I really liked this book (but I love adventure/survival books so take it with a grain of salt) and almost gave it a 5 but I was turned off by the "love story" chapter and the topic sprinkled in every once in a while. It was almost like Olive Oyl and Popeye..."My hero!!" Also the God stuff was off-putting. I started to wonder where the book was going when the God references started showing up.

But, for me anyway, if you can overlook those parts, it was really an amazing read and held my interest throughout. ( )

True story of Holly and “Fitz” FitzGerald’s journey down the Rio Madre de Dios in Bolivia in 1973. As young newly marrieds, they decide to honeymoon in the Amazon Rainforest. They took some pretty extreme risks, in line with the inexperience and bravado of youth. It is a story of endurance in harsh conditions and working together to try to figure out how to survive. I found it engrossing. It shows that love and optimism can play a key role in survival. As an armchair traveler, I enjoyed reading about their adventures – just don’t ask me to follow in their footsteps! ( )

A lot of adventure books are written by professional or semi-professional adventurers, people who it can seem would be disappointed if extreme trouble failed to come their way. Some folks, though, are just trying to travel to their destination without gratuitous risk. In Ruthless River we get to read about such a couple. Their names are Holly and Fitz Fitzgerald. They find as much trouble as any of the pro or near-pro adventure set could possibly desire and fear.

The Fitzgeralds, after an unfortunate accident, decide it’d be best to raft down the Rio Madre de Dios from a settlement in Peru to one in Bolivia. In hindsight, if some geographic feature has “Mother of God” in its name then probably this should be treated as a warning oath (as in “Holy Mother . . . !”) and not as an invitation. But off they go.

Among the less hellish of their experiences was sleeping while sitting on a tree branch with lianas tied round their bodies to provide security against falling. Mosquitos bit endlessly during the night while pica ants crawled over their skin, piercing and burning them. Fitz, despite his fear of heights, fell asleep easily—when serving in the Vietnam War he learned to sleep no matter what the circumstances. For Holly it was more like how it’d be for you or me. This happened early in their great misadventure. Things get gnarly after that.

The author’s natural, open way of writing makes this story seem personal and intimate. It works. Every bit of what they went through is present and much of it fascinates. The account is testimony also to how supportive in extremity love and belief can be. The survival instinct is strong. With love it gains yet more power.

I commend Ruthless River to you but advise skipping the Prologue—it’s a minor spoiler. ( )

A harrowing tale of jungle survival. ( )

I would be interested in reading this book with annotations by a survival expert. ( )