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Summary: Super Bowl victor's secret weapon?
Review: After his team's victory in Super Bowl XXXV earlier this month, New England Patriots Coach Bill Bilichick told reporters that one of the keys to his team's successful season was viewing a movie about Sir Ernest Shackleton's fateful adventure in Antarctica aboard The Endurance. That was all I needed to finally pick up and read this book I received as a gift a couple years ago.Why did it take me this long to discover what a wonderful book was sitting on my desk? Frankly, I thought it was merely an attempt by some publisher to coat-tail the success of the adventure-gone-awry phenomenon then in vogue, i.e., Into Thin Air, Perfect Storm, etc. I'll now admit to living under a rock for not being familiar with the Shackleton story. After reading this book and viewing its incredible photography, I am now in complete understanding of Bilichick's declaration of the Endurance as the definitive metaphor for boldly facing overwhelming adversity and unbeatable odds; and surviving. This book is rather unique, in that the quality and abundance of work done by photographer John Hurley during the trip enable the editor or designer to place the photography within the context of the narrative, rather than the usual grouping of photos within a defined section of a book. This apparently required the book to be published on a finer grade of coated paper than usual, which, along with its square shape, gives the book a near "coffee-table" feel without being oversized. Another design device adding a subtle statement that this is an "art" book is the designer's use of a rather severe ragged-right justification of type. While it is a book to behold, this is also a book to be read closely. Its use of source diaries and journals gives the story a sense of intimacy. I did not know how the story turns out (but assumed that at least some made it back to civilization with the diaries and photos) so I was lucky to be treated to a page-turner as well. By sheer coincidence, I read The Endurance immediately after reading the book Down the Great Unknown, a re-telling of John Wesley Powell's 1869 harrowing survey of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Both are amazing books of challenge, privation, tragedy and perseverance. Next time you want your team to make it to the Super Bowl, I suggest either of these books.
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Summary: The expedition failed, but its glory is in it's ending
Review: I knew of Shackleton's exploits before we cruised Cape Horn in December, 2001, but found this book in the ship's library that speaks of his 1914 expedition so near to where we were. South Georgia Island is in the same latitue nearly as the Falkland Islands. The ENDURANCE left South Georgia December 4th, and ran into ice in the same latitude as Cape Horn on the 7th, just 87 years before we rounded the Horn. We saw no ice, and the sea was calm. What a difference 87 years makes. Yet simply being there helped me to imagine more vividly the grandeur of Shackleton's achievements as a man and a leader. For nearly two years ENDURANCE'S crew were trapped in the ice, the ship was lost, as shown by Hurley's spectacular images, that put the men and dogs on the flows on which they drifted, with essentials saved from the ship, until months later they landed on Elephant Island. This is where the real adventure begins, the one that turned failure into incredible success for which the expedition and Shackleton will forever be known. The rescue required the sailing of a 22' ship's boat across the Southern Seas to South Georgia Island, and the scaling of a mountain range to reach the whaling station on the other side. Shackleton was at his best, but those who greeted him and his men cried to see him as he was. His incredible feat, as well as his frustrations, will capture your emotions as few books will. In the end all were saved; no lives were lost. Still, Shackleton was doomed to die on South Georgia Island while in his mid forties. He is buried there, appropriately, it seems, a man whose dream was not to be realized, but who instead will live forever because of the success he had in saving all who shared his experience. I cannot recommend the book enough to any who have a yen for adventure of the very highest order.
