While we lend, as a rule, too much sway to the Great Man version of history, that view of our past which filters historical events through a preoccupation with presidents and generals, popes and revolutionaries, overlooking the overwhelming contributions from the countless common citizens, humanity does, from time to time, churn out an individual so vigorous of spirit, so immense of reputation, so unyielding of will, that we must take notice of him and his deeds. In this, few figures can match Theodore Roosevelt. Racist, imperialist, Christian supremacist perhaps, but also a man of such relentless determination, such indomitable fortitude, that his deeds ought to be remembered, and even respected, in spite of his sins. Ms. Millard has captured here the most daring of Roosevelt's non-military pursuits and, in doing so, brought to light not only an aging president's awakening to the rights of men from other races and creeds, but the story of a Brazilian hero who has, for the most part, been unjustly forgotten by the world beyond South America.
After failing, in 1912, in his bid to re-capture the presidency of the United States, an office he'd relinquished to his hand-picked successor, William Taft, a man widely considered to be a failure in the office, Theodore Roosevelt was at a loss. Afflicted by the familial melancholy, he dwelled in his electoral rejection until a chance meeting with an arrogant priest of his acquaintance alerted him to an exciting expedition being assembled to explore the River of Doubt, a then mysterious and unexplored river running through the Amazon Rainforest. Signing on with enthusiasm, the expedition quickly took shape around his famous name, adding Kermit, his eldest son, George Cherrie, a famous naturalist and explorer of the time, and Candido Rondon, the Brazilian commander of the expedition and a man with immense experience with the region. After months of planning and dozens of diplomatic engagements, the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition finally got underway early in 1914, taking weeks just to reach the river. On February 27th, 1914, after offloading supplies and men they could no longer afford to carry, the expedition started down the River of Doubt, embarking upon a weeks-long mission of starvation, disease and danger which would see men lost to the rapids, men lost to madness, and men lost to the deprivations of a journey no one had ever before undertaken. Countless, laborious portages; innumerable and unavoidable insects; and unknowable and lethal indians with no prior experience of the outside world all characterized the journey which nearly took the life of its most famous participant, the formidable Roosevelt.
Ms. Millard is a first-rate storyteller. Though she, at times, takes liberties with the thoughts of the Indian tribes the Expedition encountered, Her account is otherwise authenticated by the first-hand reflections of the expedition's members who, in writing frequently to their loved ones back home, vividly expressed the seemingly insurmountable dangers facing them. Ms. Millard ties these accounts together with an excellent and informative primer on the Amazon Rainforest: its evolutionary design, its bewildering composition and its innumerable menaces. Her efforts here are unquestionably aided by what is a story out of legend, a script fit for a movie, but the author's keen, biographer's eye allows her to augment a great story with informative sketches of each of the Expedition's participants.
For all that The River of Doubt is primarily about Theodore Roosevelt and his struggle to find meaning after the doors to ultimate power are closed to him, Candido Rondon is, without doubt, the story's true hero. The Brazilian commander is far ahead of his time, a thoughtful and honest humanitarian whose impoverished and difficult adolescence gave him an empathy for the plight of the Native Indians that far surpasses the call of duty. Rondon's attempts to explore, to see, and to understand, all without judgement or enmity, mark him out as an extraordinary soul who clearly has a positive influence on the here-to-for prejudicial and provincial Roosevelt. Easily the star of this wonderful, literary show.
This is, in virtually every way, a successful and enjoyable biography. Top five this year, with a bullet. (5/5 Stars)
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