One of my favorite authors - I think it was Neal Stephenson - recommended this book. And it was fantastic. The adventure is not much of an adventure, but Peter Fleming is very aware of that and handles it perfectly: with a lot of humour and quite a bit of self-deprecation.

If you come across this book, pick it up and read it. You'll be delighted. ( )

Re-read this old edition from 1933 once again in Oct' 2012. It is a fascinating book, so easy to follow along. More often than not, hard travellers are not natural writers. Peter Fleming comes out top in both schools. ( )

For a brilliant review of Brazilian Adventure, see the July/August 2010 issue of the Columbia Journalism Review. "Second Read" is my favorite column in the CJR, and it led me to this wonderful book. ( )

This one is pretty excellent.

Fleming's personal character permeates this particular view of early-20th-century Brazil. He's got a cleverly critical opinion of just about every one and every thing to cross his path, and his talent for comical-- and unintentional-- understatement is masterful. He makes the trip sound like a jolly sort of hop through the woods, and by the end I was wondering to what extent he was being 'more truthful' than other writers, as he claimed, or if he was simply using his powerful gift of understatement. In every respect, this is a beautifully constructed travel book with a great sense of character and period. Fascinating, anyway. Read it. ( )

A treasury of throw-away observations that reveal the core of the country. e.g. (from memory) "Rockets are to Brazil what exclamation marks are to the prose of a debutante". (!) ( )