Revisiting - The River of Doubt

Revisiting more books that I read pre-blog. This time it's "The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard. This is one of the most entertaining non-fiction books I've read. I loved the balance between human biography, tangential information about the Amazon and gripping drama of a trek down the River of Doubt.

The book did a great job of outlining Theodore Roosevelt's character. So much so that I want to read a proper biography of him down the line. A couple of point worth mentioning:

• Roosevelt used to be a asthmatic, sickly and frustrated youth. His father, his greatest hero, sat him down one day and told him that if he was determined enough, he could overcome his ailments. Since that formative talk, Roosevelt has embraced physical exertion as an almost spiritual experience, overcoming his sickly past and taking on physical quests in moments of despair or when having to make tough decisions.
• Although his father was his idol, the one thing that shamed Roosevelt was that his father paid a poor man to take his place in the Civil War. Roosevelt thought that the greatest honor a man could have was dying for his country. As such, he forced all his sons to go to war or enlist.
  
• The guy was as stubborn has it gets. Having been snubbed by this own party (Republicans), he openly defied them in the next election. He deliberately ran in the presidental race as an independent to steal votes from his former party, guaranteeing the Democrats the victory. Afterwards, he grew isolated from his political friends, falling into a deep depression that eventually sparked his interest in the Amazon.
• During the election campaign, he was giving a speech and was the victim of an assassination attempt. The bullet struck his chest as it passed a manuscript of his speech. Bullet in chest, he continued with the speech, reading from the manuscript with a bullet hole and blood all over it! He later decided to remove the bullet.
  
• He was a proponent of the Monroe Doctrine, garnering much protest as he traveled in South America.
• The role-reversal between Roosevelt and his son Kermit was very touching. Having contracted malaria in the jungle, the burden fell on Kermit to get his father out of the jungle safely.