A sharp taste of Himalayan climbing and the way harsh terrain can make a person disappear as if from the face of the earth.
Two climbing-team members recount a doomed 1982 attempt at Everest from the Chinese side with mounting uneasiness as the expedition falls apart.
Team physician Clarke and leader Bonington take turns charting the progress of the first try at Everest via the unclimbed North East Ridge, a route that was “elegant, unknown and [that] looked, from the few photographs we had, difficult but possible.” Clarke contributes material on the history of the region, earlier British exploration, British-Chinese relations, and the logistical aspects of the climb, including commentary about the road to Everest from Lhasa, the monasteries and nunneries, pilfering of camp supplies by yak herders, and the deplorable condition of base camp, a garbage dump of earlier climbs, where the greatest danger was broken glass. Clarke’s writing, straightforward as it is, is welcome leavening to Bonington’s story of the climb once it reached high altitude. Bonington’s tale follows the slow but steady progress up the mountain, the team’s digging snow caves and getting acclimatized, the brutal wind and blinding conditions. But the climbers were all at altitude for too long, and gradually worsening health claimed two of the team’s four summit members: one climber who experienced a minor but decidedly threatening stroke, and Bonington himself, a mountaineering legend who realized fairly early that he hadn’t the strength to make the top. This was a no-oxygen, no-porter climb, so there was room for few mistakes. Two climbers fast making their name in the sport, Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman, took their chances along the absurdly steep ridgeline, where a series of pinnacles had to be overcome before the long sweep to the summit. Bonington followed their progress with binoculars for a day and a half. Then they disappeared. No trace of them has ever been found.
A sharp taste of Himalayan climbing and the way harsh terrain can make a person disappear as if from the face of the earth.Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-56025-390-8
Page Count: 202
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.
NBA legends Bird and Johnson, fierce rivals during their playing days, team up on a mutual career retrospective.
With megastars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and international superstars like China’s Yao Ming pushing it to ever-greater heights of popularity today, it’s difficult to imagine the NBA in 1979, when financial problems, drug scandals and racial issues threatened to destroy the fledgling league. Fortunately, that year marked the coming of two young saviors—one a flashy, charismatic African-American and the other a cocky, blond, self-described “hick.” Arriving fresh off a showdown in the NCAA championship game in which Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores—still the highest-rated college basketball game ever—the duo changed the course of history not just for the league, but the sport itself. While the pair’s on-court accomplishments have been exhaustively chronicled, the narrative hook here is unprecedented insight and commentary from the stars themselves on their unique relationship, a compelling mixture of bitter rivalry and mutual admiration. This snapshot of their respective careers delves with varying degrees of depth into the lives of each man and their on- and off-court achievements, including the historic championship games between Johnson’s Lakers and Bird’s Celtics, their trailblazing endorsement deals and Johnson’s stunning announcement in 1991 that he had tested positive for HIV. Ironically, this nostalgic chronicle about the two men who, along with Michael Jordan, turned more fans onto NBA basketball than any other players, will likely appeal primarily to a narrow cross-section of readers: Bird/Magic fans and hardcore hoop-heads.
Doesn’t dig as deep as it could, but offers a captivating look at the NBA’s greatest era.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-547-22547-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.
A basketball legend reflects on his life in the game and a life lived in the “nightmare of endlessly repetitive and constant pain, agony, and guilt.”
Walton (Nothing but Net, 1994, etc.) begins this memoir on the floor—literally: “I have been living on the floor for most of the last two and a half years, unable to move.” In 2008, he suffered a catastrophic spinal collapse. “My spine will no longer hold me,” he writes. Thirty-seven orthopedic injuries, stemming from the fact that he had malformed feet, led to an endless string of stress fractures. As he notes, Walton is “the most injured athlete in the history of sports.” Over the years, he had ground his lower extremities “down to dust.” Walton’s memoir is two interwoven stories. The first is about his lifelong love of basketball, the second, his lifelong battle with injuries and pain. He had his first operation when he was 14, for a knee hurt in a basketball game. As he chronicles his distinguished career in the game, from high school to college to the NBA, he punctuates that story with a parallel one that chronicles at each juncture the injuries he suffered and overcame until he could no longer play, eventually turning to a successful broadcasting career (which helped his stuttering problem). Thanks to successful experimental spinal fusion surgery, he’s now pain-free. And then there’s the music he loves, especially the Grateful Dead’s; it accompanies both stories like a soundtrack playing off in the distance. Walton tends to get long-winded at times, but that won’t be news to anyone who watches his broadcasts, and those who have been afflicted with lifelong injuries will find the book uplifting and inspirational. Basketball fans will relish Walton’s acumen and insights into the game as well as his stories about players, coaches (especially John Wooden), and games, all told in Walton’s fervent, witty style.
One of the NBA’s 50 greatest players scores another basket—a deeply personal one.Pub Date: March 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1686-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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