Another Book to the Shelf

I stayed up late and finished off another previously started and set-aside book. Deep Survival - Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why: True Stories of Miraculous Endurance and Sudden Death by Laurence Gonzales was the book. I originally set it down because I got discouraged by what I perceived to be new age mumbo jumbo on emotional intelligence and emotional response. When I picked it back up determined to make my way to the end, the book improved. The author eventually got to more of a neuro-biological basis for the emotional responses that he initially talked about. All in all he does a very good job of discussing the types of neuro responses that the brain goes through in a survival situation. He discusses the importance of certain types of thinking to ensure that you are listening to the right voice and employing the right portion of your brain in an emergency situation.

I did not think that the book was particularly well written from a grammatical standpoint. I found myself often having to re-read sentences or paragraphs due to awkward phrasing and wording. (I don't know: perhaps some of you have the same complaint about this blog.) To be fair, these complaints are probably better directed at the editor than the author. The guy is also rather impressed about himself and the adventures that he has had. At times he comes across as fairly haughty and self-important.

Aside: I read a funny comment somewhere yesterday, but I can't recall where now. It was talking about how John Kerry and his latest heiress wife conversed in French during their first date. Initially, it said, she thought he was a hottie. But, of course it turned out that he was just haughty.

Still, Mr. Gonzales has had plenty of neat adventures and some of them do lend themselves to his book. His father, whose tale of being shot down on a bombing run over Nazi Germany, being captured, and enduring a long ordeal as a prisoner of war with lots of broken bones and a torn-off nose opens and closes the book, is ultimately the source of the author's lifestyle and the long laid impetus to research and write about survival.

After reading the book, I do come away with a better idea of what it will take to stay alive if I ever find myself lost in the wilderness or perhaps adrift at sea. Therefore, I think it's easy to say that the book was worth it and enjoyable. The author has researched thousands of wilderness accidents and incidents of survival. He has interviewed the survivors, talked to the rescuers, and read the incident and mortality reports. The most appealing parts of the book were the accounts of terrifying accidents that brought on the "stories of miraculous endurance and sudden death." These stories were intertwined with the physical and neurological responses that a person goes through in such times.

Jonathan 9/24/2004 10:15:00 AM