THE SACRAMENT: A True Story of Survival

by Peter Gzowski ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1980

Cannibalism--grim but affecting. Canadians Donna Johnson, 17, and her brother-in-law Brent Dyer, 25, are flying with Donna's father from Estevan, Saskatchewan, to Boise when their plane goes off course in bad weather, and crashes. The pilot is injured in the head and disoriented; after two days he wanders off and disappears (his body is eventually recovered about a half-mile away). Stuck in the plane are severely-wounded Donna and Brent, and the corpse of Donna's father--who, just before dying, had taken off his coat and draped it over his unconscious daughter. When Brent and Donna come to, they are almost immobile for two days from their various shocks and injuries. Their only food is a granola bar, a few sunflower seeds, and two Pepsis. Once able to move, they manage to drain gasoline from a wing and start small fires with a Bic lighter, but the plane itself is under snowdrifts and can't be seen from the air. For two weeks they wait, hoping to be spotted and physically unable to leave. Then, impressed by Donna's father's last, selfless act in covering her, familiar with Piers Paul Read's account of the Andean-crash survivors who cannibalized their dead, they begin eating parts of the corpse as a sacrament to their rebirth. At last they set forth with dried strips of the body for energy, and spend five days reaching a farm. Undergirding the ordeal are AA-member Brent's thoughts about sobriety (at its worst, he has no desire for alcohol); and afterward comes the inevitable recognition scene when Donna's mother must be told that her daughter has consumed parts of her father--a breath-holding moment. Feelingly recounted, without sensationalism.

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION