Left for Dead

Bait-and-switch

This is a solid memoir that is marred by cynical marketing. Most of this book is NOT about Beck Weathers' time on Everest. It starts on Everest, but after a rather perfunctory summation of his insanely WTF experience on the mountain the narrative backs up and tells the story of his life, leading to his Everest climb. I enjoy Weathers' sense of humor and found the writing to be superb throughout. The raw portrayal of his marital relationship was brave and fascinating, but... But I didn't buy the book for Weathers' life story, I wanted Everest. Or, insomuch as Weathers' life played a role in his miraculous survival ("miraculous" is an overused word, but it applies to Weathers' story in bold type), we need that story, but the proportions are wrong. This book is 1/5 Everest, 4/5 everything else. Flip that proportion and I'd have been happy, because I wanted Everest. How the hell did you survive, Beck Weathers? What happened? I don't feel like I know much more than I did previously.

So, as a reviewer it becomes awkward. I actually think this book is really good, but it's not the book I thought I was getting, and it wasn't so good that I ever stopped feeling short-changed about the Everest story. So I'm subtracting a star, from a 4-star book, because I was misled.

I guess it's hard to sell a book called, "The Emotional Growth-Journey of Beck Weathers: A Memoir that Happens to Include an Incomplete Anecdote About Surviving on Mount Everest, when he Absolutely Should have Died," even when that book is good.

Re: Narration: I never really thought about Roger Wayne's narration, which, in my book, means he affected the tone and style of the book perfectly. A listener can't ask for more than that.

10 people found this helpful

Great Read

I’ve spent a few weeks consuming all of the media about this tragic week on Everest and have to say that this was another wonderful, important, interesting piece of the puzzle. Well worth a listen for the interested.

9 people found this helpful

great detail

gives you a lot of insight into his life, more than just the Everest expedition.

7 people found this helpful

Into Thin Air is a better Everest story.

At first I disliked the narrator, but I got used to him. The story was frustrating -not that much actually on Everest. I didn't really need his whole back story. It only served to prove the main thing I got out of this book - that Beck Weathers is a pretty significant asshole, regardless of his Everest epiphany. His wife should have divorced him, or he should have died on Everest, except for the toll it would have taken on his family. Then again, he had already exacted a heavy toll.

3 people found this helpful

Great story.

I read Into Thin Air when it first came out and have listened to it at least three times on Audble. It was great to hear the whole story from Beck, it really shows a different perspective from what I expected. Listening to this makes every day struggles seem minuscule.

7 people found this helpful

Thrilling Account of Mt. Everest Survival

This is a great first hand account from a Mt Everest survivor. Combine this book with "Into Thin Air" and you will be provided a thrilling clarity and new perspective of what happened to these amazing climbers on that fateful day on Everest.

2 people found this helpful

Great story

the beginning was amazing, him pushing through and surviving the climb, but the middle and end not as much, great life story but I didn't need to know in such detail about his early childhood to know he survived the mountain, would have not even read part 2-4 if I would have known this

1 person found this helpful

Not what I expected

This book was less about mountain-climbing and more about Weathers's life and marriage problems. At first, I really liked the guy, and admired his spirit of positivism about losing his hands and nose. But as the book wore on, I began to feel that he was sick with self-love (enough with recounting all your funny quips about this and that), and I despaired that he never really dropped his inherent arrogance and admitted his utter powerlessness over the entire situation. I kept expecting some sort of moment of reckoning, about life, about his foolhardy behavior, about the effect on his family and on his psyche of his various obsessions (mountain-climbing being just one)--some deeper exploration of the meaning of our existence--but he kept us at a distance throughout with his bon mots and his insouciance, and it all started to grate on this reader. Get real, Beck. What's the point, otherwise. My final thought about the guy was, "what a jerk".

An Odd Book

I found the book to start off well. It was intriguing, nicely narrated. Then, it veered of into oddity, as the author tried to tell his Everest-aftermath story.

The book, of course, is written in the first person. But, as it goes on, it gives other person's thoughts on various events and situations. Very suddenly and incongruously, that person's name with be announced by the narrator, and their, often just a single sentence, statement given. It's just weird. The book could have been written much more seamlessly.

Great read, not so great narration

Beck wrote a very compelling and heart felt story on the events that transpired during and after the 1996 Everest disaster. But the narrator missed key pronunciations of mountaineer terminology and of well known Nepalese culture. It’s very difficult to stay immersed in the story with so many gafs.