|
Extreme sports intrigue me. While I confine my personal athletics to swimming and
walking, I admire those who scale rock walls, climb high peaks and push themselves through
physical endurance tests. My sister is a triathlete, and her descriptions of both her
training and her races are something I enjoy living vicariously. Watching the IMAX film, Everest,
I was mesmerized by the people who lashed ladders together and then walked across them on
crampons, hovering tens of thousands of feet above land. This weekend the New York
Marathon will be run. I attended the event one year and was transfixed watching the
runner's faces as they crossed the finish line --- most were full of agony and pain, not
joy and exaltation. But they still felt the event was exhilarating!
While I will never be among any of these elite groups, the tenacity with which these
people drive themselves amazes me. But they are only as strong as what the human body can
bear.
LAST BREATH examines what happens to adventurous athletes when the challenges are bigger
than their physiological ability. The writing, divided into 11 chapters, chronicles in
fictional narrative how the body handles these emergencies and thus responds. It ticks
away the clock and counts down how people take their last breath when they are overcome.
Peter Stark is a contributing writer to Outside magazine. In fact, this project
began as an article in Outside two years ago called "As Freezing Persons
Recollect the Snow." The book examines altitude sickness, hypo and hyperthermia, the
bends, avalanche, mountain sickness, and even predators among its 11 topics. My favorite
chapters were the ones on malaria, dehydration, and hypothermia. I thought the scurvy
chapter was too far-fetched to be included, and thus weak.
What I loved about the book is that you do not need to be a doctor, a scientist, or a
forensic specialist to understand Olsen's writing. It is very appealing to the average
layperson. There is a superb blend of science, personal anecdote, cautionary advice, and
even cure possibilities woven into each story: If he gets a drink right now, he can live.
And not every victim dies. As the book progressed I found myself trying to figure out
early on who would make it --- and who would not.
I read this book in an afternoon while I was at the beach, and by the end of the day I was
beginning to feel like a hypochondriac. As I lay in the sun reading, was I suffering from
hyperthermia as the sweat poured from my body onto the concrete around the pool? As I rode
my bike and got cottonmouth I wondered if this was the beginning of the second of the six
stages of thirst. My children asked for lunch as I finished the chapter on scurvy. I
quickly cut up a peach for each of them. (They found it amusing that I told them we could
have lunch after I finished reading about scurvy and we could bike after I finished
dehydration.)
If you already have enjoyed THE PERFECT STORM, THE HUNGRY OCEAN, and INTO THIN AIR this
book is the perfect next read. You will never complete any physical task quite the same
way again.
--- Reviewed by Carol Fitzgerald
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
