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The Beckoning SilenceJoe Simpson dragged me white-knuckled, wide-eyed and breathless on his deeply personal, agonisingly descriptive journey to the Eiger. This is not only a cracking tale of brittle ice-fields, murderous rock-falls, avalanches, raging storms, spontaneous waterfalls and perilous bivouacs, but is also the story of the humanity of mountaineers and those amazing men who dared and died in such public and dramatic circumstances. I couldn't put it down.
Now there's another story. Didn't happen.So: the book is a collection of climbing stories - many of them involving tragic ends - written in the familiar Simpson style.
On my return flight I watched the film a third time. I saw the documentary entitled "The Beckoning Silence" on a transatlantic flight and was so overawed by its beauty, its understated sense of drama and Simpson's captivating interviews that, when the film was done, I simply went back to the beginning and watched it again.
I'd previously read "Touching The Void" and found his writing-style uninspired so, having seen him talk with such passion on film, I was hopeful that this volume would reflect my new respect for the man. Like Simpson I too had read "The White Spider" as a teen and it seems we were both mesmerized by the story of Hinterstoisser's desperate attempt to lead the climb down the Eiger.I suppose I hoped that Simpson's book would be a chance to relive the film a fourth time and I've been disappointed.
On film the man is a charismatic, thoughtful and fascinating interviewee and you truly get a sense of his inner turmoil about climbing. But the film.
Catch it if you can.
For a guy with the true grit to drag himself out of a crevasse and down a South American mountain in "Touching the Void", he sure does a lot of whining at the begining of this book. His attempts at existentialism really bogs the book down. Once he gets down to doing what he is good at, writing about climbing, his description of his attempt on the Eiger is gripping stuff.
In one chapter, a friend bails on a climb because he can't stand the growing death toll. The sport comes across as an addiction that can't be explained to someone who doesn't share it.It's telling that when Simpson seriously thinks of quitting, he tries paragliding as an alternative. This book on mountaineering is written by the author of another classic, *Touching the Void*. Simpson writes well and the stories work.The underlying theme, though, is the hardy perennial of mountaineering: why do I do this dangerous thing even as friends continue to die. Alas, the book does not provide much illumination in such matters, so I don't think it works as a whole. In another, Simpson narrowly misses getting hit by an avalanche. Instead, Simpson keeps climbing even as a louder and louder voice inside him tells him to stop.
Why not try something more mainstream like mountain biking instead. It's a good read but unsatisfying overall, at least to me.Each chapter stands well enough on its own, and covers topics that are familiar in the mountaineering genre. He and his mountaineering friends view this *dangerous* sport as a *safer* alternative to mountaineering. The climax story is an attempt on the North Face of the Eiger - - what else. The book dances around this but never confronts this. I would have liked to see Simpson confront the issues suggested here - - whether he's pursuing adrenaline rush, death wish, a need to be extreme, or whatever it is. It succeeds as a series of magazine articles stapled together.
book in excellent conditionarrived really quick in the desert in the middle of australia.thanks
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