Amazon Adventure - Willard Price
First published 1949 or 1951.
Book 1 in the 'Adventure' series. Followed by 'South Sea Adventure.'
This is the first in a series of 14 novels written by adventurer Willard Price. I remember reading them when I was younger, and have slowly built up my collection of the series over time. I actually started reading this book with Elise, but after a few chapters it hadn't gripped us as a 'shared' book, so we put it aside and then I picked it up again more recently.
The book stars brothers Hal and Roger Hunt, in their late and mid teens respectively, who, with their father John, are travelling into the Amazon to capture a variety of animals for zoos, circuses and the like. Already this is a mildly uncomfortable topic for modern sensibilities; it gets even more so when the Hunts purchase a shrunken head from a native village for a museum of natural history. "At first the chief shook his head. But Terry [a pilot friend] was eloquent. He explained about the museum. It was one of the greatest in the world. Thousands of people came to it daily. When they saw this exhibit they would respect the skill of the Jivaros. Was there not some great hero he would like to honour? There was no better way he could honour him than by placing him in this great museum." (page 31-32). Considering the fact that similar artefacts around the world are currently being returned to their countries of origin (including New Zealand) it is strange to read a book where the heroes are being celebrated for collecting them. Other aspects that haven't aged as well include a native helper who is almost stereotypically lazy and surly and a few moments where fairly rare animals are killed (though usually as a matter of life and death).
Despite the worldview and culture of the times being very different from our modern one, the 'adventure' part of the book is still interesting. The boys (and their father, until he is forced to return home) make their way down-river through the 'unexplored' Amazon, encountering a variety of animals and facing off against sinister villains along the way. The book also has a lot more death than I expected, occasionally in a fairly gruesome manner.
Overall, if you realise it is a book of its time and can cope with the 'heroes' being animal collectors, it is a straightforward but relatively entertaining, quite easy read.
Completed 19 November 2023.
Comments
Post a Comment