|
It's clear in Eiger Dreams that Krakauer feels at ease writing essays, snippets of the life of an adventurer within editorial confines. I like all of these books and consider Into Thin Air to be the best written and crafted in terms of sensationalism and journalism.
He knows that most of us will not be climbing K2 or Mount Everest in our lifetimes or landing a plane on a glacier during a whiteout. It isn't likely that we will recklessly risk our lives for the prestige of climbing a mountain a new way for the first time, or even for the quiet self-respect of challenging one's self physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Jon Krakauer knows how to make the world we know feel alien and exciting again. The essays are often quite funny as well as exciting to read.I read Into the Wild and Into Thin Air before Eiger Dreams.
We will not live the unscripted life of the itinerant adventurer, eking out a living to pay for the next thrill. Yet these people exist, and instead of living lives of quiet desperation, they live deliberately.The collection of essays covers different yet related interests: mountain/ice/solo climbing, bouldering (surmounting low-altitude, seemingly smooth rock structures), glacier flying, cayoneering (combination of backpacking, swimming, and climbing), and others.
Into the Wild is great for it's chaotic structure--Krakauer's narrative splinters back and forth through time, alternately tacking to the main story only to break off into the author's personal experiences with the same intensity. I recommend all three books wholeheartedly.
This so called book is a collection of unrelated half baked stories, rumors and mountaineering gossip. This is exactly the kind of book anyone at any base camp of any mountain could write after one evening of listening to gossip. What a complete let down from "Into Thin Air". Never will I ever pay to buy any crap written by Jon "I think I can sell any crap because of 'Into Thin Air'" Krakauer.
Because I am not widely traveled it thrills me to run into a mention of someplace I have been so it was with great delight that I read about Wengen/ Kleine Sheidig(sp) and the train inside the Eiger I could honestly say " Been there done that " and it was a great book, as I find all of Jon's to be My most recent read was " Forget ME Not" by Lowe-Anker and again, when she wrote about her marriage to Anker ( it was held at Villa Maria in Ravello) and I had walked those cobble stone steps to the Villa just 18 months ago What a thrill and surely one of the most memorable books I have ever read.
Let me first preface by saying I have read all of Krakauers books and many other mountaineering stories. This book is not the best (Into Thin Air may be) but the reason it is a great book is because there is a certain diversity among all the different stories. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys and well written fun and interesting book.
I found the writing very appealing as I am an outdoor guy myself. Sarcastically funny in a good way.
|
