Simpson, Joe. Touching the Void: The True Story on One Man's Survival. New York: Harper & Row 1988. Print.
First Sentences:
I was lying in my sleeping bag, staring at the light filtering through the red and green fabric of the dome tent.
Simon was snoring loudly, occasionally twitching in his dream world.
Description:
Need a breathless true survival tale during the cold winter nights? One that will never again allow you to complain about being chilly, having a sore leg, or being just too tired to do some task. Well, let me introduce you to Joe Simpson, the author and main character in the high-altitude climbing disaster memoir, Touching the Void: The True Story on One Man's Survival.
Simpson and partner Simon Yates, both experienced high-altitude climbers, set off to climb the previously unscaled Siula Grande, a 21,000 foot peak in the Peruvian Andes. From their base camp at 15,000 feet, it was anticipated to be a three-day excursion.
But during the descent, author Simpson fell and broke his leg. With only Simon to assist, a descent to their base camp was virtually impossible. But they agreed to try, with Simon bracing himself and then lowering Simpson down a huge sheer cliff on the end of a rope 300 measly feet at a time.
Imagine being lowered down a sheer cliff, banging and twisting your broken leg every few feet on the face. Agonizing, but progress was being made.
That is, until Simpson fell into a deep crevasse. He dangled freely from the rope over an opening thousands of feet deep, held only by the waning strength of Simon who could not possibly pull him back up during the nighttime raging storm.
There was only one thing to to -- Simon had to cut the rope to let Simpson fall, giving in to the inevitable. Simon reasoned that Simpson probably hadn't survived the crevasse fall, and he simply could not pointlessly hold onto the rope with a dead body on the other end. He had to try to survive himself.
And he does cut the rope... and Simpson, miraculously still alive and dangling, falls again further, deeper into the unknown crevasse.
Since this is a memoir of survival, it is not a spoiler to relate here that Simpson survives this second drop. The remaining half of the book is Simpson's incredible struggle to reach the home camp. Step by agonizing step he overcomes obstacles of the crevasse, cold, darkness, and his own twisted leg, thinking each one has used his final strength. He has no knowledge whether his climbing companion Simon survived his own descent, and if so, whether Simon hung around camp to wait for his partner whom he knew to be dead.
Gripping, emotional, draining, and exhilarating. For any climber or lover of adventure or survival stories, this is one of the best. The first-hand account of the man actually recounting each tiny movement on the mountain puts readers almost in his boots.
Grylls, Bear. Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography. New York: William Morrow. 2012. Print
First Sentences:
The air temperature is minus twenty degrees.
I wiggle my fingers, but they are still freezing cold. Old frostnip injuries never let you forget. I blame Everest for that.
Description:
Feeling a bit tired today? Under the weather? Is it inconveniently rainy and cold outside? Did your boss say some hurtful things to you? Maybe those chores around the house just seem too daunting. Is a nap your primary goal for the day?
Well, I've got the antidote to feeling sorry for yourself: Bear Grylls' autobiography, Mud, Sweat, and Tears, Grylls, the world-wide celebrity renowned for his ultra-survival television series Man vs. Wild, recounts everyday occurrences he experiences in his life that put our petty complaints to shame. He faces more inclimate weather, strength-sapping hikes, and sleep deprivation in one week than all of us together experience in our lifetimes. But he loves it and rises to every challenge. Here is a man who chooses the hard road, forces himself to conquer tasks, and, upon completing the job, looks around for something else to do that is even harder. For that he is a person thrilling to read about, even if we do it from our comfy couch in front of a warming fire.
A former member of the elite British Special Air Services (SAS) force, Grylls is also one of the youngest men to have scaled Mt. Everest, a black belt karate expert, and a survivor of a horrific parachute accident - all before he was 25 years old. Mud, Sweat, and Tears carefully puts readers in Grylls' mind as he experiences each step.
The big three of any quality read are, of course, characters, story, and writing style. Having two of these can overcome a weakness in the third. Grylls offers all the plot and character you could want in any book. If at first his writing seems a bit bland and not on the same level as the other two criteria, wait just a minute. By relying on plain facts, observations, and emotions rather than fanciful descriptions, Grylls lets readers focus on the actions and characters without being caught up in overly embellished phrasings and descriptions. I found the beauty of this book to be its straightforward, clear of narration of its many spectacular escapades. What I initially thought would be a weakness to Mud, Sweat, and Tears actually is one of its strengths.
Witness the opening sentences, simply written but tightly focused to reveal compelling details. You can't help but be yanked into the next pages of the book to answer questions. Where is he that is so cold? Is he injured? And what's this about a previous Everest experience? With each sentence Grylls lures you on further and further as any great storyteller does. You simply must read on, heart in your throat, marveling at his tenacity, strength and will.
His words are simple and honest as he talks about his childhood freely roaming the wilds of Northern Ireland and Isle of Wight, as well as his rude awakening to bullying in a private boarding school. Eton University introduces him to lifelong friends in mischief as well as mountaineering, karate (to protect himself from bullies), and the possibility of joining the British special forces. The training for this elite group is unbelievably daunting. No one is failed if he can achieve the goals (run up hills in full packs, cross-country rendezvous without maps, hike in freezing cold through swampy lands, etc.). Most trainees just give up and are escorted to waiting trucks to remove them from this crushing life.
I had a hunger to push myself, and I found out that I could dig very deep when I needed to. I don't really know where or how this hunger came about, but I had it. I call it "the fire."
After injuries force him out of the elite SAS, he reevaluates his life and choices.
I had come within an inch of losing all my movement and...still lived to tell the tale. I had learned so much but above all, I had gained an understanding of the cards I had been playing with. The problem was that I had no job and no income.