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Summary: The Uses of Adversity
Review: The condensation of this into four (4) cassette tapes got me from just East of Montreal all the way through to Port Huron, Michigan, on a very hot day. By the end of tape 4, I was looking out of my air conditioned pickup truck, amazed to see people in short sleeves walking around. Where were their tattered clothes and frostbitten, hunched-up hands? That's what this book does--brings you into the frozen antarctic to virtually experience the adversity of the failed attempt to even get started on the land-trek across antarctica by Shackelton and his group. The liberal readings from diaries, and the different narrative voices and accents give these tapes a certain texture which makes it easier to listen to what could come off as monotony. In this form, then, emerges the story of the phases of this disaster, which is transformed by disciplined men into successive triumphs: first, in keeping the locked-in ship together as long as they did; next, in camping on the ice and then boating to elephant island; next, with six guys sailing an open-bow 22 foot wooden boat over 800 miles to South Georgia island to get help; next, three guys sailing another 150 or so miles to reach a whaling settlement; next, missing the approach and having to trek 22 miles across barren icy uncharted terrain for 36 straight hours thru blasting cold wearing 18-month old clothes and malnourished from almost no carbohydrates during the entire ordeal. All these phases were led by Shackelton, who seems to have slept the least, but thought the most clearly, or at least the most motivationally. The author includes contextualization of this heroic age and its collision with the despondency brought on by the First World War, and also includes a post-mortem on how each team member fared after the rescue of all hands (with only one non-major amputation for gangrenous frostbite), and how each member died. It seems that this adversity epic was the most meaningful thing many of these men ever did. Further on the theme of an Ode to Discipline, is the inclusion of how Shackelton withheld recommendation of certain team members from receiving medals of commendation from the British government, due to Moses-like seemingly minor infractions in the polar desert, which Shackelton nonetheless remembered, and which he felt threatened cataclysm to the welfare of the group unless sternly dealt with on-site, and after-the-fact as well. The author here also contrasts Shackelton with Robert Scott, with whose earlier expedition (the penultimate Scott expedition beforee the one in which Scott froze), showing Shackelton in a comparatively positive light. There are parallels between long drives in the car and long treks through the polar regions. Both must be done while wide awake, but only one version of these ordeals stretches one to the extreme limits of endurance. One residual effect of listening to this book is to cast the modern travails of office work in a new light. Trouble with staff or with opposing counsel? No big deal. Not as tough as skinning penguins and chipping 15 inches of ice buildup off your boat as it sinks from the extra weight in a winter hurricane.
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Summary: A Great Telling of the Greatest Surval Story
Review: The story of the Endurance is aruably the greatest survival story ever told. Against all odds, Ernest Shackleton always looked for a solution to every problem, difficulty, and tragedy that befell him or his crew. Through a combination of intelligence, resourcefullness, amazing courage, and quite a bit of luck, he managed to coordinate the rescue of all of his crew. The extraordinary photographs detail much of the ordeal, and Caroline Alexander's text wonderfully complements them. Any lover of adventure truly has to have this book.
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Summary: Lovely photographs, superb text
Review: It is not very often that a history book can combine thorough research and superb photography to bring to life a truly heroic struggle. "The Endurance" achieves just that. The unimaginable hardship and the cruel beauty of the south pole literally jumps off the page and transports the reader. In addition, the book is successful in presenting Shackleton's expedition as a triumph despite the fact that it did not achieve its scientific goals. Without any doubt, this is the definitive account of the last and most heroic expedition of the age of discovery.
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Summary: This Book is Great!
Review: This is the book that started all the interest in Ernest Shackelton a few years back. If you hurry, you can buy this book and get briefed on the amazing story contained within before the movie comes out. This is one of the most amazing stories you will ever read. It rivals The Long Walk by Rawicz in terms of narrative content, but is better written. I simply cannot fathom the despair and hardship each of these men faced on a daily basis for a year and a half. Fortunately for us, Shackelton had the foresight to take along with him, and accomplished photographer, and Caroline Alexander pairs the narrative with the visuals in a brilliant manner. This will be more than a coffee table book, or conversation starter, it will grip you.
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Summary: This is Adventure...........
Review: If you like adventure.........this is adventure. The author has a way of placing the reader into the book as if you were a crew member of this hard fought expedition. The crew members become real and the many ordeals that they face hold your attention in a realistic way. You feel you too share in the story and it's hard to predict just what's next. You want to take a trek to Antartica without leaving the comforts of home........read and enjoy this compelling story of high adventure, danger and uncertainty.
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Summary: What a journey. enlightening and entertaining
Review: This is one of those stories that proves real life stories can be just as exciting as fictions. Have you ever read Lord of the Rings? If that was the greatest made-up journey ever, I think Endurance can be called the greatest real-life journey ever. You can expect as much excitments and anxieties from Endurance as you can expect from Lord of the Rings. So get the audio tape, and start listening---it's both enlightening and entertaining. (The book has all those pictures, but they kill imaginations. But when you listen, wild dreams can fly as far as the sky.)
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Summary: The Endurance : Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Review: WARNING! This true account of an Anartic expidition will cause you to loose sleep. Just the right mixture of story and detail. I highly recomend it.
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Summary: A riveting story of strength, courage and hope - & endurance
Review: I got this book as a Christmas present. (One of the best presents in quite a while) The story itself is beautiful and brutal at the same time. Hurley's photos are inspiring, austere and almost surreal art. When coupled with the story itself they are overwhelming. I think what I found so compelling was to read a few pages and see Hurley's pictures of these events so that you feel like you know the men, the ship and the dogs (& Mrs. Chippy). The pictures taken at night of the Endurance frozen in the ice are, I think, the most incredible visions I have seen in a book. I actually read this book twice in a week because I enjoyed it so much. This is from a time when men were men and dogs were dogs!
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