Writing style
Descriptive · Direct · Journalistic
Apple BooksRiver of doubt
History
- First published
- 2005
- Print length
- 670 pagesRandom House Large Print, 2005
Description
After losing the 1912 presidential election, Theodore Roosevelt sought a new test in the Brazilian wilderness. In 1913, he joined explorer Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, his son Kermit, and a mixed American-Brazilian party attempting the first descent of the River of Doubt, an uncharted Amazon tributary. Poorly supplied for the conditions, the expedition confronted punishing rapids, disease, hunger, damaged canoes, drowning, and violence as its route carried the men farther from rescue. Candice Millard follows both the practical struggle to survive and Roosevelt’s psychological crisis as injury and illness stripped away his famous confidence. Combining expedition history with biography, the book shows how the journey tested the limits of Roosevelt’s endurance and permanently damaged his health.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Brisk
Tone
Dark · Suspenseful · Tense
Structure
Chronological nonfiction
Focus
Atmosphere · Character · Plot
Emotional intensity
4 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 3 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Random House Large Print
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9780375728433
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