- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Pan Books; New edition edition (4 April 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330353047
- ISBN-13: 978-0330353045
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 902,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The story of a team of ten men and one woman who travelled the full length of the Amazon river, from its source high in the Andes to its union with the Atlantic Ocean.
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First Sentence
Southern Peru, late August 1985. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Southern Peru, late August 1985. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
absolutely rivetting, there is no other way to describe it. From the sponsorship beginings to the nightmare of actually finding the top, to the amazing challenge of 4000 miles of vastly different water conditions, the narrative does not give you a chance for breath as you tumble awkwardly at first down the mighty river. One of the best books I've ever read, you can't help but cheer on the amateur-kayaking author as he conquers what professionals give up on. I can't recommend it enough, a triumph of the human spirit, action, adventure, and a lotta water.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This past week I have devoured four "adventure" books. To date, Joe Kane's Running The Amazon is the best for several reasons. His account of this journey covers all the aspects of human endeavor. In addition, he relates area history alongside current events as the team experiences them on their arduous trip. His writing style is intelligent, fluid and immediate. Joe recounts his own, personal journey without taking his eye from the complexities of hardship among divergent personalities in the cauldron of a wild river and guerilla confrontations. Running The Amazon is a powerful read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
31 reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Talk about adventure travel from hell
12 Nov 2003
Format:Paperback
Somebody had the dubious brainstorm of trying to find the source of the Amazon and follow it from a snowfield in the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. Of course when you're going to do something like that, you want a crackerjack team of people along to help out through the wild and dangerous spots, of which there are probably at least 2500 miles full of those two qualities along the 4200 mile journey. Whoever chose the team was smokin' something, because talk about your ill-assorted multinational party of eleven weirdos. Joe Kane, the sole American, came along as the journalist to document the whole affair - and he'd never paddled a whitewater canoe before in his life. His chances of even living thru the trip, let along being one of the four lone survivors (no, the others didn't all die; don't worry; they dropped out or were uninvited) were less than zero. Yet, improbably, he traveled every mile, even paddling thru wide still waters for days with a raging fever, and reached the Atlantic 6 months after beginning this odyssey.
He has an understated way of writing of his spine-tingling adventures that's particularly suited for high adventure, stuff like extremes of weather, kamikaze bugs, killer rapids, armed guerrillas, fights between the various factions of team members, knee-deep mud, native Indians who'd never seen a white man before (were they cannibals?), cocaine dealers, etc.
I read it twice and then even listened to it on book-on-tape, narrated by Kane himself.
Wonderful. Don't miss it. Then go immediately to your bookstore and buy Tracy Johnston's Shooting the Boh for a woman's take on a similar hairbrained adventure.
He has an understated way of writing of his spine-tingling adventures that's particularly suited for high adventure, stuff like extremes of weather, kamikaze bugs, killer rapids, armed guerrillas, fights between the various factions of team members, knee-deep mud, native Indians who'd never seen a white man before (were they cannibals?), cocaine dealers, etc.
I read it twice and then even listened to it on book-on-tape, narrated by Kane himself.
Wonderful. Don't miss it. Then go immediately to your bookstore and buy Tracy Johnston's Shooting the Boh for a woman's take on a similar hairbrained adventure.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Worth reading, but theres got to be more...
20 Sep 1998
Format:Paperback
This is a story about 10 people who set out to run the Amazon River from the headwaters to the Atlantic Ocean (only 4 of them complete the entire trip). The author does a good job at describing the environment, interactions with the local people, and the adventures they encountered on the trip.
The first 177 pages describe the initial 700 miles of the journey; the other 100 pages describe the remaining 3500 miles of the expedition. When I was about 2/3 of the way through the book and learned that they had 3500 miles left to go, I wondered how the author could do justice to this large segment of travel in only 100 pages. I felt shortchanged. I'm not saying that the book had to be 1000 pages long, but I think that more should have been said about the 3500 miles.
The most exciting part was the whitewater rafting/kayaking through the Acobamba Abyss. Having rafted and kayaked before, I could really identify with their struggles. The author wrote in such a way that I could easily picture what was happening (there were some very intense moments). Being that a number of the team members had very little or no whitewater experience, I'm surprised that they survived this trip.
The author did a good job at describing the interaction among the expedition team members (this really added to the story). However, he was too lenient toward Francois Odendaal. Odendaal did not belong on the river at all and made for a very poor expedition leader.
I'm glad I bought the book. In my opinion, the writing style is good but not great. I did learn a lot about the countries and the people that border the river.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Much more than a kayaking adventure!
20 Mar 2005
Format:Paperback
I read "Running the Amazon" because my wife and I were participating in a cruise on the Amazon and an additional two days at the Explorama Lodge, all of our trip at the Peru end of the Amazon, basically in the Iquitos area. Also, my reading tendencies lean toward adventure descriptions, so "Running the Amazon" looked like a book I would finish.
It was so much more than an adventure book, although it certainly was that. - This is a personal description of the first expedition to begin in the snowfields of the Andes, at the continental divide, where the first trickle originates, all the way to the Atlantic - 4200 miles. I can imagine, well almost, how treacherous the white water must have been coming out of the Andes, based on how much water we saw flowing down the Amazon even at the junction of its two major tributaries in Peru where the river officially begins.
The majority of "Running the Amazon" takes place in Peru (even though in total miles the majority of the trip is in Brazil). I would estimate that 50% of the text is about the history of the area, mostly Peru, and the culture, past and present. Also, the author is pretty funny - intentionally or not - in how he describes the adventures of he and his colleagues. I have always wondered about the revolutionary group, Shining Path, and since the book is set in the late 1980s, a good description of the group and its history is provided.
Since Joe Kane is not a man who apparently had been a kayaker, or at least anything approaching a serious kayaker, prior to his journey, it makes his adventures more interesting to the average reader like myself, and this is true also for his descriptions of interpersonal difficulties among some of the expedition.
Because "Running the Amazon" is so well written, and so readable, I am going to read Mr. Kane's other book about the area, "Savages," which describes the difficulties of a group of Ecuadoran people with modern culture. I highly recommend "Running the Amazon."
It was so much more than an adventure book, although it certainly was that. - This is a personal description of the first expedition to begin in the snowfields of the Andes, at the continental divide, where the first trickle originates, all the way to the Atlantic - 4200 miles. I can imagine, well almost, how treacherous the white water must have been coming out of the Andes, based on how much water we saw flowing down the Amazon even at the junction of its two major tributaries in Peru where the river officially begins.
The majority of "Running the Amazon" takes place in Peru (even though in total miles the majority of the trip is in Brazil). I would estimate that 50% of the text is about the history of the area, mostly Peru, and the culture, past and present. Also, the author is pretty funny - intentionally or not - in how he describes the adventures of he and his colleagues. I have always wondered about the revolutionary group, Shining Path, and since the book is set in the late 1980s, a good description of the group and its history is provided.
Since Joe Kane is not a man who apparently had been a kayaker, or at least anything approaching a serious kayaker, prior to his journey, it makes his adventures more interesting to the average reader like myself, and this is true also for his descriptions of interpersonal difficulties among some of the expedition.
Because "Running the Amazon" is so well written, and so readable, I am going to read Mr. Kane's other book about the area, "Savages," which describes the difficulties of a group of Ecuadoran people with modern culture. I highly recommend "Running the Amazon."
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