Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival
Book Review: Hard to put this book down once started.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is well written, very interesting to anyone who has been up on a Mountain in South America or elsewhere. I enjoyed reading this book as a recommendation I had from a British climber on our trip to Cotopaxi in Equador.Book Review: A tale of survival
Summary: 3 Stars
This book is more than just the story of the conquest of a mountain but about survival amidst impossible odds. I've never climbed a mountain yet I read large quantities of books and accounts about mountaineering. This was a difficult read for some reason however. The pages are dense with terminology that make the reading slow and tiresome at times. I suppose fellow mountaineers can eat this book in an afternoon but although I found the story compelling it took me a while to make any kind of progress and I admit I skimmed pages here and there to find the meat of the story. Joe Simpson and Simon Yates seem a little foolhardy in some aspects as they attempted a highly difficult climb with very little support knowing in the backs of their minds that anyone injured surely must be left. The conditions did not seem favorable for a summit in many ways and yet they are full of adventure and ready to get on with it. I didn't feel especially close to the characters until after the accident as they began to describe the fear, the terror and intimate thoughts and struggles. I'm glad that I read it, but I have to say that Jon Krakauer's books are my favorites by far when it comes to the challenge, tragedy and triumph of mountain climbing.Book Review: Unbelievably good!
Summary: 5 Stars
Joe Simpson proves to be a gifted writer who brings us into the past with him (I'm so happy he was able to do so). This reader constantly had goosebumps on her flesh as Simpson unraveled the events of his climb. When he plummets off a ledge after being lowered by his climbing partner, Simpson realizes that his broken leg is just the beginning of his bad luck. Yates, Joe's partner, hangs on as long as he can, wondering why he hasn't felt a signal on the rope. Yates has no choice but to cut the rope, anything else would've cost two lives. I can hardly imagine Yate's horror when he learned that Simpson fell into a crevasse while still alive. Exhausted, frost bit and haggard, Yates barely stumbles into camp himself.
All alone and thought dead, Simpson hangs onto the crevasse wall, refusing to quit on life, though life seems to have quit on him. What happens next isn't just a great story, it's inspiration for us all to never quit until we've taken that last breath! My heart does go out to Yates, who must have had deep emotional scars to heal from. Simpson calls Yates his hero, and rightly so. You won't want to miss reading this book and also watching the documentary. I'm not a climber, but I certainly appreciated the world Joe and Simon shared with me.
Chrissy K. McVay
Author of 'Souls of the North Wind'
Book Review: A Harrowing Journey
Summary: 5 Stars
This incredible, true story of survival will literally keep you hanging onto the edge of your seat, much like Simpson dangling off the edge of the cliff. Book Review: Words cannot express...
Summary: 3 Stars
`Touching the Void' is the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates who climbed the West Face of Siula Grande, a mountain in the Peruvian Andes. After an accident Simpson has a broken leg and little chance of getting off the mountain alive. Yates lowers Simpson off the mountain quickly (as they do not have enough supplies to stay on the mountain) and unknowingly off a cliff face. Simpson cannot beck up the rope and Yates cannot pull him back up. Seconds before being pulled off the face of the cliff himself Yates cuts the rope and Simpson falls off the cliff and down the mountain. Yates, leaving the mountain the next morning, thinking Simpson dead, leaves Simpson to crawl off the mountain with his injuries.
In the best portions of the book you get both Yates's and Simpson's thoughts about the accident, where they were and what was happening step by step in the days following the accident. You feel the pain, guilt, fear, and panic in both parties and get the idea that something fantastic occurred on Siula Grande.
I say you get the feeling because in the poorer portions of the book you do not understand why one `crevasse' is worse than another, why a `pear shaped cornice' is a bad omen, why it is hard to place a `friend' in a secure position on the mountain, and why a `bollard' is dubious. In Simpson's words one portion of the mountain blends into the other and you have to be told this portion is scary, or that he is making progressing, rather than seeing why he is scared or how he is making progress.
Simpson admits as much in the Epilogue to the book when he says `I simply could not find the words to express the utter desolation of the experience' and to be fair Simpson was not an experienced writer at the time of this book (he has written six since then). However, you are certainly left wanting for a description you can understand, and emotion that stands out from the rest, and a story you can grasp on to instead of feeling that `you needed to be there'.