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: Dysfunctional relationships...
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book because I was impressed by Beck in Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air and I wanted to hear his story. However, much of the book is devoted to his and Peach's relationship. I have trouble having much sympathy for Peach. Yes, he leaves her alone a lot, but it seems like she doesn't want to let him do anything he enjoys ("everything I hate he wants to do.") Maybe she isn't as shrewish and self-centered as she comes across, and being a "mountain widow" has to be harder than being a golf widow or a sports widow, but there isn't any indication that any interests he has that take time away from her are acceptable. She is thrilled when he comes back injured from Everest, both because she can say "I told you so" and because he is badly enough injured so she can keep him tethered to her. He tries to find out what her interests are and get her involved in something, but she says her only interest is her home and the kids. She doesn't work, takes very nice vacations on his salary, while bemoaning the fact that he doesn't want to come along under her conditions, which seem to involve doing nothing and talking about nothing except her and the kids. The best thing she did was to use her network to get the rescue helicopter to pull him off Everest.
It would have been nice if she could have appreciated his drive and discipline and accomplishments instead of doing what so many women do, which is spending their time tearing down their husbands to each other. She says she doesn't want her children to grow up without a father; but then she plans to accomplish this by divorcing him (huh?)
But, happily for her, he almost dies, and now he's home full-time. How long is it going to take before this starts to drive her nuts? The kids sounded a lot better, healthier, and happier than she did. I would have more sympathy for her if the book showed her making any effort to understand what he was doing and why. The impression is, sorry Peach, that part of the reason he was gone, was because you were constantly on his case when he was home. Maybe that wasn't the case; maybe we need a sequel here to explain her point of view, but all that shows up in the book is her complaints and criticisms.
If the book is going to be about his relationships, then it would be nice if it weren't all self-castigation about what a horrible person he's been to have been focussed on things outside of his marriage and how now he's rededicated himself, all is well. It would be interesting to hear the follow-up in a year or so -- how's his depression doing now that he's stuck at home? How does she really like having him home full-time?
Ultimately the book does tell what happens to Beck, so it covers the bases, but it's really mostly a book about his marriage and how it was affected by his climbing and by his survival.
Book Review: Changing Weathers
Summary: 3 Stars
Divided into four parts, "Left for Dead" is not only about Beck Weathers' near death on Mount Everest, but his life before and after the disastrous expedition. The first part of the book describes the events on Mount Everest; the second part is autobiographical; the third part is about his depression and why he took up mountain claiming; and the fourth part is about his life today. Also discussed are his marriage woes and how his marriage survived his various obsessions (such as motorcycle riding and sailing, as well as mountain climbing). The book isn't written solely from Weather's point of view; there are reflections from other people in his life, most notably his wife, Peach.
"Left for Dead" is an interesting read about a flawed human being. Beck Weathers has a good, at times self-deprecating, sense of humor, and is very honest about his flaws. His wife, Peach, is aptly named, but I had to wonder why she stayed married to a man who was absent much of the time and difficult to live with when he was around. There wasn't as much about mountain climbing as I would have liked, but in the end Weathers seemed ill prepared for Everest. Mountain climbing was just an outlet for Weathers' ongoing depression and it's a miracle he wasn't hurt in some of his earlier attempts. While the book goes into much details about Beck's childhood and troubled marriage it glosses over other elements - most noticeably the cost of Beck's climbing expeditions and how Beck was able to take so much time off from work. Finally, I'd like to see an updated postscript on future editions to see how Beck and his family are doing today.
This was an enjoyable read.
Book Review: Audio version: YUK!
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm laughing from reading the other reviews....this book was definitely a bait and switch but I still mostly liked it even though Mt. Everest figured only as a backdrop. It was more like reading someone's personal journal and I did find it interesting. Actually, I listened to the unabridged tapes. I am sorry to say this but the reader was horrible and grated terribly on my nerves... almost to the point of not finishing. My biggest complaint was the reader's rendition of a woman's southern accent. Maybe the real Peach really sounds like that but I live in the south and the accent sounded totally fake to me....the way a non southerner would imagine it. Also, I'm nit-picking but there were several mispronounciations: the worst for me as a nurse was calling an AMBU bag an "AMU" bag. I guess Beck didn't listen to the tape???? Also....hello, Beck? One doesn't walk into a hospital for a summer job and work as a "Scrub NURSE". Last time I checked we still had to go to nursing school and take state boards before practicing as an RN. I'm splitting hairs...I guess he was referring to a scrub STUDENT? nurse/tech position but as a doc he should have known better. Like Peach said, he was NOT aware of how other people reacted to him....still isn't, I guess.As one other reader mentioned, my favorite part was about their cats. That was pretty creative and made me laugh. I did like what Beck says at the end about his spiritual side being a "work in progress." but I didn't get the feeling he'd really made ammends with his family.Book Review: INCREDIBLE story, not the greatest book
Summary: 3 Stars
Beck Weathers story could be the most incredible individual survivor-story in the history of Mt. Everest and possibly in history. The first-person account of what he went through is worth the purchase price of the book. One definitely learns a few things about the various participants that tragic season that aren't in the other published accounts. Like most people have said in their review of the book, the last half was BORING. It's a fairly entertaining read right up to the point that he is in a Kathmandu hospital and then he manages to bore us to death with his family life. The thing about it is that this is such a recurring theme in mountaineering. A climber's first love is the mountains. Everything and everyone else take a back seat to the climb. Basically, this was Beck Weathers' problem and he was only able to see the value in his family when he thought he would die. I mean, you're somewhat happy for the guy that he has re-evaluated his life and discovered what's most important to him, but it's difficult not to think that if he hadn't have been such a selfish bastard to begin with, none of it would have ever happened. Like I said, the parts of the book that detail his experience on Everest were riveting, but the rest of the book could have been left out.Book Review: Not that bad of a book
Summary: 3 Stars
I just finished the paperback. Actually I could not put this book down. I stretched it to 10 days and have ordered another round of Everest books (being a fellow Everest junkie like all of you.) The first Everest book I read was the superb "Into Thin Air." Since then, I have been finding all the subsequent Everest books on Amazon.The only complaints I have about this book is the lack of high quality photos (paperback version), the only photo's being grainy blk & whites group shots of Beck Weathers and friends. The other is that there is a rather large section of the book going into deep detail on Beck's family tree. I skipped that part and went on to experiences Beck had on the other 7 summits of the world and the narrative was worth the purchase price ( I had bought "The 7 Summits" and the narrative was so bad, I could not finish that book...and what an interesting subject. Too bad that book wasn't written by a good ghost writer.)For Everest junkies, this book is very well written and gave me some insights into my own marriage. Beck has had a life-long mid-life crisis it seems and Everest finally purged the demons from his life. I hope he lives a long happy life.