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The voyage began in the lunar terrain of the Peruvian Andes, where coca leaf is the only remedy against altitude sickness. It continued down rapids so fierce they could swallow a raft in a split second. It ended six months and 4,200 miles later, where the Amazon runs gently into the Atlantic. Joe Kane's personal account of the first expedition to travel the entirety of the world's longest river is a riveting adventure in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, filled with death-defying encounters: with narco-traffickers and Sendero Luminoso guerrillas and nature at its most unforgiving. Not least of all, Running the Amazon shows a polyglot group of urbanized travelers confronting their wilder selves -- their fear and egotism, selflessness and courage.… (more)
User reviews
A great book.
A team of nine, mostly strangers, attempts to be the first to traverse the Amazon river--from its
The question is, why among the thousands of adventure and outdoor books is this one ranked so highly. I believe for a number of reasons: for one it is extremely well-written, Kane is a professional journalist who has written articles in The New Yorker, National Geographic and the like. But unlike most outdoor books written by journalists, Kane is also an active participant, indeed in the end he is one of the few to actually make it all the way. The journey was indeed epic in scope, comparable to traveling the length of the Nile, the holy grail for 19th C explorers. It contains a love story. Narco-trafficing and Shining Path guerrilla's. Multiple-near-death experiences from man and nature. All these things combine to make it a classic of the genre.
Kane's writing is excellent, his narrative very easily read, and the story of their struggles, their interaction with both welcoming and dangerous native populations, and Kane's own soul searching, which included two episodes where he was certain on leaving the expedition only to be drawn back into the quest, made this book tough to put down. My only major complaint is the way the book ends, literally with the first indication that the kayakers had hit the Atlantic, salt water. There is no follow up, no reconcilation of the emotions and struggles, no 'where are they now' sort of summary, just a dead stop once the kayakers had reached their goal. This is sort of a natural end which Kane sets up throughout, but a short epilogue would have been a nice addition to wrap up the narrative. That said, Running was an excellent adventure expedition book that went way beyond kayaking a river. Four stars.