Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure (P.S.)

Jungleland is a fast-paced adventure into the deep jungle of Honduras. The book recounts a journalist's quest to retrace the path of a mysterious explorer and finally reveal the truth of the lost city of `Ciudad Blanca.' The clarity and pacing of the book will move you along quickly. You will not want to put it down, nor do you have to, as it is not overly long. Jungleland, however, is something more than it appears at first glance. Stewart, a writer and editor at the Wall Street Journal, has packed a remarkable amount of good content into a tight package, and combined introspection and history to ask questions about how we see ourselves, others, and the unknown.Jungleland is about men who look for `lost cities,' some of whom get close, and then decide to never go back. The book alternates, chapter-by-chapter, between Stewart's journey into the Honduran jungle, and that of Theodore Morde, a WWII spy and adventurer. That, however, is a narrative structure that houses Stewart's gaze upon more complex and subtle issues. The structure is deliberate and effective, and creates a dual-story line that locks the readers attention as effectively as a thriller. Stewart uses three men, Morde, himself, and Christopher Begley (the archaeologist who led Stewart through the jungle) to examine the thoughts, motives and fears of reasonably normal people who decide to look for lost cities. The travelers themselves are a foil for the Honduran men they encounter who live in a seemingly continuous jungle traverse.Stewart is not a wordy or encyclopedic writer, and he credits his reader with a general understanding of the rainforest and an ability to draw meaning from the prose and detail. This is a welcome change from the trend of adventure books (especially those set in the rainforest) to be exhaustive encyclopedias of ecology and history. Stewart is not given to filler, and he writes with a terseness derived, perhaps, from his years as a journalist. Regardless, he embraces the idea that reading about an expedition need not be an expedition, something many readers will appreciate. Stewart (with a wonderful spaceman image from Begley) makes it pretty clear: travel overland in the rainforest is walking, and walking gets boring. Graciously, the reader is spared lengthy botanical asides or overarching historical musings. When the journey yielded nothing to report, nothing was reported. Stewart's strength is in recording the details that build his story and drive his inquiry. When Stewart shares his musings about jaguars attacking his hammock from below, he sums up a thought all foreign hammock-swingers have thought, but also succinctly shares his sense of helpless immersion. Stewart's comments and descriptions drip with verisimilitude. When he mentions buying machetes and taking them to be sharpened, in his terse fashion he reveals a mundane reality of the machete-wielding world--they are not sold pre-sharpened.Stewart's ability to understand and embrace the vagaries of archaeology and history elevate Jungleland above a book about self-discovery. Stewart dug into the history of Theodore Morde, and answered some questions about just what he was doing in Honduras. The investigation of Morde is an essential part of the book, and Stewart's research addresses the more interesting questions about the man without becomingly side-tracked by vague clues about the location of a lost city. Likewise, Stewart digests the archaeological realities of the region and with the help of Begley quickly see how these are a part of the vision of Morde and others. Stewart weaves these elements into the narrative so well, that to say more here would reveal to much. Be assured that Stewart (and Begley) give the reader some solid answers and some thought-provoking interpretation.It took me awhile to put my finger on what is unique about Jungleland. The pacing of the book and dual plot lines read akin to fiction, but there is more affinity than just structure. Stewart's writing and meaning is in the imagery and meticulously chosen details. His perspicuity opens the door for readers, but there is no hand holding or shoving. Stewart's image of a flip-flop wearing young girl appearing out of nowhere, in the middle of nowhere, carrying a child and a battered chicken, speaks many truths about poverty, hardship, and the sliding scale of normalcy. The reader is offered no essay on socioeconomics, and no moralizing. Stewart leaves the unanswerable questions unanswered, while encapsulating his meaning in precise descriptions. Jungleland is a work that is worth with care, for the pictures and meaning imbedded in the details. These details are balanced, however, with a fast pace that makes the book a quick read.Stewart's refuses to be exhaustive and obvious in his writing Similarly, he does not deliver a hyperbolic adventure and treasure hunt. The work includes a painfully honest account of a city boy going to the jungle. His fear of snakes leads him to some questionable fashion choices. Irrational concerns push into his thoughts, and depression is always lurking, like a jaguar, waiting for a moment of weakness. When a comrade is hurt, Stewart reveals that he was partly glad, as that might mean the ordeal was over. These unusually honest moments will be cringe-worthy and familiar to other travelers who read the work, including Stewart's conflicting desires to quest but also be home when his family needs him. Humor, however, pervades the book, and it is in part the dark humor of adventurers, where cars are destroyed without a backward glance, and threats of raccoons and jaguars have to be treated as equal.Stewart deliberately contrasts himself to the fascinating Chris Begley, who is calm, competent and even nonchalant in situations far from ordinary. Stewart's departure from the canonical traveler-overcoming-all-odds cliché is a strength of the book. In a world overflowing with ego-stroking, the lack of self-adulation and acceptance of mundane realities makes this work stand out. Stewart tells the truth of jungle travel--everyone gets blisters, no one escapes problems of hunger and water. For Stewart, these are not issues to ignore, but neither are they issues to dwell upon. There are no heroes, just individuals who manage to keep walking. This is a fairly harsh realism, and some readers will be horrified by this deviation from the formula. A man from the city who does not like to camp dared to accomplish such a trip. The cult is not destroyed, however. There is a hero, it's just not Stewart (or Morde).If I have one main concern, it is that Stewart sells himself short, and I think by doing so, he makes the journey seem a little too simple and himself a little too naïve. The areas Stewart visited are very remote. An inspection of his route on Google Earth quickly reveals that Stewart went much deeper into the bush than many similar trekkers tracing the routes of famous explorers. Cable channels are filled with faux-adventurers who rarely venture a few hundred yards off the beaten path, and someone who actually goes deep is worthy of note. The `bad guys' Stewart encounters in Jungleland are probably not the first `bad guys' he has encountered, nor are the guns likely the first he has seen. As the book is exploring the psyche of explorers, I felt a little deprived, wanting to know how Stewart's earlier experiences played into this desire for a new quest. Stewart does not seem inclined to show those cards however, and it probably is not fair to praise an author for terseness while demanding more. The publisher, however, may wish to include a foreward in subsequent editions. I loved the `extensive' biographical detail on the dust jacket: "He lives with his family in Brooklyn."**********************************************As a point of context, I know a bit about `Ciudad Blanca.' In the late 1990s I did some satellite remote sensing in the area, and started an ill-considered project I quickly abandoned. (I'm embarrassed, but you can see it here on the Internet Archive: [...]). I had a website up for awhile, and things turned crazy pretty quickly. A lost adventurer called me on a satellite phone from a ridge above the Rio Platano. A helicopter had dropped him off separate from his gear, and with topographic maps spread on my floor in Minnesota, I navigated him to the closest village. That same winter, a group hunting for `Ciudad Blanca' kept trying to hack into my computer system, no doubt thinking I had found something important. I went to Tegucigalpa to seek permits to ground-truth the satellite work, and spoke to some individuals who had traveled through the area, including some who insisted the area was full of ex-contras who would kill me on-sight. After that visit and a brief helpful phone chat with Christopher Begley, who graciously gave me a candid account of the very real security issues, I decided the fieldwork would be too expensive and time-consuming to demonstrate that geological anomalies in the Honduran rainforest can be seen from space. Reading Jungleland, however, make me think I might still go there one day. . . .I note that I communicated with Stewart briefly via email when I learned he was writing the book. I found this out while idly searching for Theodore Morde on the internet, and I eagerly awaited learning more about the intriguing man. I bought my own copy, however, and no one asked me to do a review.

