 |
|
The subculture of mountaineering may seem baffling to many nonclimbers. To climb over the mountain just to see the other side of it may seem like sheer nonsense, especially when one hears of the high fatality rate associated with many of the larger mountain peaks like Everest, K2, McKinley, or more recently, Mount Hood. So why do these people hang off the mountain with nothing more than crampons on their shoes and other seemingly flimsy tools preventing them from falling thousands of feet? Are they crazy, and do they have some kind of death wish? Jon Krakauer attempts to answer these questions in his book, "Eiger Dreams". A collection of twelve essays that mostly have to do with his personal climbing experiences, Krakauer relays harrowing experiences on boulders, peaks, mountains and tents that is sure to get any adrenaline junkie a vicarious thrill while sitting safe on his couch. Though it isn't a fluent book about one trip, the break in story doesn't affect the narrative train. As Krakauer concludes one story and begins the next, it gives more the effect of someone sitting at a fire telling a great tale, and obliging his audience who begs for more antics. His stories read like a good yarn to tell around the campfire as well as a great read while sitting at a city café with a cup of latte. Krakauer's tone varies from essay to essay, which in a way, enhances the adventure of the book. By switching from a more distant perspective, as he does when he relates the story of the Burgess brothers and the glacier pilots of Alaska, to his more personal accounts, the most intense being his ascent of the Devil's Thumb in Alaska, it is as though the author takes the reader to different territory every time. This effect enhances the adventure of the book, for the reader is left not knowing what to expect from essay to essay, unless one has read all the essays in magazines. Having only read Krakauer's books and very little of his magazine work, this was the experience I had. As all but the last essay have appeared in other magazines, one may already know where the author is going if he or she has already read the essays in other places. But Krakauer's storytelling is compelling enough to take the reader through a second read; I had read "The Flyboys of Talkeetna" in an anthology and enjoyed it for a second time, like a favorite camping tale. This is the first book the author wrote, and in my opinion, is also the best one. Krakauer always seems to weave a great tale and yet keep it believable, but this particular book seems the most adrenaline pumped of his books. Perhaps it is because so much of it is his direct solitary experience rather than the more distant voice he uses in works such as "Into the Wild", and the detached eyewitness persona he uses in his ensemble of characters in "Into Thin Air". The essays relaying to the Burgess boys and the Talkteena Flyboys is more similar to the removed journalist of "Under the Banner of Heaven", but woven into his other experience on mountains and amongst mountaineers, the style fits in quite well. Krakauer's book is for the layman as well as the climber. Throughout the book, he is aware that his avocation is considered unusual to the regular man or women, and uses nomenclature that a person who doesn't dream of crampons and dodging crevasses can understand, so as to make his experience accessible to more than his own tribe. Knowing he survives each encounter, the tension of his narrative is more in how he does survive. He keeps the reader on edge in explaining how he does, and introduces his other colleagues in such everyday language it is like the nonclimber is being initiated into some exclusive club, or at least, becomes more privy to its secrets. "Eiger Dreams" is a great literate summer beach book, or be that is it may, a great read for those stuck in a tent riding out a snowstorm before a climb. Entertaining and a fast read, it is an exciting book that doesn't have to try too hard to make it sound compelling and harrowing. |
