A Masterpiece
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Putting aside the storyline of `Touching the Void' my reason for submitting this review is to pay homage to a masterpiece of writing. If I had to select a single volume as the very best from my collection of over 1,000 climbing and mountaineering books it would be Joe Simpson's `Touching the Void'. It is unrivalled; so with almost 100 mainly 5-star reviews already placed for this Amazon offering there appears little need to add another. However I concentrate on manner of writing. I have just submitted a review of Mick Fowler's second autobiographical book `On Thin Ice' in which, though I saluted his imaginative and courageous approach to extreme and exacting expeditions around the world, I was critical of his writing style. I suggested Mick Fowler's modesty led to understatements by shunning drama and making too light of tensions - and therefore resulted in dryness of writing.
Not so for Joe Simpson. With the `Touching the Void' account of his ascent and accident in the Peruvian Andes he avoids these traits and he excels in his appeal to general readers as well as climbers - and he makes it possible to have faith in miracles! Readers are skilfully manoeuvred into facing his challenges, sharing his emotions and living his nightmare survival. In addition to evocative and captivating descriptions of both physical and mental aspects, writings seem able to inspire readers and may even motivate them to meet hardships. It is difficult to credit the story is non-fiction, and this highlights qualities of Joe Simpson as a writer. `Touching the Void' has all the intrigue and suspense of a great novel as it grips and thrills readers, who must realise Joe lives to tell the tale, but cannot be convinced until the very end.
As a mountaineering author Joe Simpson reigns supreme - `Touching the Void' is a masterpiece.
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A very special book
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Reading `Touching the Void` for the first time, now in 2008, it is so good to be reminded that human beings can have much more to them than the base forms of entertainment currently becoming ever more popular.
Joe Simpson manages to take the reader with him on an incredible journey, from experiences many of us would recognise to ones we hope we never will, all of these are conveyed so very, very well.
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a page turner
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I caught half the documentary on the BBC, and was captivated, until I finally got hold of the book. I could not put it down until the last page was read at 2 in the morning.
There is not much which has not been said most eloquently in some of the other reviews, so I wont try it. But for me the fascinating thing was the nature of the voice which kept on pushing him to continue against all odds. Where do these phenomena come from, when we go beyond convention and conception? He never questions it, but in a matter of fact tells the story of a most extraordinary defiance of death. He was truly touched by grace and I love to buy him a pint if ever I get up to Sheffield....
Truly inspirational, I recomend this as imperative reading for anybody who is dealing with a life threatening disease or other circumstances. Such a fountain of inspiration to not give up...whatever
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Better than the film!
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Still immensely powerful 21 years after the event. I read this book 10 years ago and it inspired me to walk the Huayhuash Circuit last year
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A Testimony Of Supreme Endurance.
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Upon completion of this book you'll still be wondering just how Joe Simpson survived this terrible ordeal. All the odds were against him. And after receiving his injury at such an early and hazardous stage of the decent, it's all too easy to think that Simpson should have gone down in the history books as just another victim of mountaineering disasters. Death defying is the only way to summarize this journey that Simpson eloquently depicts. No review can do justice to this great story that must be read first hand. It's one of my favourites. And you'll be hard-pressed to put this book down once you've picked it up.
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