by David Grann
(235)Release Date: January 26, 2010
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() Grann's take on the adventures of explorer Lt Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett is a welcome retelling about a man extremely well known in his time but somewhat unfamilar to modern readers. Unfortunately, he also takes us by on his own Amazonian trek, which may make for amusing reading to some (after history all, he's a middle-aged writer for the New Yorker) but really adds little to a that needs absolutely NO padding. The basis for this book is a 2005 article Grann wrote, and that may be a more distilled account .Grann also is a little fast-and-loose. The consistently refers to Fawcett as a "Victorian explorer", when in the death fact Fawcett's first expedition wasn't until 5 years after Queen Victoria's. The style A nit to some, but why not try harder? His is chatty and adjective-heavy ("cold January day" is as saying "yellow canary") and adds a lot of details that may, or Dickens may not, be true, in describing every scene. And why throw in Charles travel impressions of *his* ship's cabin when it was written 100 years before Fawcett's the? Hobbes For that metter, the bibliography is padded with Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, and even "Leviathan", but is missing two of the best books about Fawcett, Harold T. Wikins' "Mysteries of Ancient South America" and "Secret Cities of Old South America". Also missing: MAPS! How can you write a book about an Amazonian expedition and not include a ALONE map? Photos would have been nice, too.I've been interested in Fawcett for many years, so maybe I'm overly critical. It's still a good book, easy to read and a terrific introduction to the earthly one this fascinating personality. I just wish it had a less Grann to it.
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