if there is only one book you read, make it this one

This is the first book I read about the Andes Survivors and I appreciated how thoroughly informative the book is from start to finish. You can tell that Piers Paul Read spent the time to understand the ins and outs of all the available interviews, news reports, one-on-one conversations, etc. and that his goal was to provide a full and complete story of what occurred. 

 

I also really appreciated the Acknowledgements portion, which not only spoke to how the information was obtained from this book, but also spoke to the decision to keep the story with the bare facts instead of embellishments. Additionally, it discussed the reaction of the survivors to this book, and how those survivors felt that their faith and friendship wasn't able to be captured within. 

 

The downfall of sticking to the facts is that it made the book feel clunky.

 

The only thing that was unnecessarily confusing was that the survivors were referenced in an inconsistent manner. (ex., some pages would use full names, others just the first or last name.) 

 

Overall, this is the one I would recommend to others for the complete overview of what happened. It is fact based, though, so those looking for those smooth transitions or embellishments may be better off with a different book. 

 

This is the second time I’ve read this and I’m still in awe of the story and the fact it was written so cogently within a year of the plane crash. It has a rather harsh, abrupt feel to it. The author describes some of the young men as, variously, violent, immature, and arrogant, and he goes into detail about the strife and bitter arguments amongst the survivors. In agonizing pain, increasingly weak from starvation, tempers frayed and insults flew. 

At the same time, what the survivors remember is their camaraderie and love, their team spirit. In later interviews, the disagreements have been forgotten but at the time, they were all-encompassing. It’s difficult to reconcile the two outlooks. It almost seems like this author goes out of his way to be as harsh and cruel as possible. In other books, the authors bend over backwards to be more understanding and philosophical about the situation. 

In any case, this is an amazing tale of extraordinary survival. It’s a riveting story. I found myself thinking of it whenever I wasn’t actively reading. It may not be the most well-written nonfiction book I’ve read but it’s certainly one of the more compelling. 

This was a terrific journalistic account of the 1972 plane crash in the Andes and those who survived ten weeks on the mountain. Although the events were harrowing, the story was presented in a matter-of-fact way that did not dwell on grisly details. This writing style seemed to echo many of the survivors’ attitudes, as they immediately assessed their situation after the crash and began taking steps to survive and find rescue, never giving up hope.

from a craft perspective this was not the best book and i would probably only give that section 3 stars for the technical aspects

but my god…from a content perspective, 6/5 stars. what a tale.