. She vanished into the back room, and I could hear her rummaging through drawers and cabinets, muttering to herself. After several minutes, she emerged with a photograph from a book. 'I don't know where I put it,' she said. 'But I can at least show you a picture of it.' It was a photograph of Fawcett's gold signet ring, which was engraved with the family motto, 'Nee Aspera Terrent'–essentially, 'Difficulties Be Damned.'"

5) "Colonel T. E. Lawrence–the celebrated desert spy and explorer better known as Lawrence of Arabia–had volunteered to go with Fawcett on his next journey in search of Z, but Fawcett was wary of choosing a companion with a powerful ego who was unaccustomed to the Amazon. As Fawcett wrote to a friend, '[Lawrence] may be keen upon S. American exploration but in the first place he probably requires a salary I cannot pay him and in the second place excellent work in the Near East does not infer the ability or willingness to hump a 60 lbs pack, live for a year upon the forest, suffer from legions of insects and accept the conditions which I would impose.' Fawcett told Jack that, instead of Lawrence, he could take part in the expedition. It would be one of the most difficult and dangerous expeditions in the history of exploration-the ultimate test, in Fawcett's words, 'of faith, courage, and determination.'"

6) "Originally, Fawcett had described Z in strictly scientific terms and with caution: 'I do not assume that 'The City' is either large or rich.' But by 1924 Fawcett had filled his papers with reams of delirious writings about the end of the world and about a mystical Atlantean kingdom, which resembled the Garden of Eden. Z was transformed into 'the cradle of all civilizations' and the center of one of Blavatsky's 'White Lodges,' where a group of higher spiritual beings helped to direct the fate of the universe. Fawcett hoped to discover a White Lodge that had been there since 'the time of Atlantis,' and to attain transcendence."

I really wanted to like this book, a lot. It has had so much fantastic press, and I've read a lot of great fiction and nonfiction set in the Amazon lately. However, the set up was just so disorganized. Grann tries to interweave the narratives of Percy Fawcett, the great Amazon explorer; subsequent expeditions looking for Fawcett and his own journey to the Amazon. This intertwining dilutes all three of the stories and is confusing to jump among. In addition, he discusses precise locations in the Amazon, but none of them are actually labelled on the map in the frontispiece.

The whole thing was so frustrating, because there actually is a really interesting story about survival, exploration and the age in which we knew so little about the world and had so few resources, but human curiosity drove us to investigate anyway. I wish that Grann had avoided the overdone move of going on his own Amazon expedition -- it really didn't add to the story and the "denouement" in which he discovered "Z" was really him just meeting up with an archeologist from the University of Florida, who shared his research, which had already been published, anyway.

I did enjoy reading about the different Amazonian tribes and their beliefs, but wish that this book had been written by any actual expert (perhaps said Florida archeologist?) rather than a twee amateur.

The Lost City of Z tells the story of Percy Fawcett, a legendary British explorer who disappeared in 1925 along with his son looking for an ancient lost city in the Amazon. For decades explorers, archaeologists and scientists have tried to find any evidence of this lost city of El Dorado which Fawcett has called Z. it is believed that over 100 people have perished or disappeared in this search in David Grann explores this topic in the book The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.

While my wife was away in Chile and Brazil I thought I would read a book set in that continent so after a bit of research and cross checking with what my library had I decided on David Grann’s The Lost City of Z. Maybe not the best book to read while she was away but I want to read more non-fiction and this sounded really interesting. For centuries Europeans believed the Amazon concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado and they obsessed with it. Those who did go searching for El Dorado often disappeared or died. The mysteries of the Amazon remained mysteries because the explorers didn’t understand what was in the uncharted jungles of Brazil.

Percy Fawcett has been referred to as a “Nietzschean explorer” spouting “eugenic gibberish” so it was interesting to read about his obsession with finding this lost city as well as everyone else who were determined to find El Dorado. Exploring an unknown jungle without any idea of what dangerous plants, animals and maybe tribes you find doesn’t sound like a great adventure to me but it was interesting to read about mysteries surrounding these quests. For me this book makes the Amazon sound really dangerous; many disappearing or dying and some even going insane but I was fascinated by the book and enjoyed reading it (even though my wife was in Brazil at the time).

