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The River of Doubt
by Candice Millard



More information on the radar plot criteria

This radar plot is meant to give a graphical representation of the book in question. For a better idea of what each spoke means, see the table below. Also, keep in mind that higher numbers are not necessarily better. Depending on your taste, a 0 may be just as appealing as a 10 (or a 5, etc) in a particular category. (Click to close)


Category 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Maturity 18+ 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8
Violence Excessive Violence Violent acts (no blood-gore) No Violence
Action Constant Action Even mix of action-drama No Action
Epic Lord of the Rings Epic Large scope, less detailed Limited scope
World Completely unique Half real/half unique Set in our world
Realism Focus outside the realm of accepted science Focus evenly split between explainable-unexplainable Nothing unexplainable - not the focus
Modernity Present Day (or beyond) 1980-1999 1960-1979 1930-1959 1870-1929 1800-1869 1700-1799 1400-1699 200-1399 (1000)-199 Ancient
Humor Laugh out loud throughout Funny (but not primary focus) Intentionally not funny

After losing his bid for a third presidential term in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt became lonely in depressed. In the past, he dealt with such situations by throwing himself into physical difficult or dangerous scenarios. After his first wife died, he went to the badlands for two years where he worked as a ranch hand and cowboy. An opportunity would soon arrive to visit South America for a speaking tour. Seeing this as an opportunity to cleanse himself of his recent defeat, Roosevelt agreed to go. He was also interested in going because, as a naturalist all his life, he knew that there were many scientific discoveries to be made in the Amazon.


Roosevelt contacted Father Zahm, a good friend who had been asking Roosevelt to go on such a trip for years. Father Zahm then sought out Anthony Fiala, a man who had nearly died trying to discover the North Pole, to arrange the supplies needed for the trip. George Cherrie would join the trip as the naturalist, with the aim to collect as many specimen of birds and other animals as possible. In addition to these men, the group would meet up with Kermit, Roosevelt’s second son, and a large group of Brazilians. One, Rondon, would be the official leader of the expedition.


The group arrived in Brazil on October 18, 1913 and for the next two months Roosevelt went on a political speaking tour of several South American countries. During this time, the expedition transformed from a trip down a known river, to a trip to map out a river that Rondon had discovered several years ago, but never traversed, known as the River of Doubt.


The trip to the River of Doubt began on December 12, 1913. The group took a steam boat up a river as far as they could, at which point they had to travel across the Mato Grasso (highlands) to reach the headwaters at the River of Doubt. The journey to the headwaters was difficult, and it became apparent that the group would not all be able to descend the river. In the end, Roosevelt was forced to cut Zahm, Fiala, and another naturalist who had joined the group. It would just be Roosevelt, Cherrie, Kermit, Rondon, and his contingency of camaradas who would be responsible for the bulk of the work.

The group descended the river in a collection of dugouts (crudely made Brazilian canoes), and met with trouble from the beginning. The dugouts were not able to successfully navigate rapids, forcing frequent and difficult portages through the rain forest. Throughout the journey, they would lose four dugouts and have to build two new ones. All the members became ill, with either malaria or dysentery. One camarada died when trying to navigate a dugout through some rapids (an event that Kermit insisted upon, and almost killed him as well).


In addition to illness, towards the end of the journey they were all on the verge of starvation. One camarada murdered another, and was ultimately left in the jungle to fend for himself. The group encountered evidence of native Indians, but were never attacked. This was, Millard points out, the great miracle of the trip that allowed them to survive.


Of all the members, Roosevelt became the most ill after receiving a large cut on his leg. The wound became infected and, coupled with malaria, ended up almost killing Roosevelt on the journey. At one point he asked Cherrie and Kermit to leave him, but Kermit refused to see his father die. Through sheer force of will, he returned his father home safely.


After returning home safely, there was some skepticism over if Roosevelt and his group had really discovered a previously unknown 1000 mile long tributary of the Amazon. He was soon able to convince his skeptics. The Brazilian government named the river Rio Roosevelt in his honor.


Roosevelt never truly recovered from his illness on the trip, however, and would die just five years later at the age of sixty. Kermit married Belle, his fiancée during the trip, but could never adjust to the non-adventurous lifestyle. He committed suicide in his fifties in Alaska. Rondon lived to ninety-two, and was a Brazilian hero and the eventual Indian rights movement in Brazil.




I don’t read a lot of nonfiction books, so when I received this as a gift over 18 months ago, I thought it sounded neat, but I had no driving interest in reading it. Recently, however, I realized that my experience with nonfiction was grossly lacking so I decided to actually read it. I was, from the very beginning, enthralled. To start, the story is by itself very interesting. The fact that people were exploring an extremely dangerous part of the Amazon rainforest to discover a new river is inherently a fascinating subject. However, when you throw in the fact that one of the members of the expedition is a former president of the United States and it gets even better.


Part of the reason I enjoyed reading this book so much was because Roosevelt was an amazing man. It makes me sad that, in modern politics, there aren’t people as profoundly committed and stubborn in their ideals as Roosevelt was. When he decided something was correct, he would fight for that thing with all his heart, body, and mind. People just don’t act that way anymore, and it is sad. While this book would have been good without Roosevelt in it, the strength of his character made it much more enjoyable.


It’s also fascinating to realize how ill-prepared they were for this journey. How can you take a former President halfway across the United States and not know what is in store for you? How can you put a man in charge of order supplies whose failure to correctly plan for a trip to the North Pole nearly resulted in the death of all his men? And don’t forget that he didn’t have any South American exploring experience. It’s just utterly ridiculous that people could be so clueless as to endanger Roosevelt’s life this way. And it’s just as ridiculous and fascinating that Roosevelt would just let these things happen without paying the slightest attention to the preparations for the expedition until it was too late to do anything about it.


The one moment that really stands out to me was when Roosevelt, having brought a lethal dose of morphine, was prepared to kill himself to ensure that the others in the expedition would not risk their own lives to save him. However, instead of being selfish, Cherrie and Kermit (and Kermit in particularly) patently refused to leave him behind, and vowed to get him out of the jungle no matter the cost. This was a moving and beautiful moment between a father and son, and the fact that it actually happened makes it even more amazing.


Finally, the skill with which Millard weaves this tale together cannot be understated. Looking through the notes at the end of the book, it is clear that she went to great lengths to reveal to the reader everything that occurred on this trip, even going so far as to interview Cinta Larga Indians to discover why they did not attack the expedition. This is dedication, and the book really shines for it. I would be happy to read other works by her if she handles them as lovingly as she did this book.


I would, without hesitation, recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story, fiction or nonfiction. The writing is very good and the research that supports it appears to be even better. I have not read many nonfiction works such as this, but if there are others that take an event, and delve into it so deeply that you really get a sense that you understand all the people involved, I will definitely be reading more in the future.




"They were stealthy hunters, crack shots, and experienced survivalists, and, given the right tools, they believed that they would never find themselves in a situation in the wild that they could not control. But as they struggled to make their way along the shores of the River of Doubt, any basis for such confidence was quickly slipping away. Compared with the creatures of the Amazon, including the Indians whose territory they were invading, they were all – from the lowliest camarada to the former president of the United States – clumsy, conspicuous prey" (185).



14 - Younger readers would not be interested in it.



Yes


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