How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He was married with two children. (2.10)
Guess who Grann is describing here? It's hard to answer that without context, because so many of the explorers in this book have families. They have wives and kids, and they all abandon them to roam around in the jungle. Grann does it. Fawcett does it. And here Grann is describing James Lynch, who disappeared in 1996.
Quote #2
And so Lynch agreed, like Fawcett, to take his son with him. (2.18)
The parallels between Lynch and Fawcett don't end there. Both men take their sons into the jungle, and both men end up captured…or at least that's what we assume happened to Fawcett. If we were as metaphysically inclined as Fawcett, we might believe that Lynch is Fawcett reincarnated. We should check for identical birthmarks.
Quote #3
[My wife] looked at me for a long moment. "I hope you know what you're doing." (3.21)
Here's another guessing game: who is Grann talking about here? It could be Nina Fawcett, who despite being her husband's champion was also always worried about him returning safety. Well, in this case, it's Grann himself who is the subject of this quote. Grann's wife seems oddly unconcerned that her incompetent husband is heading to the jungle. Maybe she's unaware of just how dangerous it could be, because Grann, too, underestimates its dangers.
Quote #4
While his wife had dispelled some of his moodiness, he remained, as he put it, a "lone wolf," determined to "seek paths of my own rather than take the well-trodden ways." (4.27)
This is one area where Grann and Fawcett are differentiated. Grann is not a lone wolf, but he has a tendency to get obsessed. When both men do get obsessed, they develop tunnel vision, shutting out their families and family concerns.
Quote #5
"You can't just go like that," my wife said. […] "You're not giving me a whole lot of confidence." (7.1, 7.3)
Here we get Grann's wife giving him some pushback, which encourages Grann to prepare better for the trip. It stinks that he is leaving his wife behind, but if he were single, he might not be as well prepared. Or something like that.
Quote #6
The net morning I stuffed my gear and maps in my backpack, and said good-bye to my wife and infant son. "Don't be stupid," my wife said. Then I headed to the airport and boarded a plane for Brazil. (11.7)
Grann's wife is a lot more straightforward than Nina was. This is mainly due to a difference in women's roles at the time. Nina was expected to be a housewife, while Grann's wife works for 60 Minutes. She can't go home and take care of the kids until after Andy Rooney shuts up.
Quote #7
Nina compared her life to that of a sailor's wife: "a very uncertain and lonely" existence "without private means, miserably poor, especially with children." (12.3)
Many women felt similar to Nina at this time. Husbands weren't known to stay home, no matter what their professions were. But Nina's situation is exceptional, because Fawcett would be gone for months and months at a time. In our day, Grann's wife is probably a little glad that her husband is giving her some space for a while. Not that we're projecting or anything.
Quote #8
Returning to his home in England, he saw his wife and children on a regular basis for the first time in years. He was astonished by how much Jack had grown, how much bigger he was through his shoulders and around his arms. (17.29)
We would like to say that Fawcett's family is changing while the jungle he is spending time in remains the same. "The jungle can wait," we would say to Fawcett, if that were true. But while Fawcett's family is growing, the jungle is shrinking. In fact, its civilizations are in danger of disappearing entirely. Fawcett feels he has to sacrifice his own family to learn as much as he can about a set of vanishing cultures.
Quote #9
Part of [Nina] wanted to run away and escape all the sacrifices and burdens—but, she said, "the family needed me." (18.8)
Nina must do what Fawcett does not: stay with the family. The family needs her, but it doesn't really need Fawcett. Nina struggles, but in the end, she is able to get by without her hubby.
Quote #10
A moment later I could hear my son babbling. "Zachary, it's Daddy," I said.
"Dada," he said.
"Yes, Dada."
"He's started calling the phone Dada," my wife said, taking back the receiver. "When are you coming home?" (25.13-25.16)
In the book's final chapter, Grann includes this conversation with his family to bring the narrative back to this theme. He doesn't want his son to grow up without him, so he decides to end his quest soon after this chat. He does what Fawcett, who dragged his son into the jungle with him, was never able to do.