I’m never really sure how to write a review for a non-fiction book but I hope I gave you enough information and expressed my thoughts well enough for this book. I think David Grann wrote this book in a really accessible way but at times I felt like he idolised Percy Fawcett; like he was enlightened where others call him a Nietzschean explorer, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all. A book that took me out of my comfort zone and I’m thankful for that. The book gets bonus points for referencing and endnotes; I might not have used them but I respect a non-fiction book more if it offers me references to back up what it is saying.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/08/16/book-review-the-lost-city-of-z/

This was a very good read. There are two stories in one in this book. One is the story of Henry Percy Fawcett, a British explorer of the late 19th century/early 20th century. He is in the vein of other great explorers such as Shackleton or Stanley. His explorations took him to the Amazon, where he went to seek the mythical city of Z, the El Dorado conquistadores looked for. In 1925, he vanished without a trace. We move to the author who is on a quest not only to tell Fawcett's story, but to trace the explorer's path and find out his fate. Mind you that such an errand, trying to find Fawcett, has claimed the lives of at least 100 people.

If you like adventure tales and reading about explorers in the tradition of fiction works like H. Rider Haggard or Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Professor Challenger may have been inspired by Fawcett, then you will like this book. If you like reading about mysteries, you will probably like this book as well. The author wrote this in a way that it reads like a good adventure novel and biography all rolled up into one. It grips the reader from the beginning, and it does not let go. Even though you know Fawcett's fate from the start, you find yourself wondering if he will be found or not (I am not spoiling it). Fawcett himself was a larger than life explorer, the last of the great explorers before things like anthropology and archeology along with other specializations took shape as we know them today. Back then, it was a man, a machete, a compass, and off to the jungle to find whatever it was there, catalog it, and report on it. Thus Fawcett was trained in various skills to accomplish his task. And there are other cast members, his sons, his wife, other rival explorers, who add to the story. Meanwhile, the author embarks on his own adventure to seek out Fawcett's trail and fate. In the process, we not only get a history of a great explorer, but we also learn about some of the history of Amazon territory as well. We learn how modern science has advanced as well when it comes to studying native tribes and the jungle itself. We also get a glimpse of British mores and society during and right after the Victorian era. In other words, this is not only a riveting read, but you learn a few things as well.

It is early in the new year of 2011, but I think this may be one of the best books I will have read this year. I definitely recommend it.

Subtitled "A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazone", "Lost City Of Z" gives us the real life story of world-reknowned Amazon explorer Percy Fawcett's 1925 quest for an ancient city deep in the heart of the Amazonian highlands. An expert and intrepid explorer, he brought along his oldest son and his son's best friend, and they were never heard from again. Their disappearance has sparked an endless stream of other explorers, hoping to find out what happened to them. By some estimates, upwards of 100 others have lost their lives in this quest.

Grann is a reporter who also became fascinated, almost obsessed by Fawcett's story. The book is told with intertwining stories, of Fawcett's career in India and his many earlier Amazon explorations and with Grann's investigations and preparations for his own hike into the jungle. He also combines stories of other explorations into the deepest parts of the jungle with the history of the Royal Geographic Society. Fawcett, who was in the army, also became good friends with [a:Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|2448|Arthur Conan Doyle|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192744262p2/2448.jpg] and Fawcett's descriptions of his explorations inspired Doyle's [b:The Lost World|10155|The Lost World (Modern Library Classics)|Arthur Conan Doyle|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166127011s/10155.jpg|1098725].

But it is the colorful and creepy retelling of Fawcett's (and others) Amazon explorations that really drive the book. Never mind the awful biting bugs, with clouds of tiny gnats that cause the ankles and wrists to swell and itch. It's the ways the jungle can kill you that give you the creeps. Stories of the candiru, the "translucent, toothpick-like creature ... one of the few creatures in the world to survive strictly on a diet of blood." But more than that, is its habit of entering human orifices, like a vagina, anus or even in a penis, latching on with its spines. Or of "espundia", from a parasite transmitted by sand fleas, which destroys the flesh around the mouth, nose and limbs, "as if the person were slowly disolving." Ewww!

My only real complaint with the book was that it ended. I wasn't ready for the end of the book, as I didn't realize there were 60 pages of notes and an index. I would have like to have heard more of Gann's explorations, because even with the remarkable encroachment of "civilization", there's still plenty of wild areas out there. But a truly remarkable account of a remarkable time of history, back when there were still total voids in the area of knowledge. They just don't make'em like Percy Fawcett any more, for better or for worse. If you can get over the creepy and itchy descriptions of the jungle, you'll really enjoy this book!