Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest by Beck Weathers
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Book Reviews of Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest
Book Review: The Psychology of a Climber
Summary: 4 Stars
This is not a typical mountaineering book. If you are looking for detailed descriptions about Camp 4 or the Hillary Step, this is not the book for you. It also does not devote a lot of space to Beck Weathers' Everest climb in 1996 and his opinions on what went wrong. The Krakauer and Breshears books are better if you want a more adventure and climb oriented perspective. However, if you are interested in the psychology of a driven, focused, destructive personality, the book is fascinating. It is an excellent biography of this man's struggles.The major theme of the book is Beck Weathers' personality and how he wrestles with depression and being extremely goal-oriented, and how this personality nearly drives him to death. It also discusses the carnage he inflicts on his family as he relentlessly follows his passions. The book contains many first-person points of view with some of the most interesting be those of his wife Peach as she deals with Beck's behaviors, tries to run a family, and hang together as Beck travels the world.
The writing is quite lively and there is very little filtering on the language as Beck's comments are often contradicted by the people around him. On the other hand, some of the conversations are not so poignant, and you feel as if some of words have been lifted too directly from the family interviews.
Beck's personality is very interesting to me because he reminds me of a modern Fitzcarraldo, and his choices raise many questions in my mind. Is he a madman for pursuing his dreams? Did his dream save him from suicide? How could he have expected his family to shoulder his burden? Will Beck pick up some other all-encompassing passion? Has he really changed? As I turned the pages, each anecdote seemed to provide some clue in the answers to these questions.
The book concludes too quickly to have any sort of definite conclusion about these questions. I still get the feeling that Beck and Peach have many issues to resolve. The family still seems to need more time to work the animosities out. And I get the feeling that Beck feels quite comfortable with the risks he took and the outcome. Fascinating that he can lose his nose and fingers and still focus positively on the insight he gained. And his personalty and his struggles are what makes the book interesting.
Book Review: Realizing the times you didn't even know you were numb
Summary: 4 Stars
If you, like me, are an avid armchair mountaineer, gripping your cup of hot chocolate at the risk of either spilling your drink or breaking the cup as the National Geographic Channel or Discovery Times takes you over the breathtaking vistas of the Seven Summits; and if you, like me, stop to read or listen to every story of the mighty Everest and the hundreds of people who've braved its summit since Tenzing Norgary Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hilary cut the ribbon, you're bound to be drawn to this book. And certainly if you, like me, know by name everyone on Rob Hall's and Scott Fischer's teams in 1996...those who perished, and those who survived, along with a preview of the breathtaking tale Beck Weathers tells here of his rescue from the mountain, you may scratch your head in puzzlement when you realize that you are less than a third into "Left for Dead" when you've reached this point in the book. What more could there be to tell?
Don't stop reading.
First of all, Beck does a spectacular job, aided by his wife, now, who adds comments about how his obsession with climbing afffected the family, of his entire history of climbing, including the colorful characters and the close calls that accompany Beck and his companions during their climb. But now as he looks back, Beck is able to reflect on what he missed.
Oh no. Is this turning into a screenplay for a chick flick? Well, not really. Or not entirely. But by the end, Beck has realized all that he came very close to losing ....even after the Everest climb...included much more than a hand, and was much more precious.
Although I still would have liked a bit more build-up before the crisis on Everest, I thought this was a darned good book. I would not ask the author to lose any more extremities, but if he could manage to write another without losing one, that would be OK.
Book Review: After Into Thin Air, this is a MUST READ
Summary: 4 Stars
If you haven't yet read Into Thin Air, do it before reading this book; it'll help put the necessary perspective to Dr. Weathers' incredible survival tale. And could there possibly be a better title than he has chosen? No other words adequately describe his situation when the other climbers, struggling themselves to survive against terrible odds, found him, determined he was dead, made it down to shelter, and told everyone else that Beck Weathers had died. Indeed, nine climbers did die, but Beck Weather was not among them. After spending 18 hrs in exposed sub-zero conditions, he miraculously regained consciousness, stood up, and walked into camp. Horribly damaged both physically and mentally by the experience, Dr. Weathers was urged and supported throughout his long and painful recovery by his wife, from whom he was estranged at the time of the 1996 expedition.In this deeply personal story of estrangement and redemption, Beck Weathers tells a terrific tale that further fleshes out Krakauer's book
Book Review: Ah, so that explains it!
Summary: 4 Stars
I have always looked beyond the flippant "Because it is there" to understand why people climb mountains like Everest. In Weathers' case, it was depression, perhaps manic-depression. While he was busy challenging his physical existence, he did not feel depressed, it was that simple. This book tells, in his own words and those of his devoted but long-suffering wife, friends, and children, the story of how this escalated to the point where he nearly killed himself. If you are looking for more facts, figures, objectivity, etc., about the ill-fated 1996 climb, read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, an excellent book. This, however is about Weathers' epiphany, how his upbringing and personal history contributed to his obsession with climbing, and how after maiming his marriage and his physical self, he is attempting to live a normal life. Weathers is not a writer, but I defy anyone not to be moved by the passages about his brother-in-law's death.Book Review: Raw emotions and some climbing
Summary: 4 Stars
The book isn't too bad and an easy read if you are bored for a weekend. I have read several mountaineering books and I was eager to get this one. I was somewhat less impressed with the account of the May 96' disaster on Everest in this book. Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, did a much more detailed job of this. But, I don't think that was Beck's purpose in writing this book. I think this was an attempt, a very good one I might add, to describe his emotions and feelings towards climbing and in particular how it affected his family. I appreciated the rawness of his writing. There are no hidden messages in the book, his life was falling apart and it took a near death experience at twenty some thousand feet to help put it all in perspective and he could then work to put it all back together. All in all good book and a descent author.