Alive : Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds--the Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes (P.S.)
by Piers Paul Read
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Book Summary Information
Author: Piers Paul ReadEdition: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2005-07-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Harper-perennial
Book Reviews of Alive : Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds--the Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes (P.S.)
Book Review: Staying alive against the odds
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the only book I've ever read where I caught myself shielding my eyes so as not to know quite so much about the fine points of cannibalism. I ended up skipping about two pages detailing the butchering of the bodies, which organs are the most nutritious, etc. However, the author was just doing his job and there's only a few pages involving cannibalism.
The plane came down in a snow field at 11,500 feet elevation, higher than the highest mountain in California by comparison. This put them far above the timber line in a frigid place devoid of all life -- not even a fly or a blade of grass. Due to incompetence on the part of search and rescue operations and also a so-called psychic who had the rescuers searching everywhere but the right place, the survivors were presumed dead and left to fend for themselves for 72 days, and would likely have never been found were it not for the daring feats of mountaineering by two of the survivors who went on an arduous 8 day trek out of the mountains and into Chile in search of rescuers.
With no food it was inevitable the group would have to eat the dead if they were survive. As someone explained, your survival instincts and your appetite will not only lead you to eat the dead, but eventually to savor it. Then, when the two expeditionaries finally connected with civilization, a peasant tossed them a crust of bread and their appetite for human flesh evaporated.
As horrifying as it was, there is an upbeat message in this book about the unshakeable will to live, about the utility of human solidarity in the face of death, and the mystical communion between the survivors and their dead comrades who saved their lives by providing the nourishment to survive.
This book has been around a long time. It's a page-turner and millions have read it, especially in South America where this event was known simply as the Andes crash, and the survivors are still celebrated as heroes. Google it if you want and you'll find lots more info, photos, and a Google map reference to the exact spot the wrecked fuselage came to rest.
More Alive : Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds--the Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes (P.S.) reviews:
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Summary of Alive : Sixteen Men, Seventy-two Days, and Insurmountable Odds--the Classic Adventure of Survival in the Andes (P.S.)
In October 1972 an aircraft carrying a party of Uruguayan rugby players and their friends took off from Argentina to fly over the Andes to Chile. It crashed in the mountains in dense cloud, and some of the 45 passengers were killed. The survivors soon realized, by listening to their transistor radio, that the search party had been called off because nobody could be expected to survive at that altitude in so savage a climate. As the days passed, weakened by starvation and sub-zero temperatures, they had to face the inescapable truth - that, in order to survive, they must eat the flesh of their dead companions. How these young men finally sent out "expeditionaries" to brave the Andean peaks and how, after appalling hardships, they achieved rescue and returned to civilization 72 days after the crash, is recounted in this tale of human courage and triumph. The author is a novelist whose books include "The Free Frenchman" and "On the Third Day".Adventurers & Explorers Books
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