Roper has only spotty success in finding a deeper meaning in Unsoeld’s story, but the story itself is always fascinating.
A solid account of the exploits of American mountaineer Willi Unsoeld, who made his reputation in 1963 as the first to climb Everest by the formidable West Face, a feat still not duplicated.
Unsoeld, who died at age 52 in an avalanche in 1979, was a professor of philosophy and wilderness guide between expeditions. Novelist and mountaineer Roper (Cuervo Tales, 1993, etc.) believes Unsoeld’s life also illustrates the transformation of mountaineering that occurred during the 1960s and ’70s. Roper follows in the footsteps of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air (1997), which launched a flood of books describing extreme adventures accompanied by disasters that might have been avoided by strict adherence to the virtues of a previous era. Until the ’60s, climbing was pure sport. Climbers earned a living elsewhere; even large expeditions were assumed to work as a team. Books about mountaineering extolled bravery, suffering, and self-sacrifice, never mentioning conflicts and bickering. The “me decade” of the ’70s saw the flowering of professionals who could earn a living climbing mountains. These were superb athletes, but fiercely ambitious and self-absorbed. An intense competitive spirit appeared, and writers happily recorded the cliques, feuds, and controversies that accompanied each expedition. Roper concentrates on the landmark 1976 conquest of Nanda Devi, a remote and difficult Himalayan peak. Led by Unsoeld, the expedition mixed traditionalists with prickly, media-savvy, virtuoso climbers and included Unsoeld’s daughter Devi, herself a skilled mountaineer. She died struggling to reach the peak, and Roper tells a story packed with adventure, suffering, scandal, heroism, and controversy. Having the benefit of many written accounts of the expedition, the author tries to tease the facts from conflicting versions, draw lessons from the epic feat, and explain both Devi’s death and her father’s response to it, which seemed even to some friends to be almost creepily serene.
Roper has only spotty success in finding a deeper meaning in Unsoeld’s story, but the story itself is always fascinating.Pub Date: March 15, 2002
ISBN: 0-312-26153-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2001
Exquisite photographs and 97 essays, ranging from dubious to exemplary in quality and relevance, trace the 125-year history of professional baseball. Major League Baseball lends its logo to the fan's ultimate coffee-table book. By having unmatched access to various baseball archives, including those belonging to Major League Baseball, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the New York Public Library's Spalding Collection, Wallace has compiled a powerful visual account of the sport. Photographs of legendary players—including Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Frank Robinson, and, in one especially riveting still, Yankees' catcher Thurman Munson bracing for a collision at the plate—beautifully, almost eerily, preserve these heroes at the height of their youthful powers. Other effects, including uniforms, endorsements, cartoons, and trading cards, forcefully yet subtly demonstrate baseball's far-reaching cultural impact. While Wallace (The American Museum of Natural History's Book of Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Creatures, p. 1116) intends to show the game from all angles, the text occasionally struggles to meet the estimable standards set by the illustrated sections. Laudable is Wallace's inclusion of reports from the Reach and Spalding baseball annuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Other noteworthy items are a 1955 scouting report on Brooks Robinson, who later became one of the greatest infielders ever, and Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey's explanation of his choice of Jackie Robinson as major league baseball's first black player in over 60 years. But the impact of such documentation is somewhat mitigated by the inclusion of ghostwritten autobiographies and ``flack'' pieces of questionable objectivity, and by Wallace's own introductory passages, which, with their boosterish tone, gloss over some of the game's less obvious undercurrents. But above all, baseball is a fan's game, and this book, compiled lovingly by a fan, deserves notice as a beautiful and enjoyable baseball time capsule.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-8109-3135-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With the capable help of sportswriter Levine (Life on the Rim, 1990), the smallest man ever to play in the NBA tells his story with warmth and humor. At 53'' Muggsy Bogues is an unlikely basketball star, but the Charlotte Hornets' pesky point guard is annually among the leaders in assists and steals, and he averages 10 points per game. Raised in the projects of East Baltimore, Bogues describes a tough life that included being shot when he was 5 years old and, at 12, watching his father go to prison for armed robbery. But there was always basketball, even if no one would take him seriously. He led his Dunbar High School team to 59 straight victories and national prominence in 1981 and '82 and was sought after by college coaches who were sharp enough to overlook his height. At Wake Forest, he averaged 14.8 points per game, collected 275 steals, and amassed an Atlantic Coast Conference record of 781 assists. He was drafted in the first round by the Washington Bullets in 1987 and became great friends with 76'' teammate Manute Bol (much to the delight of photographers). When Washington didn't protect him in the 1989 expansion draft, Bogues was thrilled to be selected by the Hornets. His career hit its stride when coach Gene Littles instituted ``an up-tempo offense'' with Bogues at the point. Later, with the additions of $84 million power forward Larry Johnson and, in 1992, center Alonzo Mourning, Bogues sparked the Hornets to a first-ever playoff appearance. Asked how he can play against men as much as a foot-and-a-half taller, he simply notes that ``the ball's on the floor more than it's in the air. And down there is Muggsland.'' A refreshingly good-natured sports biography by a man who's proud of his achievements but not an egomaniac. As he says, he's ``one happy little fella.'' (20 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-316-10173-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
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