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potato_d's review
5.0
Now that was a great book, bought from a library sale by my wife for me. Thank you little bookworm.
A shame what eventually happened to the natives of that valley after the site was made famous. Shangri-la is now a dirty ghetto.
An amazing tale of survival.
Hats off to the survivors and to the brave filipino american paratroopers that risked their lives to rescue the crash survivors.
A shame what eventually happened to the natives of that valley after the site was made famous. Shangri-la is now a dirty ghetto.
An amazing tale of survival.
Hats off to the survivors and to the brave filipino american paratroopers that risked their lives to rescue the crash survivors.
florapants84's review against another edition
4.0
Shangri-La. What exactly is that?! I had always assumed that Shangri-La referred to either the all-girl pop band from the 60s, or was a generic name for seedy motels of questionable repute (ie Andrew McCarthy's very bad TV movie, The Courtyard). I was unexpectedly enlightened when I recently picked up Mitchell Zuckoff's book, Lost in Shangri-La: Escape from a Hidden World, A True Story.
Shangri-La was a fictional valley in the Himalayas created by James Hilton in his 1933 novel entitled Lost Horizon. It was supposed to be the ideal paradise on earth, isolated from the outside world. It was also popularized in the 1937 film adaptation directed by Frank Capra. So it was no surprise when a virtually untouched, beautiful valley deep in Dutch New Guinea was discovered by soldiers stationed at Hollandia Military Base during WWII, and nicknamed Shangri-La.
On May 13, 1945, a military airplane carrying 24 officers (male and female) from Hollandia on a sightseeing expedition over the valley, crashes into a mountain base at the entrance of the valley. Thus begins our story. Through eyewitness accounts, newspaper articles, and military documents, Zuckoff pieces together a memorable rescue mission for the remaining three survivors of the crash.
After surviving the crash, the officers have to contend with serious injuries, as well as the fierce natives, who are rumored to be cannibals, and who have never before seen people from the outside. Zuckoff gathers first hand statements from descendants of the Logo-Mabel clan, as well as the Filipino-American paratrooper team of eight sent in to rescue. This read like a Hollywood screenplay, and was surprisingly comedic at certain points!
Shangri-La was a fictional valley in the Himalayas created by James Hilton in his 1933 novel entitled Lost Horizon. It was supposed to be the ideal paradise on earth, isolated from the outside world. It was also popularized in the 1937 film adaptation directed by Frank Capra. So it was no surprise when a virtually untouched, beautiful valley deep in Dutch New Guinea was discovered by soldiers stationed at Hollandia Military Base during WWII, and nicknamed Shangri-La.
On May 13, 1945, a military airplane carrying 24 officers (male and female) from Hollandia on a sightseeing expedition over the valley, crashes into a mountain base at the entrance of the valley. Thus begins our story. Through eyewitness accounts, newspaper articles, and military documents, Zuckoff pieces together a memorable rescue mission for the remaining three survivors of the crash.
After surviving the crash, the officers have to contend with serious injuries, as well as the fierce natives, who are rumored to be cannibals, and who have never before seen people from the outside. Zuckoff gathers first hand statements from descendants of the Logo-Mabel clan, as well as the Filipino-American paratrooper team of eight sent in to rescue. This read like a Hollywood screenplay, and was surprisingly comedic at certain points!
megsmyname's review against another edition
4.0
not my usual genre (WW II non-fiction), but this was great. glad i'm done because it was infiltrating my dreams.
jooshanoosh's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating read. It is the true story of an army plane crash during WWI and the rescue of the survivors. Entertaining and reads quite quickly.
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