Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by misa1
Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West by Grace Ly, Marty Ohlhaut, Marty Ohlhaut
2.0
I feel bad giving this independently published book, which was obviously a labor of love, such a low score. However, this was an aggravating read.
Tent for Seven was a random recommendation on my FB feed. This is a first-person account of a family camping trip gone horrifically wrong. Based on the description, I expected the narrative to revolve around serious injury and/or natural disaster. While there are both in this story, what I found maddening was how truly unprepared this family seemed to be, despite having apparently planned this epic camping trip for approximately two years. The account of their off-the-rails trip is interspersed with tales of trips from decades earlier, when the author was a younger man traveling with his buddies.
In both timelines, the misadventures are presented as sort of zany, what-can-happen-next? misadventures, when nearly everything is the result of either carelessness, or poor planning.
I feel like this is one of those narratives that might hit different for those who know this family personally. They seem like nice people. Given the epilogue, the author and his wife were ultimately successful at raising happy, healthy, adventurous kids into happy, healthy, adventurous adults.
Having said that, as a parent myself, if my kids weren't all at the stage where they could be counted on to follow directions in serious situations, I would hold off on a trip like this until they were. Multiple times, one of the young children does things like: sprints away near mountainous drop-offs even though they've been told to stay close, yells and jokingly runs towards a grizzly bear (!!!) after being told to be quiet and walk away, plays on slick rocks they've been explicitly told to avoid... The latter results in broken teeth and a trip to the hospital. All's well that ends well, but this family is lucky it was just teeth and not a serious skull fracture. This is the second trip to the hospital in this book. The first involves a frightening accident which comes as the result of a nonsensical decision made by the author's wife (I'm glad she came through it okay, but why on earth wouldn't you have sent your daughter to ask the nearby ranger for assistance, rather than attempt to climb out of a glass window?)
A very frustrating read.
Tent for Seven was a random recommendation on my FB feed. This is a first-person account of a family camping trip gone horrifically wrong. Based on the description, I expected the narrative to revolve around serious injury and/or natural disaster. While there are both in this story, what I found maddening was how truly unprepared this family seemed to be, despite having apparently planned this epic camping trip for approximately two years. The account of their off-the-rails trip is interspersed with tales of trips from decades earlier, when the author was a younger man traveling with his buddies.
In both timelines, the misadventures are presented as sort of zany, what-can-happen-next? misadventures, when nearly everything is the result of either carelessness, or poor planning.
I feel like this is one of those narratives that might hit different for those who know this family personally. They seem like nice people. Given the epilogue, the author and his wife were ultimately successful at raising happy, healthy, adventurous kids into happy, healthy, adventurous adults.
Having said that, as a parent myself, if my kids weren't all at the stage where they could be counted on to follow directions in serious situations, I would hold off on a trip like this until they were. Multiple times, one of the young children does things like: sprints away near mountainous drop-offs even though they've been told to stay close, yells and jokingly runs towards a grizzly bear (!!!) after being told to be quiet and walk away, plays on slick rocks they've been explicitly told to avoid... The latter results in broken teeth and a trip to the hospital. All's well that ends well, but this family is lucky it was just teeth and not a serious skull fracture. This is the second trip to the hospital in this book. The first involves a frightening accident which comes as the result of a nonsensical decision made by the author's wife (I'm glad she came through it okay, but why on earth wouldn't you have sent your daughter to ask the nearby ranger for assistance, rather than attempt to climb out of a glass window?)
A very frustrating read.