The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

First Line: Deep in Honduras, in a region called La Mosquitia, lie some of the last unexplored places on earth.

For hundreds of years, there have been rumors of a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the interior of Honduras. Called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God, natives have spoken of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish-- and they also warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die. 

In 1940 Theodore Morde claimed to have found the city but committed suicide before revealing its location. In 2012, bestselling author Douglas Preston joined a team of scientists who were going to use the latest technology to find this lost city. They did, fighting nearly insurmountable odds to do so, but it wasn't until they returned home that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted a horrifying-- sometimes lethal-- and incurable disease in the uncharted jungle of Honduras.

As much as I've enjoyed the books of the writing team of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, I have to admit that I prefer the solo books that Preston writes, and The Lost City of the Monkey God is no exception. Preston's descriptions of the landscape and wildlife of the jungle re-enforced my opinion that the best way for me to explore these fascinating places is by reading books. (The insects and snakes alone would probably drive me insane.)  

Preston covers all the bases in telling his story, and every one is spellbinding. From the history of Honduras to the history of searching for the lost city to how the language of archaeology is changing and on to the actual discovery of the city... I couldn't get enough.

But the book hit high gear once Preston and the others returned home. From an archaeological search for an ancient city, the book changes into a hair-raising tale of the spread of a horrific disease. Even Preston's explanation of the differences between the spread of disease in the Old World versus the New World kept me turning the pages.

Ultimately The City of the Lost Monkey God is a cautionary tale that infuriated me. Today the only diseases for which cures are being avidly sought are the ones in which the pharmaceutical companies can make lots of money. If the disease affects mainly poor people, forget it. They can't pay, so it's not worth trying to find a cure. But as Preston so ably tells us, disease can spread long distances, and ignoring the "no profit" ones is putting us all in grave danger. 

The Lost City of the Monkey God is a book that satisfies on many levels, and I highly recommend it.

 

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston

ISBN: 9781455540006

Grand Central Publishing © 2017

Hardcover, 336 pages

Non-Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

Jungleland by Christopher S. Stewart

First Line: The man called himself Rana, or Frog.

Armed with a World War II spy's personal notebooks and the mysterious coordinates carved into the man's walking stick, journalist Christopher S. Stewart goes to Honduras to see if he can do what the spy (Theodore Morde) claimed he did in 1940: find the Ciudad Blanca-- the white city of gold hidden deep in the rain forest of the Mosquito Coast, one of the wildest places on Earth. What the journalist would learn is that the journey itself oftentimes is more important than reaching a destination.

Alternating chapters tell us of Stewart, a New Yorker with a bad back and no fondness for camping or hiking, who decides to go off on this adventure even though there's political unrest in the area. Compared with the chapters on him, the ones about Theodore Morde sound like Indiana Jones. Morde was a seasoned amateur when he set out through the jungle in 1940. He'd already circled the globe five times and covered the Spanish Civil War with Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. After claiming that he had found Ciudad Blanca, Morde would go on to become a spy during World War II and attempt to assassinate Hitler.

I found this book to be uneven. As long as the author focused on Morde and Morde's expedition or on the facts of his own, I found it very interesting. However, Stewart's attempt to show The More Sensitive Side of Explorer Man sounded too much like whining. Blisters, rain, heat, missing his family, listening to his wife whine about things she should have been able to take care of in his absence... these things all brought the enjoyment factor down further and further for me.

If you like finite results in books like this, you may want to rethink reading this book. There are no real results to either man's journey into the jungle unless you count what Stewart learned about himself. However, as uneven as I think the book is, it is worth reading if you enjoy the search for lost civilizations. As wired and modern as most of us are, it makes me smile to think that there are still lots of adventures like this to be had on this planet.   

Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure 
 by Christopher S. Stewart

ISBN:  9780061802546

Harper © 2013

Hardcover, 288 pages

Non-Fiction

Rating: C+

Source: Amazon Vine