Alive by Piers Paul Read Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Alive
Book Review: A Gripping Tale
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is an interesting examination of the psychological process by which humans, pressed to the absolute limits of endurance, may reach decisions and conclusions that cannot even be fathomed within the day-to-day lives of most people in modern society.
Like the Donner party and the sailors in Regina v. Dudley, the persons in this book were forced to reach the ultimate survivalist conclusion: that resorting to cannibalism was the only way to remain alive in impossible conditions. This book is an amazing chronicle of the experiences of the survivors, even though it lends itself to a long series of exceedingly tasteless jokes about the menu (Peasant Under Glass; French, Fried; Ladyfingers; Baked Alaskans).
Highly recommended if you have the stomach for it, and can read it without instantly making judgments about the people involved... no one who was not on that mountain top can truly say what s/he would have done differently in the same situation.
Book Review: A True Survival Story At Its Best
Summary: 4 Stars
Suspense, emotions, and cannibalism. In the book, ALIVE: The Story of the Andes Survivors, author Piers Paul Read showcases his ability to hypnotize the reader. Seriously, it's as if he works in jedi mind tricks into his writing. Throughout, he keeps the reader interested by teasing him or her with the constant use of internal cliffhangers and mental shifts.
The book begins focused on a group of Uruguayan rugby players accompanied by some of their friends and family members on their annual trip to Chile to participate in a rugby tournament. With forty five jubilant passengers on board, the Fairchild FH-227D takes off on Friday, October 13, 1972 and begins its route across the Andes. However, extreme weather conditions cause the plane to jeer off course and plummet down into the barren mountains. The story then goes on to recount the seventy two days that the survivors of the crash are forced to suffer through before being rescued.
While retelling the experience, Read chooses to switch back and forth between the stories of the survivors and the rescuers. Not only does this give the reader a sense of completeness, it also allows Read to insert a cliffhanger at the end of almost every section. This tool helps make ALIVE a very page-turning book by keeping the reader on end and wanting more. Also, Read often compares and contrasts both sides. In their need to survive, the passengers might do something unthinkable, such as resort to cannibalism, and through the author's calm, convincing tone, the reader becomes familiar with the idea and even begins to view human flesh as just another food source. However, when Read switches back to the rescuers, the reader suddenly snaps back to the "outside world," and the actions of the passengers suddenly seem unthinkable and grotesque. Such realizations prove that Read was capable of writing the story in such a real, telling way using mind-washing diction that the reader feels as if he or she is actually trapped in the Andes with the passengers.
The fact that Read is capable of making events preceding the crash as well as events that occurred days after rescue seem just as intriguing as the seventy two days of survival is also one of the best elements in this book. To do this, Read plays with the reader's mind by either withholding certain information or making great use of dramatic irony. This in turn makes the reader feel somewhat frustrated but in a good way since it makes him or her want to read more. This also showcases Read's talent to pick out the key ideas (or atleast the ideas that would be most meaningful to the average reader) presented in the story of the Andes survivors.
The only aspect of this book that I disliked was the beginning. Read decides to use a large majority of the first chapter discussing history and backstory about the Uruguayans, their various reasons to take the plane to Chile, and an overly-detailed explanation of rugby. By putting all of this information together, Read makes this section sound like a passage from a textbook. Worse still, this uninviting opening may even deter the reader from reading further. To avoid this, Read should have weaved this information throughout the first few chapters so that the book would have started off with the focus being on the Uruguayans' interactions with each other before the accident.
To add, Read signifies that the majority of the dialogue in the book is fabricated. However, Read also makes it clear that he went through a lengthy interview process with everybody significantly related to the accident before writing the novel. In this way, some parts of the book aren't completely accurate, but they are as close as possible. Also, the dialogue adds another dimension to the story. It makes everything seem relatable. Without it, the story would be quite lackluster, and it would resemble narration rather than an engaging account of survival. In fact, the dialogue is one of the best features of the book because it provides the reader with a deeper understaning of each of the passengers' personalities by showing rather than telling.
Overall, this book is very well written, and it does an outstanding job of pulling the reader into the story. As long as you push through the dull introduction, you'll find yourself divulged in this truly miraculous story, which is why I give this book a very deserving four out of five stars.
Book Review: A horrifyingly true story of triumph and tragedy
Summary: 5 Stars
It's become a bit of trivial fodder: In 1972, a plane carrying a Uraguayan rugby team and their friends crashed in the Andes. They survived there for over 70 days, doing whatever was necessary to survive, sustained on their faith, and the hope that they could one day break beyond the prison of the mountains and reach civilization.
