Customer Reviews

The Lost City

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

They say a novelist should write the book unique to him, the book no one else could write. After fifty pages of The Lost City---even twenty pages---I felt like I'd entered a singular world, one in which only Henry Shukman could lead me on. Partly it's the exotic locale of the book, which moves from Peru's lowlands to highlands to cloud forest. (When barely twenty, Shukman wrote an earlier book about Peru, Sons of the Moon.) Partly it's the language, shifting without a blink from casually poetic and introspective, to pure impulse and drive. And partly it's the inventive range of characters, which include a young English soldier, Jackson Small, recently dismissed from the army after a mishap in Belize, a louche consular official who is slowly decomposing in the English diplomatic service, and a young Peruvian boy Small befriends, without ever being sure if it's a good idea, or if he'll have the strength to be loyal to the boy.

The plot gathers power smoothly, almost unseen, like the moon coming up behind one's back. There's danger, there's a romance, there's constant movement through the emotional underbrush. Some might read the book for the pure adventure, but for me it's the quieter moments that light up the story: the drug lord who shows an unexpected need for approval, the consular official's desperate fantasies about Small's girlfriend, ("if he only could get her to see his tender side and accept him, he would give her anything, there was nothing he would deny her. She could even have affairs, whatever she wanted, so long as she would only give herself to him, give him a home"), and the quiet, determined Peruvian boy---the book's most self-reliant character---who not only sticks close to Small, but repeatedly saves him from disaster.

The plot is sometimes driven by coincidences, of which there are perhaps too many. But the advantage of Shukman's strong writing is that we gulp them down. We see them, as Jackson Small does, as no more than fate. For as long as I read the book, his fate became mine---which is exactly what I want from a novel.

St Thomas was right. Jackson Small is on a quest. A quest in search of a city has told about by his budddy, who has passed away and said goodby to this sad and beautiful world. If Larry McMurtry's story of quest in "Lonesome Dove" stirred your soul, you must pick up a copy of Henry Shukman's "The Lost City."
STEVE YELLEN

At first I couldn't figure out why it was taking me so long to read this book. The subject matter is interesting and the characters were not cookie-cutter people. The problem is that the author wants to impress himself with his word-smithing ability. Just as I found myself interested, he would spin 3 pages of description that totally distracted from the plot and the flow. I found this book more digestable by skimming a few pages at at time to move forward. After enduring this, the ending was just another dime-store-novel cliche. If you want a real page-turner nonfiction that reads like a fiction, read The Last Days of the Incas. That book has 1,000 times more adventure and intrigue then this book. Don't wast your time on this.

Up until the last 50 pages or so of this book I was completely entranced. It is not that the action-packed ending was a complete letdown but it was just wobbly enough to partially reveal the gears and levers of the plot and partially lift the trance. If anything though I would say this was due to an over-abundance of inventiveness, a micro-managing and tweaking off kilter of every detail.

That said, Shukman is an outstanding writer. Perhaps the most important character in this book is the landscape of Peru. The scenes he paints are richly evocative, almost relentlessly so, and the wonder of discovering the remnants of a lost civilization, the wonder of discovering new love and the wonder and confusion of being at that point in life where anything is possible and everything is malleable, are all powerfully conveyed.

Henry Shukman does a great job conveying the bitter realities of modern Peruvian society through his new novel, "The Lost City." Shukman very accurately captures the cultural complexity of Peruvian/foreigner relations.

A few small inaccuracies keep this from being a five star book:

Shukman feels a need to continue the silly, near racist, belief that the ancient Chachapoya were descendents of the Vikings (page 130).

There is NO evidence that any Chachapoya were/are blonde.

There IS much mention of Chachapoya - Inca war in the Chronicles.

Many native words are incorrectly Anglicized - "Chachapoya" should not be pluralized or made into an adjective - thus: "Chachapoyans made Chachapoyan pottery" is grammatically incorrect.

The geography of the Choctamal / Tingo area is VERY misleading. Has Shukman even been to this area? There are many other river valleys near Chachapoyas that would be a better setting for this book. Try Chilchos.

A 13,000 pass? He should bring his GPS next time and not rely on what his guides say.

A foreigner traveling around Peru with a young native boy? Unfortunately, the first thing Peruvians would think is exploitation.

And lastly, the photo inset of ruins on the book cover are Inca kallanka, not Chachapoya shunderhuasi. Although many ruins in this area are Inca, I believe that Shukman intended to convey a Chachapoya settlement.

"Lost City" is both a coming of age story, and an adventure story. It also interestingly reflects on political morality in the context of the drug trade, and gets into the mindsets of those who are attracted to extended adventure travel. It suffers from the fact that Shukman thinks he is a better writer than he is, so some of his interior monologues can be tedious. I am reading a novel by Elizabeth Strout, and it really is a pleasure to read very good prose, with exceptional metaphors.

Last month both Outside magazine and Men's Journal published glowing reviews of "The Lost City," so I decided to take a look. I'd read part of Shukman's previous collection of short stories, and I knew he could write, but his newest effort is strikingly different--and better. Without divulging too much of the plot, the story concerns a young British man who, following in the footsteps of a good friend from the British Army, searches in the Peruvian jungle for a fabled lost city. That was the hook that brought me to the story, and it kept me reading throughout a long plane flight and long into the night that followed. It evokes the recent The Dog Fighter, in mood, as well as Hemingway's prose and characterization, and of course, like any good adventure story, it owes much to Conrad. But in the end, though our protagonist is searching for the ruins of an ancient civilization, he brings the mirror ponderously close to current situations. More importantly (for me), it has moments of empathy that jump on you out of corners. I highly recommend The Lost City, and am anxious to see what this gifted author brings us next.

Exotic, beautifully written and conceived, set in a world of mystery and intrigue, Shukman manages to craft this intensely visceral world with a unique voice permeated with silence.

I saw this book at the library in the "new releases" section. At the time I didn't know anything about Shukman or his previous works. The cover drew me in and the description on the jacket seemed like it would be good read.

It's an amazing book with fully developed characters, a great plot with lots of intriguing twists, as well as an eloquent description of a foreign land. Its obvious that Shukman has some valuable insights into the human condition and great experience as an author. This book shines. I feel it was boldly written, exciting & most of all a cathartic novel. I hope he writes more novels in the near future.