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A review by lucybbookstuff
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
adventurous
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Very fascinating. I binge read from the summit to the epilogue because it was so damn gripping. And emotional. And sickening. I nearly cried on a couple occasions. I was variably angry, horrified, and flooded with dread on others.
Such a tragedy. And yet, I can't help but think about how avoidable it all is... I was never interested in mountaineering before, but now I think one must be truly deranged to even consider it on these most formidable peaks. This book definitely got me thinking about not only the practicality of it, but the ethics.
As always, Krakauer is a fantastic reporter and writer. This book had been on my radar for a while, but I don't think I ever fully knew or appreciated until recently that Krakauer was PRESENT for the disaster and not just reporting about it. That detail definitely moved it up my TBR.
I definitely recommend it. It's not a 5 because of the slow start and lots of confusing details, and I also wondered about his decision to write this so immediately after it happened. I think I agree with the decision, but it does beg some questioning. Though it did heighten the emotional experience of reading it, which I definitely appreciate.
EDIT: I'm back to write down other musings I've had. I just watched the Everest movie and it was kind of silly, but in the end, still affecting. I do wish they'd done an adaptation of Jon's book rather than whatever it is that they did lol. But whatever. Mainly I wanted to say that seeing Krakauer portrayed in the film really got me thinking...
Those expeditions were taken out by a literal perfect storm of circumstances, and yet the stars still aligned to have one of the least scathed survivors be the guy who had the most skill and training to tell us the biggest picture of what happened up there. And now we have this book, and a semi-comprehensive knowledge of how it all went to shit. If he hadn't been on that expedition, if he hadn't been one of the stronger climbers, if he hadn't turned around moments after summitting... we might never have known what happened. At least not in any comprehensible compilation of information.
Idk, man... just makes you think.
Such a tragedy. And yet, I can't help but think about how avoidable it all is... I was never interested in mountaineering before, but now I think one must be truly deranged to even consider it on these most formidable peaks. This book definitely got me thinking about not only the practicality of it, but the ethics.
As always, Krakauer is a fantastic reporter and writer. This book had been on my radar for a while, but I don't think I ever fully knew or appreciated until recently that Krakauer was PRESENT for the disaster and not just reporting about it. That detail definitely moved it up my TBR.
I definitely recommend it. It's not a 5 because of the slow start and lots of confusing details, and I also wondered about his decision to write this so immediately after it happened. I think I agree with the decision, but it does beg some questioning. Though it did heighten the emotional experience of reading it, which I definitely appreciate.
EDIT: I'm back to write down other musings I've had. I just watched the Everest movie and it was kind of silly, but in the end, still affecting. I do wish they'd done an adaptation of Jon's book rather than whatever it is that they did lol. But whatever. Mainly I wanted to say that seeing Krakauer portrayed in the film really got me thinking...
Those expeditions were taken out by a literal perfect storm of circumstances, and yet the stars still aligned to have one of the least scathed survivors be the guy who had the most skill and training to tell us the biggest picture of what happened up there. And now we have this book, and a semi-comprehensive knowledge of how it all went to shit. If he hadn't been on that expedition, if he hadn't been one of the stronger climbers, if he hadn't turned around moments after summitting... we might never have known what happened. At least not in any comprehensible compilation of information.
Idk, man... just makes you think.