Christopher Stewart's "Jungleland" is perhaps the most original and interesting book I've seen for quite a while.It is not a fictional adventure story, like Indiana Jones. I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark years ago. It was entertaining, but one of those movies was enough. The special effects tend to jade the senses to the point where viewers begin to lose a sense of reality. Movie lovers with soft physiques and arm chair personalities, might like the hype. But they would never survive on a real adventure.I have been on adventures of my own. I recognize and appreciate a true story that is well told. The author tells the story about his epic adventure, warts and all. He is candid about what he does not know, and cannot do. Only through that honesty, does he learn what others cannot, and do what others could not. I not only felt like I was there with him, I shared his feelings and part of his experience of excitement, apprehension, curiosity, hazards, fear, wonder, frustration, injuries, exhaustion, near despair, emotional anchors, friendships, confusion and discoveries. It felt real.I'm also an author of history. So I loved the historical connections in this book. They go unusually deep in at least two different ways. One is the search in nearly inaccessible, remote jungle, for the ruins of an ancient civilization. The author takes along a noted archeologist Chris Begley. After reading this book, I'd also like to find and read more about Begley, or written by him.The other historical connection, is to Theodore Morde, an adventurer, who'd circled the globe multiple times by his mid twenties. Morde had been chosen as leader of the 3rd major expedition to find ancient ruins in Honduras, 70 years ago. He returned from the jungle, saying he found it. But before he could go back and explore it properly to share with the scientific community and with the public, World War II intervened.The resourceful Morde wound up in the Office of Strategic Services, as an agent. One of his exploits was an attempt to capture Hitler. I didn't know much about Morde. But he was in Cairo, probably the same time as my uncle, who was also in the OSS. I've been researching to write a book about my uncle's experience in the OSS during WW II. So I recognize and appreciate the author's story of what he could find about Morde.In the epic adventure to find the ancient ruins of the lost White City, the author develops his own report, and Morde's report, from 70 years earlier, in alternating chapters. That creates a simultaneous exposition and allows comparison, contrast, and beneficial perspective. But these alternating chapters also briefly created what seemed to me, like a minor flaw in the book. A few chapters were short, only a page or two. The suspense had built up so strongly, that I needed more information, quicker in a few spots.A third unexpectedly enjoyable element of this book interested me. It's how relationships and connectedness affect survival, insight and success, in one of the most difficult mazes of life. The author's viewpoint zooms between those closest to him, and those farthest away in the mystical world and ancient civilizations. The author poignantly describes the costs of temporary separation from his wife and young child, to venture on a bold quest in the jungle. But that loss, and the need to recover it, is what drives him to survive in the jungle and return, with discoveries, not only bigger, but also deeper and different from what he expected.This book is not the be-all or end-all about the OSS, jungle adventures, or human connectedness. But it is an unusual and intriguing mix of those three.I was surprised at the large number of customer reviews, within the first 2 weeks after the book was released. The story must be intriguing to other readers as well.Somewhere north of 4.4 stars.= = = = = = =I looked further for info about Dr Chris Begley. This Amazon review page said multiple readers/reviewers wanted to know more about him.Begley has a PhD from University of Chicago. He's an archeologist and professor of Anthropology at Transylvania University in Kentucky. Transylvania is a spooky name, which seems to magnify the spookiness of the myths and legends about ancient ruins and lost cities in the remote jungles of the Mosquito Coast.Here is a link to an article about Begley, at that Transylvania University.[See first link in "comment" button below this review]National Geographic has a brief interview of Chris Begley, with pictures, at this next link. Also includes a video titled "The Lost City of the Mosquito Coast Trailer". The video sounds like there will be an upcoming TV program that 'begins this summer', called "The LOST CITY of the Mosquito Coast: A Modern Struggle for the Past". [See 2nd link in "comment" button below this review]An interesting website is "Archaeology of the Mosquito Coast of Honduras". Don't let the formal sounding name throw you off. The material is actually easy to read, on 4 tabbed pages, with large print, an interesting map, good historical outline and perspective, with helpful color photos. [See 3rd link in "comment" button below this review]Surprised to read there, that Dr Begley has been researching this area of ancient ruins in Honduras since 1991. His doctoral dissertation at Univ of Chicago in 1999, "... represents the most extensive work to date in the region."Another surprise was in the description of Theodore Morde's prior research in Honduras. It said Morde "may have had ties to the OSS". Well, I have done research on the OSS and have a declassified list of OSS personnel. Morde is definitely on that list, and his OSS activities have been described in multiple OSS books.The 3rd surprise worthy of note, is the description that Morde supposedly found the lost "White City", just before being run over by an automobile in London, England. And Later adventurers have suspected sinister motives in his untimely death.Well, Christopher Stewart was given access to Mordes personal records and artifacts by Morde's family descendants. And Stewart wrote in his Jungleland book, that Morde's family life fell apart, and (like multiple OSS key operatives) came to an unhappy ending, in Morde's case by hanging himself at the family home. Tho admittedly there remains some question whether that had unknown and undue external influences.My OSS uncle had no known connection with Morde, though their paths most likely crossed in Cairo, which was a nest of spies during WW II. However one of my uncle's associates in OSS Cairo, also wound up hanging himself, when only a little older than Morde. That was Frank Wisner. Wisner achieved some notable successes in OSS, after he left Cairo, though at least one book describes his occasional risky dalliance, not unusual for some OSS chiefs. After the war, for a considerable number of years, Wisner became head of that portion of the CIA, with the largest budget - clandestine operations. Another fellow researcher & author named Hugh Wilford, wrote a book about Wisner's CIA run, titled "The Mighty Wurlitzer".Perhaps my biggest surprise, was some who have opined that Paul Theroux's book "Mosquito Coast" takes place in the same setting, but is a much better book. So I looked that book up. It's FICTION!!! I think there is plenty of excitement in real life, and especially in the real adventures in Stewart's "Jungleland".Original review Jan 21, 201xAdded note Jan 24, 201x