Since the story HAS become a piece of trivia, it's important that we read something that makes us understand the underlying humanity of the situation. To that end, Read's book is almost a necessity. It details day-to-day life in the crashed plane, and attempts of the Uraguayan families to find their missing loved ones.
The great thing about "Alive" is that it chronicles the event in a somewhat detached manner. At first, this might seem odd; after all, such a tragic event is an emotionally-charged topic, especially once you get down to the human element. However, to tell the tale with emotion is to get LOST in the tale. To overcome this, read uses a scientific, detached description of events, which ultimately leads the reader to ponder the horrific reality these people went through. It is a very successful storytelling mode, which only hits a few snags (he insists upon calling cannibalism "anthropophagy," and admits in the introduction that some of the survivors felt the book didn't go into enough detail about the friendship they felt for each other). Also, there is the fact that this book dates back to 1974, only two years after the events; it would be nice to know how the survivors faced the rest of their lives.
Still, the book is thorough, and it's dry, almost dead-pan style is the only real way of describing the events that unfolded, without getting lost within the maze of emotions (actually, the dry delivery almost makes things even more horrible; don't read this book if you are squeamish). "Alive" is a tale of horrific events that tested the limits of humanity. It is a must-read for anyone interested in what being human really means.
Book Review: Alive
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a classic book on winter survival, detailing the survival of 16 Uruguayan rugby players for 10 weeks after their plane crashed in the Andes Mountains on October 12, 1972. As is well known, these men survived by eating from the bodies of the victims that died in the crash or died afterwards. We learn of their physical and mental hardships and the group dynamics that arose during their ordeal, and how the survivors came to make the choices they made.
A movie was made about these events, and at least one survivor has written of his experiences on the mountain. The movie, which I haven't seen, is Alive. The memoir, which I haven't read, is Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home.
Gruesome details of their cannibalism are rare in the book. One passage is quoted below.
"The last discovery in their search for new tastes and new sources of food were the brains of the bodies which they had hitherto discarded. Canessa ... had been the first to take a head, cut the skin across the forehead, pull back the scalp, and crack open the skull with an ax. The brains were then either divided up and eaten while still frozen or used to make the sauce for a stew; the liver, intestine, muscle, fat, heart and kidneys, either cooked or uncooked, were cut up into little pieces and mixed with the brains. ... For the stew Inciarte used a shaving bowl, while others used the top halves of skulls." (p 216)
The book is a factual report of what occurred on the mountain among the survivors and what efforts were made by their families, friends, and government officials to find the lost plane. The author limits himself to a dispassionate, careful telling of the events and does not abstractly discuss the psychology of survival or speculate on what a descent into cannibalism might imply about human nature or our conventional principles of morality. Do extreme situations loosen moral strictures or do such situations merely loosen moral restraint? The author does not raise these questions. The Roman Catholic survivors found moral support for their choice through believing they had a moral obligation to survive if it were physically possible, and therefore to act in accordance with that obligation, and then by using Christ's words at the Last Supper, they arrived at an analogy of a sacrifice of the dead for the living.
Book Review: Alive
Summary: 4 Stars
Alive
Piers Paul Read
In 1972 a group of rugby players from Uruguay boarded a plane to take them to Chile for a game. Unexpectedly, they had to make stop in Mendoza, Argentina because of bad weather in the Andes Mountains. Everything went downhill from there, for as they set out across the Andes, one of the planes wings broke, causing the plane to fall at a catastrophic speed. More than ten of the passengers died in the crash and most were severely injured. They were trying to survive in below zero temperatures with nothing but bits of chocolate and rugby clothes. Many of the injuries proved to be fatal, ranging from parts of the plane sticking through stomachs to crushed femurs and frostbite. As everyone struggles to survive, more and more people die. There is virtually no food and to top it all off, an avalanche kills even more people. As everyone continues to grow weaker they are faced with a major dilemma: in order to survive they must eat their dead teammates flesh. But who could eat his best friend, who was alive and talking only hours before? This incredible non-fiction tale is enough to get anyone crying. This book deserves a 4 star rating because of the excellent description and the amazing adventure itself. This book is like something people have nightmares about and I have never read a book that is so intense. A number one best seller and "thunderous entertainment ... a classic human adventure... a narrative of terrific and enduring significance" (The New York Times.) It's easy to see why this amazing book stayed on the New York Times best seller list for over seven months. It's an absolute must read.