A review by emilyjackson
Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

3.0

My book club recently read The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost and we were all really disappointed how misleading the title was and how there wasn’t a single cannibal in sight throughout the whole thing. Fast forward a few months and we decide to pick up The Savage Harvest. The book centers on the disappearance and presumed death of Michael Rockefeller, an heir to one of the largest fortunes in U.S. history, while he was on an expedition to collect primitive art in the 1960s. No one knows for sure what happened after his boat capsized and he disappeared, but theories range from him drowning to him going AWOL and living with the natives to the most interesting theory that he was ceremoniously killed and eaten by cannibals once he swam to shore. That theory ends up being pretty much confirmed by the end of the book. The opening chapter is a fictionalized account of what would have happened to Michael during the cannibalization and it was horrifying and detailed and I had trouble falling asleep the night I read it. The rest of the book jumps back and forth between modern day and the time around Michael disappeared. His own journal entries are sprinkled throughout the story and really helped get an idea for his mindset and what he was trying to accomplish on his travels. I thought it was great that the author actually attempted the same journey that Michael Rockefeller did and ended up getting more information than had been gathered in 50 years since Michael disappeared. I didn’t rank this book higher because I felt it got a little dull and drawn out in places. I felt like the author didn’t have quite enough material for the book, so he had to stretch it a little bit, but other than that, this was a really good piece of non-fiction. I ended up learned a lot about this area of the world and the culture there. I would love to go visit the Met and see the artwork on display that Michael died for.