Bite-sized book reviews
Bite-sized book reviews
I loved this book and I feel like I need to put the high rating into context. Wilderness, survival, mountaineering, and freezing cold, all these things are not things that I seek out in life or in books; that is all this book is about and despite that fact I absolutely loved it. I would have sat and listened to it all in one sitting if life would have allowed for that indulgence. Krakauer is such an excellent writer and I kept using the word “riveting” to describe it to my husband while I was reading it. Krakauer gets sponsored to climb Everest back in the ’90’s (this book was published 6 months after he got home, in 1997) and it still felt completely relevant. I don’t know how much really changes from year to year when we’re talking about summitting the highest peak in the world. We follow Krakauer’s journey from contemplation to completion. Disaster strikes in the form of an extreme storm and other complicating issues making the descent from the peak even more perilous than usual and resulting in several deaths. Krakauer treats the subject with reverence, maintaining a high level of self-awareness and honesty, and lacking defensiveness that I imagine most anyone else recounting the story would fall victime too. He’s able to piece together the account to something coherent for the reader, which is no small feat given the actual incoherency of everyone involved that comes with extreme altitudes. He explores why someone would even attempt such a feat, what drives us as humans, and how to reconcile grief while coming to terms with his own survivor’s guilt. It was an excellent read, would highly recommend.