A full-throttle, first-person account of the treasure hunt created by eccentric millionaire art dealer — and, some would say, robber baron — Forrest Fenn that became the stuff of contemporary legend.
Barbarisi writes with gusto and portrays the eccentrics he encounters with a candor that never quite slips into mockery; he sums up Beep as 'a Renaissance man of the frivolous.' He can also make a landscape come alive ... Barbarisi, now a senior editor at the Athletic, occasionally gets too caught up in his subject. His chapter on searching for a very different kind of treasure — what lies in old galleons at the bottom of the ocean — runs on too long and probably should have been cut entirely. He is more judicious in covering the conspiracy theories hatched by disappointed seekers during the hunt and afterward, but let’s draw a veil over how the contest ended. You can find out online, of course, but Barbarisi tells the story so well that you should resist any form of peeking ahead and leave the matter in his capable hands.
Journalist Barbarisi spent several years researching and writing this mesmerizing account of a modern-day treasure hunt, which reveals a whole subculture of Indiana Jones types willing to travel across the country and invest life savings in the search for something special ... Armchair adventurers will be riveted right up to the suspenseful conclusion.
In this lively read, a journalist sheds objectivity and searches for riches alongside his subjects ... Sadly, as Barbarisi painfully illustrates, most hunters drawn to Fenn’s puzzle lacked the skill set to solve it. Parsing a literary text for hidden meaning was a task for an English major, not an army of retired soldiers with inflatable rafts and rappelling gear ... Chasing the Thrill illustrates the creeping narcissism in today’s selfie-taking, blog-publishing, Instagram-posting society. Barbarisi’s hunters twist Fenn’s clues to suit their fancies ... Chasing the Thrill leads the reader on an engaging armchair treasure hunt, a welcome escape in these waning days of covid. Daniel Barbarisi’s bold gamble — inserting himself at the story’s center — pays off. The writer emerges as a sympathetic protagonist, and his participation buys him entrée into a secretive and mistrustful club.
