Into Thin Air


Title of the Book: Into Thin Air
Author: Jon Krakauer
Number of Pages: 301
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

Review:

Do you enjoy climbing or have you ever thought about climbing seriously? Into Thin Air is about Jon Krakauer's experience climbing Everest in Spring 1996, and what happened before, during and after the tragedy on May 10.

Krakauer's honesty about the entire experience is what makes Into Thin Air really unique, and his ability to bring in facts and history about Everest during his narrative and still keep his audience intrigued is incredible. There were a lot of mistakes made on May 10, and he doesn't ignore those mistakes, but he also doesn't blame anyone specifically for the tragedy and blames himself for a guide's death and is brutally honest about it. He wrote the book soon after the accident occurred as an act of catharsis, even though people advised him against it, to get Everest out of his mind.

Krakauer talks about the individuals who died on the mountain and brings up the people who relied on them, and I think a lot of books about tragedy don't always get the point across that real people died. He gets more personal about the experience when he talks about the night of May 10 and the events that happened after he got down off the mountain. The fact that he was actually there on the mountain, experiencing everything as a journalist and able to write a book about it to get it off his chest is incredible, and it's a great read.

The jargon can be a bit difficult to understand at points in the book, but Jon Krakauer does a really good job of explaining the climbing terms so no climbing experience is necessary to understand what he's talking about during the book. The number of people climbing in both his group (Adventure Consultants) and Scott Fischer's group (Mountain Madness) can be difficult to keep track of, and it's pretty critical to remember who is who in a non-fiction book like this, but he does provide a list of people on the mountain at the beginning of the book, which is really nice to help keep track of teams.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure or enjoys reading about adventure. It's an incredible read, and it's clear that Jon Krakauer wishes for other climbers to learn from the mistakes that were made, even though he's painfully aware that people ignore the number of deaths on the mountain because it's easier to keep climbing when you ignore what's at risk.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 21, 2018 at 12:39 PM

    I have never read this book before, but your review made it sound like a very interesting read. It's interesting how the author wrote this book so soon after the incident, even with people that protested it. Do you think that doing this made the book better, or do you think that if the author had waited longer that the book would have been better?

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