Alive
by Piers Paul Read
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Book Summary Information
Author: Piers Paul ReadEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-07-05
ISBN: 0060778660
Number of pages: 398
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Alive
Book Review: A True Survival Story At Its Best
Summary: 4 Stars
Suspense, emotions, and cannibalism. In the book, ALIVE: The Story of the Andes Survivors, author Piers Paul Read showcases his ability to hypnotize the reader. Seriously, it's as if he works in jedi mind tricks into his writing. Throughout, he keeps the reader interested by teasing him or her with the constant use of internal cliffhangers and mental shifts.
The book begins focused on a group of Uruguayan rugby players accompanied by some of their friends and family members on their annual trip to Chile to participate in a rugby tournament. With forty five jubilant passengers on board, the Fairchild FH-227D takes off on Friday, October 13, 1972 and begins its route across the Andes. However, extreme weather conditions cause the plane to jeer off course and plummet down into the barren mountains. The story then goes on to recount the seventy two days that the survivors of the crash are forced to suffer through before being rescued.
While retelling the experience, Read chooses to switch back and forth between the stories of the survivors and the rescuers. Not only does this give the reader a sense of completeness, it also allows Read to insert a cliffhanger at the end of almost every section. This tool helps make ALIVE a very page-turning book by keeping the reader on end and wanting more. Also, Read often compares and contrasts both sides. In their need to survive, the passengers might do something unthinkable, such as resort to cannibalism, and through the author's calm, convincing tone, the reader becomes familiar with the idea and even begins to view human flesh as just another food source. However, when Read switches back to the rescuers, the reader suddenly snaps back to the "outside world," and the actions of the passengers suddenly seem unthinkable and grotesque. Such realizations prove that Read was capable of writing the story in such a real, telling way using mind-washing diction that the reader feels as if he or she is actually trapped in the Andes with the passengers.
The fact that Read is capable of making events preceding the crash as well as events that occurred days after rescue seem just as intriguing as the seventy two days of survival is also one of the best elements in this book. To do this, Read plays with the reader's mind by either withholding certain information or making great use of dramatic irony. This in turn makes the reader feel somewhat frustrated but in a good way since it makes him or her want to read more. This also showcases Read's talent to pick out the key ideas (or atleast the ideas that would be most meaningful to the average reader) presented in the story of the Andes survivors.
The only aspect of this book that I disliked was the beginning. Read decides to use a large majority of the first chapter discussing history and backstory about the Uruguayans, their various reasons to take the plane to Chile, and an overly-detailed explanation of rugby. By putting all of this information together, Read makes this section sound like a passage from a textbook. Worse still, this uninviting opening may even deter the reader from reading further. To avoid this, Read should have weaved this information throughout the first few chapters so that the book would have started off with the focus being on the Uruguayans' interactions with each other before the accident.
To add, Read signifies that the majority of the dialogue in the book is fabricated. However, Read also makes it clear that he went through a lengthy interview process with everybody significantly related to the accident before writing the novel. In this way, some parts of the book aren't completely accurate, but they are as close as possible. Also, the dialogue adds another dimension to the story. It makes everything seem relatable. Without it, the story would be quite lackluster, and it would resemble narration rather than an engaging account of survival. In fact, the dialogue is one of the best features of the book because it provides the reader with a deeper understaning of each of the passengers' personalities by showing rather than telling.
Overall, this book is very well written, and it does an outstanding job of pulling the reader into the story. As long as you push through the dull introduction, you'll find yourself divulged in this truly miraculous story, which is why I give this book a very deserving four out of five stars.
Summary of Alive
On October 12, 1972, an Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying a team of rugby players crashed in the remote snowy peaks of the Andes. Ten weeks later, only sixteen of the forty-five passengers were found alive. This is the story of those ten weeks spent in the shelter of the plane's fuselage without food and with scarcely any hope of a rescue. The survivors protected and helped one another, and came to the difficult conclusion that to live meant doing the unimaginable. Confronting nature at its most furious, two brave young men risked their lives to hike through the mountains looking for help -- and ultimately found it.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.Adventurers & Explorers Books
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