Graham Vert Presents: The Third of Many Scintillating and Morally Questionable Blog Posts About the Spectacular Novel "Into Thin Air!" (Sponsored by BMW)

The novel Into Thin Air is well-written, but I also found it to be extremely depressing. The book becomes more and more brooding and dark as it progresses, and although there is a minor uplift in tone when the climbers reach the summit, the rest of the tale is extremely dreary. Those who already know the story of what happened in the Mt. Everest disaster will read the book with the knowledge of the impending doom. But even though we all already know the outcome, we're still hoping that something, anything will happen to prevent the turn of events that we know all too well will come.

Krakauer says "We were too tired to help. Above 8,000 meters is not a place where people can afford morality." Here he demonstrates the truly hellish circumstances under which the climbers found themselves, as well as the harsh reality of the fact that some of them had to abandon their own moral codes in order to escape the mountain with their lives. It must be a truly hellish thing to watch other people perish trying to accomplish the same thing you are. As far as Krakauer knows, it was just by the luck of the draw that he made it out alive instead of the several climbers who didn't. Cheating death can make a person feel alive, but when one cheats death in a way that leads others to die in their place, it gives the story a far darker and more sinister aspect.

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MINI-REVIEW:

Into Thin Air definitely has a story worth telling, and I'm certainly interested in seeing how the upcoming film adaptation of it handles the source material. However, the writing of the book often felt a little too cold (no pun intended) and detached sometimes, making it feel more dictatorial than emotional. The characters were sympathetic, especially Rob Hall and Krakauer himself. I believe that a lot more suspense and intensity could have been thrust into the story if the minor characters were given a little more development. A lot of them felt more like stereotypes and cookie-cutter characters than people we should seriously be worried about in the story. Of course, they were based on real people, so this isn't really a complaint... however, it's possible that in his short time with them, Krakauer never became very close with them and therefore didn't have much to say about them in general.

FINAL SCORE FOR INTO THIN AIR: 6/10 stars.

This isn't really a great book, but you could do far worse. I know I didn't get bored with it, which is really saying something, as I have the attention span of a goldfish. Certain parts of it could have been greatly improved, but altogether I thought it was a fascinating and realistic portrayal of an Everest expedition gone wrong. Even if it did sometimes feel more like an after-school special than an emotional or personal story.