So, my Dad saw this book and thought that it would be something that I would enjoy. Man, does he know me or what? Hopefully someday I’ll be able to have the same insight with my daughter.
Well, here’s the subtitle. What happens to the body and mind at the limits of human endurance. How could this not be a fascinating book? It covers the jungle, the high seas, deserts, underwater, mountain climbing, outer space, examines the will to survive. Where to start?!
Yeah, about halfway through the first chapter on the jungle I almost put this book down. I mean it was interesting but was the whole book going to be a diary of the travels of the author? His stories were interesting but not what the cover lead me to believe was going to be covered. Luckily for all of us I kept reading. By the time you get to chapter two, the high seas, the author starts telling and examining the harrowing plights of other unfortunate travelers. (He does a great job of telling them to)
There isn’t any one story that really stands out but it is the in-depth examinations of what and how the body does to survive that makes this book go from a good read to a can’t put it down read. For example, during a desert marathon in the Sahara, a runner, Mauro, survives 9 days after getting lost in a sandstorm with virtually no water, only what he sucks out of grass roots and sips from a muddy pool. True story? Well, yes! And the author explains/speculates on why he survived the ordeal. It happened a few days into the race after Mauro’s body was acclimated to the weather. If it was on the first day he probably would have died. The author goes into more depth. He also points out that while we are all human, people native to different regions have in fact gone through natural selection to become adapted to their environment, and in different ways. From being able to handle the extreme cold or heat to high altitude. In fact while people live in the Andes and the Himalayas their bodies’ methods of surviving differ. So do the llama’s and the yak’s survival methods differ.
The author was the National Geographic doctor on Everest during the multiple deaths of 1996. (See Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
.) But the two stories that show how will-power can keep you alive really stand out to me. One is in the desert where in 1905 Pablo Valencia lived 8 days in southern Arizona without water. What kept him going? The desire to knife the guy who left him out there.Finally there is the tale of Julianne Koepcke (see Wikipedia article) who survived a 1971 Lockheed Electra crash into the Amazon, well an in-flight break up at 10,000’ and survived the fall to walk out of the jungle. She couldn’t leave her father alone after her mother died in the plane crash. I first read this story in a Scholastic book Against Incredible Odds by Arthur Roth (ISBN 0-590-32399-7). You might be able to find a copy, mine is pretty beat up. It is a wonderful book of survival stories. The outer space chapter describes a trip to Mars and showcases the Authors sense of humor.
If you can’t be bothered to read 292 pages to learn the 4 things you need to survive any catastrophe then here it is: knowledge, conditioning, luck and the will to survive. This last can bring you back from the dead, in more ways than one.