So he reinvents himself from an elite soldier into a mountain-climber of the highest order. As he trains for the Everest trip, he again lets readers see what he sees, understand each thought he has, feel each step in the biting cold as he trudges upward en route to the summit.
It was like climbing a mountain of waist-deep molasses while giving someone a fireman's carry, who, for good measure, was also trying to force a pair of frozen socks into your mouth.
Throughout his later success of giving travel and motivational presentations to corporations worldwide and starring in his Man vs. Wild television series (global audience of 1.2 billion people in 180 countries), Grylls stresses his love of "the focus, the camaraderie, and above all the acquiring of an art that requires the use of guile over power, technique over force." His favorite quotation is from John F. Kennedy:
When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
These guiding tenets strengthen him as he faces each new, more difficult challenge. While you may secretly dream you could survive these tests as he does, deep down (or maybe not so deep) you know you would have given up long ago.
This is a great tale of personal triumph, of a man who continually seeks out and then rises to conquer challenges. Throughout he maintains a love of nature, of perseverance, and of self-confidence in the ability to dig deep down for that final bit of energy. It's satisfying to know that, while I cannot do any of these things, there is a man out there who epitomizes the strength of will to never give up, to find a way to take just one more step without complaint in order to accomplish his goal. Admirable and fascinating on every level.
I am ordinary, but I am determined.
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shakleton's Incredible Voyage
Historic account of Ernest Shakleton's ill-fated voyage in 1914 to the Antarctic in a quest to reach the South Pole, only to find his ship and crew locked in by ice, with the only possibility of survival to hike across the froze wasteland pulling boats and then sailing to find help. Astonishing.
Grylls, Beat. A Survival Guide for Life: How to Achieve Your Goals, Thrive in Adversity, and Grow in Character
Wisdom and skills learned from Grylls' adventures that can be applied to everyday occurances in one's life, helping to find the strength to push on when faced with advesity.
Go, Justin. The Steady Running of the Hour. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2014. Print
First Sentences:
The letter came by courier last week.
I knew when I touched the envelope that it was fine stationery. I knew from the paper, the porous surface of pure cotton rag; the watermark that shone though as I held it to the light. The letter is in my bag in the overhead compartment, but I imagine the cream fibers, the feel of the engraved letterhead.
Description:
Ashley Walsingham was a mountain climber killed in an attempt to scale Mt. Everest in 1924. Before he departed for the climb he re-wrote his will to leave his fortune to Imogen Soames-Andersson, a woman he had met for one brief week but had not seen for seven years. But after his death she cannot be found to give her with the vast bequeath.
Now, after 80 years, the estate is still unclaimed and the trust is to be distributed to other charities. Tristan Campbell receives a letter from the Walsingham Trust lawyers. They have a vague idea that Tristan might be the last remaining heir to the estate in trust from 1924. Tristan has only a few weeks to prove his direct link to Walsingham to claim the inheritance. Thus begins to search into the lives of Ashley and Imogen, their correspondence, Walsingham's life as a World War I combatant and mountain climber, and Imogen's life after his death.
Justin Go proves himself an able story-teller and romanticist in his debut novel The Steady Running of the Hour. This book has something for everyone: a passionate romance between two young lovers; a mystery that follows tenuous links to murky speculations; an epistolary correspondence between star-crossed lovers; realistic descriptions of the soldiers and conditions of World War I; and bone-chilling details about the assent on Mt. Everest.
It is a twisting tale combining Tristan's search for any information about these two lovers. Starting with only a few of their letters, he travels to their English homes, the battlefields of France, and an isolated village in Iceland, looking for clues that might answer critical questions: Could they somehow be his great-great grandparents? How did they meet? What happened when Ashley went away to war? What didn't Imogen ever claim the estate? Is their romance truly love or just the longing of youth?
Even love can sometimes be a mistake, and perhaps this vanished love of Ashley and Imogen's had been a wasted one ... Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between love and longing, but they are not at all the same thing, and while one is worth very much, the other is always wasted.
Chapters alternate between Tristan's present day search and the actions of Ashley and Imogen 80 years earlier. Readers are privy to both the desperate research and travels of Tristan as well as the star-crossed relationship of Ashley and Imogen, their conversations, correspondence, and lives together and apart. All actions, conversations, and situations are carefully, wonderfully detailed until you understand and care deeply about each of these characters. And wonder what will be the conclusions to each of their lives.
Along the way, Tristan gradually becomes less interested in his stake in the inheritance and is more driven to understand these two lovers. And as he searches, his life and decisions begin to take on a similarity to those of Ashley in pursuit of goals and relationships with women.
I don't feel sorry for them. However badly things went for Ashley, I bet you anything he wouldn't have traded his life for mine. They knew what they cared about, both of them. Even if they lost it, at least they knew.
Will Tristan find the answers in the time remaining? Will the information confirm his lineage to Ashley and Imogen and the fortune that awaits him as the heir? The book keeps you guessing until the final pages, and even then it produces several unexpected surprises. One has to love a story that is unpredictable to the very end, so completely engrossing you in the story and characters that you arrive breathless at the end, take a minute to digest the outcome, then want to start reading it all over again.
A wonderfully-written, beautiful love story and challenging mystery full of interesting characters, story twists, and, of course, adventure and passion. Highly recommended.
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Brockmole, Jessica. Letters from Skye: A Novel
Correspondence between a young college man who enters World War I and a quiet poet living on the Isle of Skye. Beautifully written, passionate, and tragic at once. (previously reviewed here)
Shreve, Anita. Stella Bain
A woman awakes in a World War I hospital in France, with no memory of her name, her past, or what she is doing in the battlefield. As she searches for her identity, she meets one man who might change her life. (previously reviewed here)
