Saturday, September 1, 2012

'Lost in Shangri-La' by Mitchell Zuckoff


Lost in Shangri-La, Mitchell Zuckoff (3)
This is the true story of a plane crash during WWII in a remote area of New Guinea, encounters with the native tribes, and the heroic rescue mission to save the survivors.  It is both a real life adventure story and an anthropological study of an isolated group of humans and their first engagement with modern society.  Neither the survivors nor the tribesmen ever managed to learn ach others’ language, but the author had the advantage of returning to the area and speaking first-hand with tribesmen (through a translator) who were children during WWII and could explain the ways and feelings the natives had exhibited at the time.  I enjoyed this book, though it was more simply told and less emotional than I expected.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but for some reason it did not rank higher in my mind.

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