Mitchell Zuckoff, Welcome to the Jungle
Featured Book
A wild and harrowing adventure/survival story
Mitchell Zuckoff’s wild and harrowing adventure/survival story is the kind of thing you’ll want to recount in casual conversation, but be warned: I tried, but nobody believed it could be nonfiction. The plot may be too preposterous for Hollywood, with so many terrible and enlightening and befuddling moments you kinda can’t believe it. Spoilers would do you a great disservice, but here’s the gist: A U.S. Army plane crash lands in a remote jungle in Papua, New Guinea, during the fading days of World War II. Many die right away, and more succumb to their wounds and burns during that first terrible night. But three lucky, bruised souls — two soldiers and a WAC (a member of the Women’s Army Corps) — miraculously limp away and into the arms of a tribe of people who’d never before laid eyes on a Westerner. The soldiers mistake them for savages. The tribesmen mistake them for ghosts. What follows is a comedy of errors and a triumph of human nature, as the two groups with little in common culture shock each other all over the jungle. And just wait till you hear about the rescue plan. Part of what makes Lost in Shangri-La so effective is Zuckoff’s straight-laced sense of journalistic fairness. There’s little embellishment, and very little unnecessary drama heightening. He lets the facts and the historical record tell the story. Plus: How many white man-meets-natives yarns actually include interviews with the natives?
