Book Review: Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
Into Thin Air
Author: John Krakauer
"Climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to
week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering, it struck that most of us were probably seeking,
above all else, something like a state of grace."
This book is pretty much the pocket version of Everest expedition which gives you the very exclusive sneak peaks of cold icy heights, warm and cozy mess tents, arduous & taxing struggle for survival in death zone, unsaid rivalry between the fellow mountaineers.
I found the book strangely unique in a sense that for the first time I get to read a book by a journalist. And it opens my mind to see that how much it is different to read a book of dramatic author and a journalist on the other hand.
This is one of my favourite books and I would love to go back someday just to read this beautiful book and find out that what small precious gems of wisdom this book has left for us.
"I feel I now have a clearer perspective on life. I see things today I never saw before."
And I absolutely broke down into tears when the author on returning to Base camp just cried as if he hadn't cried since he was a child.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
1) It has that Good Account of Mount Everest discovery and mountaineering history in the first few chapters which makes the book even more interesting (Although you may not remember all the history by the end of the book, but the background gives it a contrasty tone.2) The author has cleared the discrepancies of 1996 Everest disaster with facts and details at the end of the book, which donot leave us in chaos on reading other accounts of the same incident.
3) Every character is introduced comprehensively by the author.
4) The book seems to me a very personal candid & honest conversation of author with his reader. (like for example, in all the misfortune he did not depicted himself as the super-hero. He boldly confronts his errs and selfishness.After all everyone wants to live yet nobody wants harm for others.)
5) All the medical conditions like HAPE etc were elaborated making the understanding of altitude sickness much easier.
Cons:
1) I frequently got messed up with so many characters. Although the author briefly introduced each of the them. But till the end I was struggling with the names of characters.
2) At high altitudes, hypoxic brains are unable to comprehend things which don't let the things easygoing. So the author also underwent episodes of hallucinations giving rise to various discrepancies.
Book Summary:
The story starts in the early teens of the author who unlike his friends idealizes Hornbein & Unsoeld. He secretly dreamed of stepping his foots on the highest point of Earth. By the time, he reached his mid-twenties, he abondoned his childhood fantasy of climbing Everest. Little did he know that the March of 1995 will bring him the proposal of joining a guided Everest expedition to write an article for Outside magazine about the growing commercialization of the mountain.
Infact that was a call for a long dead child-hood fantasy. He asked the editor if he could postpone the assignment for 12 months (to let himself physically equip) and cover his expenses. In late february 1996, he was told that a place had been booked for him on Rob Hall's upcoming Everest expedition.
That's pretty much how John Krauker ended up ascending the Jomolungma,"goddess, mother of the world."
He was the survivor of Everest 1996 disaster, a blizzard which continued for 2 days and claimed the lives of 8 mountaineers in an attempt of descending.
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