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3.26 AVERAGE
3.26 AVERAGE
Beck Weathers reached instant celebrity status during his descent of Mt Everest in 1996, during a storm which took the lives of 8 mountaineers. Having been truly left for dead in a hypothermic coma on the South Col, Beck woke up almost a full day later and walked himself back to the safety of the tents at High Camp. Beck's recounting of this sphincter-clenching ordeal is told in the first 66 pages - a terrifying account that resulted in the loss of both his hands and his nose.
The remaining 220 pages are the dull transcripts of a completely dysfunctional marriage in counselling. Reading this was like watching paint dry - but the paint was on a side of a plane as it crashed, making it difficult to turn away.
Coming from a childhood of true white privilege, Beck has had every opportunity placed before him. He comes through it all with a quiet humility and a drive for perfection. Beck's sarcastic humour comes through thinly in his passages, usually by making belittling put-downs or sweepingly insulting generalizations. That said, Beck only sees good in the people around him. Throughout his life, he has had a wide range of interests and hobbies which he pursues with ferocity, mountaineering being only one of them, which are actually his way of dealing with his sometimes paralysing depression.
Peach', his wife, tarries back and forth with Beck through this narrative. She is a nest of vipers who is shuffling through life under her self-made black cloud. She is unable to make herself happy and expects Beck to sit around at home creating her happiness for her. She refuses to go places without air-conditioning or places that are cold and wouldn't participate in his previous interests of sailing or motor-sports. She is so uninteresting and only sees her potential for happiness being squandered by Beck. Blind to his decades-long depression, she needles him endlessly between bouts of silent-treatment. It is a sad display of non-communication and is one of those examples where staying together 'for the kids' was probably the worst thing possible for the kids.
Perhaps I was supposed to come away with the feeling that this family pulled together during a crisis but instead I am so sad that Beck is now trapped at home with this woman and unable to escape to the mountains any longer.
I hope he takes up sailing once again. I hope that his next book is about waking up from a marriage-induced coma and realising his long-time dream of sailing solo around the world.
The remaining 220 pages are the dull transcripts of a completely dysfunctional marriage in counselling. Reading this was like watching paint dry - but the paint was on a side of a plane as it crashed, making it difficult to turn away.
Coming from a childhood of true white privilege, Beck has had every opportunity placed before him. He comes through it all with a quiet humility and a drive for perfection. Beck's sarcastic humour comes through thinly in his passages, usually by making belittling put-downs or sweepingly insulting generalizations. That said, Beck only sees good in the people around him. Throughout his life, he has had a wide range of interests and hobbies which he pursues with ferocity, mountaineering being only one of them, which are actually his way of dealing with his sometimes paralysing depression.
Peach', his wife, tarries back and forth with Beck through this narrative. She is a nest of vipers who is shuffling through life under her self-made black cloud. She is unable to make herself happy and expects Beck to sit around at home creating her happiness for her. She refuses to go places without air-conditioning or places that are cold and wouldn't participate in his previous interests of sailing or motor-sports. She is so uninteresting and only sees her potential for happiness being squandered by Beck. Blind to his decades-long depression, she needles him endlessly between bouts of silent-treatment. It is a sad display of non-communication and is one of those examples where staying together 'for the kids' was probably the worst thing possible for the kids.
Perhaps I was supposed to come away with the feeling that this family pulled together during a crisis but instead I am so sad that Beck is now trapped at home with this woman and unable to escape to the mountains any longer.
I hope he takes up sailing once again. I hope that his next book is about waking up from a marriage-induced coma and realising his long-time dream of sailing solo around the world.
The narration of this book is only further confusing due to lack of explanation for mountain climbing locations and terms. Very intriguing story however.
I wanted to enjoy this book so much. I love survival stories and recounts of persevering. However, this book was 90% mediocre marriage issues.
Okay, this was not the book I thought it was going to be as Weathers' survival during the May 1996 expedition makes up only about a quarter/third of the book. This part of it is vivid in its recollection and shows just how miraculous his survival and ultimate rescue was and what it meant for him as a person, not to mention the impact it had on his family. The rest of the book is about Beck's life before Everest and how he ended up on the side of a mountain, frost-bitten and basically dead and how he and his family have worked to fix things since. He has clearly had to battle many demons in that time and he is not shy about how badly he treated his family before trying to climb Everest, although he nevers answers the question as to why the hell they put up with it (I know I wouldn't) or whether he has ever really apologised for it. His writing is very honest and he really does not come out of it well and I got the feeling that this book was written more as therapy for himself and to get the media off his back about his Everest story, which is all well and good but maybe a different title would have been advisable (although the events on the mountain were the catalyst for his changing perspective so I can see why it comes first in his story). Overall not a bad read but not what I expected either.
Not a climbing book per se. I could see where you would be disappointed if you're looking for an "Into Thin Air" type book. This is more of a behind-the-scenes type book, one that focuses on the climber and his relationships with those around him and the emotion/personal toll climbing takes. I would describe this as a relationship book more than an adventure book.
tense
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
If you are only interested in an account of the 1996 Everest disaster, there are better books out there. The value in this book is as a memoir of someone who is reckoning with a life of quiet desperation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
I thought this was a good memoir. I enjoyed his humor in the book a honesty about his depression. I liked how the Everest tragedy was written and was not as overly detailed and pretentious as the Into Thin Air book. It was interesting hearing about Beck’s life and hearing other perspectives on him. He definitely was selfish and narcissistic before the tragedy but Peach is the worst. His wife Peach literally gave him an ultimatum to marry her or she didn’t want to go to Boston with him. Then she decided she wants a kid and got pregnant on purpose without discussing it with her husband and was pissed he wasn’t a good father. I feel she brought a lot of it on herself and should have communicated with him more. That being said I do again think he was selfish and should have spent more time with his kids.