Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine

Rating:
Summary: An intensely personal, candid, and informative account
Review: Fearless On Everest: The Quest For Sandy Irvine is an intensely personal, candid, and informative account of the life of a young man who died at the age of 22 while on an expedition to climb Mt. Everest. Written with a narrative smoothness that completely engages the reader's attention, biographer and Irvine family member Julie Summers includes newly discovered letters and photographs and specifically addresses a long-debated question in mountaineering circles: Why did George Leigh Mallory choose the young, less-experienced Andrew Irvine as his partner on so hazardous an enterprise? Also very highly recommended for mountaineering enthusiasts are three related titles from Mountaineers Books addresses the doomed Mallory-Irvine expedition: Ghosts Of Everest: The Search For Mallory & Irvine (699-5, $.....); The Mystery Of Mallory & Irvine: Fully Revised Edition (726-6, $.....); The Wildest Dream: The Biography Of George Mallory (741-X, $......).

Rating:
Summary: yawn
Review: I'm afraid I have to disagree with other reviewers of this book. The writing is often awkward and grammatically challenged (to use a current euphemism). And Sandy Irvine comes across as a rather ordinary young man, self centered, good at sports, and good with his hands, but lacking in any sort of intellectual sophistication. It was this very sophisitcation and intellectualism that made Mallory the interesting figure he remains. Had Mallory been a mere hearty, he would have far less interesting. In contrast to Mallory, Irvine strikes one as eactly what this biography tries to convince one he was not, i.e., a follower who had little idea of what Mallory was leading him into.

Because of Irvine's commoness and the bad writing (Where oh where was an editor!?), this is hardly worth the time, and certainly not worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: Fearless on Everest
Review: Julie Summers sensitive telling of the story of Sandy Irvine is not only a great read, but is written with intelligence, grace and wit. Irvine's personality looms large in the book, and the reader is easily captivated by his infectious personality. Explorer, lover, adventurer, journalist -- one can easily imagine Summer's Irvine on the silver sceen, portrayed by Harrison Ford or Mel Gibson. This wonderful book will be enjoyed by climbers, mountaineers, armchair explorers and laypeople alike. A real tour de force, the only question that arises after reading is: who is going to option it, and when is the movie coming out?

Rating:
Summary: The true picture of Sandy Irvine
Review: Sandy Irvine has always been portrayed as Mallory's shadow, the bit player who followed the great man without question. If you read this book you will no longer be asking yourself 'Why Sandy Irvine?'. The answer is self explanatory. This man had personality, a history, humour and ambition. For the brief time he was on the expedition to the mountain, Everest was his peak as much as it ever was Mallory's. But there is more to Irvine than one might previously have thought: he was not only a great oarsman, rowing in the Oxford winning boat of 1923, and an intrepid explorer of the arctic, but he was also the passionate lover of his best friend's stepmother. Julie Summers pulls no punches, she does not allow her family allegiance to cloud her own vision and excellent research. Read this book to find out about the other half of the greatest mountaineering partnership of all time. I guarantee you will smile, more than once.

Rating:
Summary: yawn
Review: This is a very well-written and researched book. It provides an introspective and analytical look into the man of mystery on the expedition...Sandy Irvine. The photos, family anecdotes, and treasure trove of memorabilia recently discovered provided a full and satisfying read. You can't know all about the 1924 expedition until you know about what made Sandy Irvine tick.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading!
Review: This is a very well-written and researched book. It provides an introspective and analytical look into the man of mystery on the expedition...Sandy Irvine. The photos, family anecdotes, and treasure trove of memorabilia recently discovered provided a full and satisfying read. You can't know all about the 1924 expedition until you know about what made Sandy Irvine tick.