Readers’ response to our recent post on the book, THE LOST: Shipwrecked on the Edge of the World, was exceptionally strong. So on the heels of that popular post, might as well toss out two more adventure books also very well worth reading.
The famous and classic masterpiece, ENDURANCE, SHACKLETON’S INCREDIBLE VOYAGE, by Alfred Lansing. This, of course, chronicles the incredible adventure of Ernest Shackleton and his 27 shipmates. ENDURANCE has been the 10-ton gorilla on the adventure shelf for decades. We all know the ending, but it’s still impossible to put down.
The story is well known: in 1914, Shackleton and his crew reach Antarctica on an attempt to reach the South Pole. Their ship, Endurance, becomes locked in Antarctic ice over the winter. As the flows shift and pull and gravitate, Endurance is dragged for hundreds of miles while Shackleton watches, helpless against the monumental forces of nature. After months of darkness and cold, the ship is crushed by the ice, and sinks. With little food, fuel, supplies, or scientific equipment, Shackleton (who is later Knighted to became Sir Ernest Shackleton) must save himself and the crew. He must trek across 850 miles of sheet ice, moving ice floes, chasms and crevasses, bitter cold, wind, and finally many hundreds of miles of violent open water in the freezing Southern Ocean, the most brutal ocean on earth. They aim for South Georgia Island, a mere speck in the middle of nowhere, over 500 miles away, and about 750 miles due east of the tip of South America. They push off in what is essentially an open lifeboat, with no power nor modern navigational equipment. At the mercy of the endless winds, waves and currents, if the elements conspire, they’ll miss the island, and perish. If by a miracle they happen to catch the island, then they can only hope a whaling ship might be there, or come by in the next few years.
Facing one set back after another, nothing stops Shackleton. ENDURANCE remains a stunning testament to courage, optimism, and leadership. It's an absolutely riveting book and remains as the Big Kahuna in the true-life-adventure pantheon. It's also a fine example of old-fashioned journalism, devoid of hyperbole, exaggeration, made-up dialogue, editorializing. The facts speak for themselves. It’s not to be missed. Suitable for all ages. ENDURANCE on Amazon (But try one of hundreds of older copies on Ebay. The feel of an older book in your hands will match the content!)
Collecting note. ENDURANCE has been printed and reprinted dozens of times, and remains quite an attractive and collectible book. The first edition, which happens to be a book club edition, can still be found at a relatively affordable price, even with its colorful color. As we always remind you, in collecting, condition is everything. Ebay is a fine place to start, as is Abebooks.com. Endurance is a mainstay for anyone who's collecting adventure books.
No one reads more than my 94 year-old mother-in-law, Helen. Her recommendations are 100% solid, and after reading my post on THE LOST, she fired right back with a recommendation of her own. I can't wait to read it. It's THE WAGER, A TALE of SHIPWRECK, MUTINY and MURDER, by David Grann. At first glance this would appear to check all the adventure boxes! It was published only about 6 months ago. Helen reports, “Terrific true story. Loads of research. Quite special. I really got into it.”
So, I looked it up (she loaned her copy to someone else!).
From Amazon’s description:
“On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.
But then ... six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers…….”
The WAGER is available on Amazon here.
Earlier this year I reviewed the novel, LAURUS, by Eugene Vodolazkin. (My Substack post on LAURUS) The author is Russian, writes from Saint Petersburg, and has emerged as one of Europe’s finest writers. Vodolazkin is also a world expert on Medieval history. LAURUS is about a Medieval faith healer and holy man who travels across Europe on both a geographical and spiritual journey. Along with THE ACTUAL AND TRUE STORY OF AHMED AND ZARGA (My Substack Post on AHMED AND ZARGA) it was simply the best book I read in 2022.
Therefore, I eagerly awaited Vodolazkin’s next novel, which indeed came out a few months ago. I was so excited when A HISTORY OF THE ISLAND arrived. After all, an expert on history, writing about history, on the heels of Laurus! This was totally in his wheelhouse. I couldn't wait.
Sad to say, I found it a major disappointment. In fairness, A HISTORY OF THE ISLAND does contain some of the same stylistic elements that I so enjoyed in LAURUS: subtle humor, unexpected turns, modern allusions, and some pithy events. It's the allegorical story of a fictional island and its centuries and centuries of history. There are kings and queens, political entanglements, and some societal evolution. Apparently there are satirical parallels between the history of the Island and the history of Russia, and other European countries. And while I happen to know a good bit of Russian history, and could sense the attempts at symbolism and analogy, they were waaay to subtle or obscure for me and I simply couldn't make things line up.
I sure tried to like this book but I found it neither compelling nor especially interesting. The characters were pretty flat and the “action,” subtle as it is, never drew me in. Perhaps I totally missed the point. My sense is that this is a historian writing about history, and he surely knows his subject better than a reader like me. In other words, the storyline nor characters weren’t strong enough to overcome my inability to make sense of the historical allusions. Maybe it’s for his Russian readers. The author certainly has fun with history, and I did read to the end, and there’s a lovely way that it’s all wrapped up. Given that Vodolazkin is a Russian historian, I'm sure these pages hold a good bit of personal meaning to him, and pieces of European history that I can't grasp. Anyway, unless you were a huge huge fan of LAURUS, I’d take a pass. But we can still look forward to his next book.
FOOD FUN: We all want this: The best places to eat on the cheap, in every state, according to Yelp. CHEAP EATS in every state.
And finally, a list of the best burgers in America. I have a feeling everyone’s an expert on this! Eat it up: Best Burgers
Thank you for reading. Share with a reader or food-fan.
Best wishes from Arizona.