Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru

#853
Title: Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru
Author: Tahir Shah
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Year: 2003
288 pages

Shah turns a pretty phrase, even when it's about shrunken heads or disgusting food. Here he pursues the legend of the birdmen, a quest that includes colorful and sometimes alarming fellow travelers, grave robbing, hallucinogenic vines, crumbling textiles, matter-of-fact mystics, and the Nazca lines. Shah is neither a curmudgeonly character like Theroux nor a macho creep like some travel writers whom out of delicacy I shall not name. Instead, he lets the reader in on his hopes, his discomforts, and his apparently genial willingness to subject himself to traditional treatments for a variety of discomforts, including parasites in his pants, as he seeks answers to many, sometimes related, questions. Readable and quick-paced, it will cause the reader to be actively delighted that she isn't eating rat stew or picking wolf spiders out of her hair.