This is an intriguing and well-written book involving the search for the lost White City buried deep in the interior of the area known as the Mosquito Coast of Honduras. The author tells two stories, his and that of American World War ll spy, Thomas Morde, who before his service in the war, had been an explorer and adventurer. He had actually traversed the Honduran jungle along the Mosquito Coast and claimed to have found the Lost City of the Monkey God, an alternate name for the fabled White City.The author, using Thomas Morde’s notes and journals, with the permission of the family, recreates for the reader Morde’s adventure in the Honduran jungle, and juxtaposes it to his own, giving the reader two parallel stories of exploration in the Honduran jungle. It is quite an interesting juxtaposition, one that kept me turning the pages. The hardships endured, the danger from bandits, the relentless barrage of insects and torrential rains, makes one wonder why anyone would subject themselves to such an ordeal. Even the author asked himself that very question. Still, it makes for a compelling tale of adventure and survival.

Just another book really sort of 5/10 stretched out and could have been told in half the book not really worth reading

excellent book

This will appeal to readers of similar books such as The Lost City of Z and The Lost City of the Monkey God.

Ottimo romanzo, le condizioni del testo decisamente buone anche se la copertina presenta notevoli segni di usura.Speriamo che regga fino a che ho terminato di leggerlo!!!

A great read. Loved the pairing of the 2 stories. Exciting and interesting. I love arm chair travel. This book transported me to the jungle and to another time.