Life and Death on Mt. Everest : Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes good things come in miswrapped packages...
Review: Although Life and Death on Mt. Everest is a book with an identity crisis, it is nonetheless a fascinating work that should interest armchair adventurers and mountaineers alike. Despite the title, parts of the jacket flap blurb, and even the quotes on the back, Life and Death is really an anthropological examination of mountaineering and the Sherpa-Sahib (author's term) relationship, within the context of the history and culture of both groups. Most of the relatively minor problems with the book arise from the identity crisis; this book can't decide whether it is an academic or a popular work. I suspect, though of course I can't know, that Ortner wrote the book as an academic monograph, and her publishers then altered it superficially to capitalize on the resurgence of Everest interest.

The text itself will present a few problems to the lay reader. It has too much information on Ortner's theory, philosophy, and methods of anthropology if it is intended strictly for the layman. The academic-style footnotes are frustrating; Ortner uses copious end-of-text footnotes, mostly to give citations, but also to supply additional information, commentary, and anecdotes. In order to get that extra information, the reader has to refer back and forth constantly, breaking up the flow of the read. If this is intended to be, in whole or in part, a popular work, Ortner should have moved the added-data footnotes to the bottom of the page, and left the citations at the end. Also, the author is a little too inclusive - she includes more about Sherpa religion than is really necessary to provide cultural background; this distracts from the main theme of the book. It would also, of course, be uninteresting to laypeople interested solely in climbing. Finally, Ortner doesn't always cite authors of quotations in the body of the text. That would be fine for academics, but not so for armchair adventurers, who will be familiar with most of the sources and will always want to know who said what.

However, these are minor quibbles, really, considering the book's value. Although there are huge numbers of expedition accounts and life-of-a-climber memoirs available, there are relatively few books that examine climbing as a culture. And though Sherpas are mentioned in every book ever written about Himalayan mountaineering, the information is always one-sided and usually one-dimensional. Ortner, in one volume, manages to change both those things; she describes climbing from the outside and Sherpa culture from the inside, and in the process brings valuable insight to both. And despite the author's academic bent, the book is not dense or dull; it's a fast, light read, especially considering its depth.

This book is not for readers seeking an adrenaline rush or those with a short attention span, but it is for almost everyone else. Himalayan climbers will benefit from the perspective on both their hobby and their Sherpa partners. Armchair adventurers will finally find the answers to some of their persistent questions about Sherpas, and will also find the view of climbing illuminating. And those who are interested in anthropology or other cultures will be gripped by the descriptions of Sherpa life and acculturation. Basically, the book is an all-around winner.

Rating:
Summary: Sherpas as exploited victims of western culture
Review: I bought this book in hardback and was looking forward to reading it. I thought that getting to know the climbing industry from the Sherpa perspective would be fascinating (and it would have been). However, the writing in this disappointing book is so wet with victimology and so heavily in the style of post-modern deconstructed feminist scholarship that it is actually painful to read. I could not finish it. There are too many good books that I will ever get to read. However, reading what I could slog through felt like I imagine climbing Everest without the extra oxygen to feel like.

Unless you are interested in viewing the sherpas as yet another of the endless victims of the western (male) world, stay far away and save your money. The one star is for those who are interested in such things and because I can't give it zero stars. I wish I could get my money back. I rarely pan books on Amazon.com because it makes people upset, but this is a special case for me.

It isn't that the author does a bad job for what she is after, but that I found it personally offensive. Take that for what it is worth.

Rating:
Summary: Misses the Mark!
Review: The author is clearly an expert on Sherpas, having lived and studied among them as an anthropologist for over 40 years. She writes this book for the layman in a form of anthropoligical study. She misses the mark both in terms of layman interest, and in terms of an enlighting anthropoligical study. Ms. Ortner looks at several facets of Sherpa life with a view toward how and why Sherpas became involved in mountaineering. It was clear to me, despite all the research and academia, the answer as to how and why remains perfectly clear and not too profound. Carrying loads, establishing camps, and fixing ropes provide the Sherpa with an extremely high income (relative to their society), allowing the climbers to provide greater comfort and a better standard of living for themselves and their families. I was very disappointed in this particular book, and I do not recommend it as a means of insight into the Sherpas.