So far on this reading odyssey I have (quite without planning I assure you) now read two books on the subject of mountaineering. It's not something I ever had a real interest in before and I certainly have no intention of taking up this mad pursuit now. Even if I did once harbour ambitions of navigating Everest (I really didn't), having read Touching the Void, that foolish idea has been well and truly squashed. Joe Simpson's true story account of his mountaineerign accident in the 1980s, surviving impossible falls, sub-zero temperatures and a crazily broken leg is enough to put me off my breakfast, never mind wanting to scale insurmountable peaks.
Yet the story is gripping, starting from the scene setting to the climb between him and his partner Simon up a previously unclimbed peak in the Peruvian Andes. This then leads on the near fatal accident, the struggle the two of them try to make down, before Simon is forced to cut the rope in order to save himself, believing Joe to be beyond help and nothing other than dead. It is testament to the almost unbelievable nature of Joe's fall 'n' crawl back to base camp that despite knowing what happens from the start (no twists in this thriller), there is a high level of tension throughout. The battle for survival, the sheer force of will by which he survives is credit to what people are capable of in insanely desperate circumstances.
The writing is fine, if not spectacular, and the story is certainly worth the telling. A little knowledge of mountaineering terms and equipment may have made the reading easier as sometimes I was struggling to visualise what was meant, but largely a layman like myself was able to engage with it. And after all, the climbing bit isn't really the point, it's simply the vehicle for this miraculous tale of struggle, endurance and survival, which can't do anything other than leave the reader filled with hope and that the seemingly impossible just might not be.
Book number: 28
Title: Touching the Void
Author: Joe Simpson
Category: Non-fiction
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