The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey Hardcover by Candice Millard (Doubleday)(#IBRTravelBooks)

This was Candice Millard's first book of history and biography, and it was made for her.

Millard's style is to take a major figure in history and focus on a single, often obscure slice of the figure's life. In her book on Churchill, it was his early adventures and the Boer Wars in South Africa. Here, she takes an historical look at Theodore Roosevelt's adventures in the Amazon Basin after his two terms as President and his devastating loss for a third term in the three-way race in 1912.

River of Doubt is a wonderful story of adventure and misadventure. Its backdrop is a tributary, previously unexplored by Westerners, of the Amazon. It has everything a reader would want: the mysteries and terror of the jungle, the incredible and deadly complexity of the river, the inept preparations for the adventure, the wild and unknown Indians of the region, needless deaths, murder, history, and the bigger-than-life story of the aging Teddy, his son, Kermit, and the rest of the exploration party.

Turns out the 26th president of the United States had quite the adventurous spirit. After a humiliating failed bid a reelection in 1912, Roosevelt and his family set off for South America to take a leisurely trip down one of the Amazon’s larger and better-known rivers. Instead, Roosevelt, his son, and a team took a harrowing journey down an uncharted and dangerous river in the Brazilian Amazon known then only as the River of Doubt.

The book serves as a biographical portrait of the former president, while more closely falling into the realm of adventure narrative and thriller. Roosevelt is undoubtedly one of the most famous presidents of the 20th century and he was such a rugged outdoorsman that he was able to leave the presidency and come out alive on the other side of a trip of this magnitude. What’s more, the book opens a window into Roosevelt’s love for nature and why he felt natural spaces were so important. His presidency left such a lasting impact on the U.S. National Parks system and Millard’s book deep-dives into the events in his life that fostered his great love of the outdoors.

The story itself is fast-paced and beautifully done. I still haven’t visited South America, and Millard paints a striking image of what it’s like to sleep under the stars in one of the most remote places on Earth. River of Doubt is reads like fiction and I read it in two sittings (and it’s not a short book). It’s a fun read, which is rare for a presidential biography (and this teeters on that line, giving a lot of backstory and history on Roosevelt, although it rarely delves into politics). I highly recommend the book; while not modern travel fiction, it’s just enjoyable.