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| ** Stars |
Boy, is Deep Survival an up-and-down ride. There are periods of uninterrupted travelling and the view out the window looks pretty good. The problem is that just as you get comfortable you find yourself in a different vehicle in different terrain and then before you know it you are suddenly thrust into another situation in another mode of transport. It is all over the show and in the end the lack of continuity spoils the trip.
Besides the bumpy journey there is plenty to like about this book. Unpacking the idea of “survival” and looking for universal truths is a great idea. I cannot imagine the world becoming an easier place to live so more of this can only be a good thing. Not only that, the idea of survival – for those of us who have not had to go through that hardship – is very romantic. This is a fun place to escape. Down rivers, through snow and jungles, out to sea and hurtling through the sky in an aeroplane. Gonzales takes us through all of these places and more. And I am not ashamed to acknowledge that the Boy’s Own tone, and the will of Deep Survival’s heroes, is enthralling. No matter how grim things get the author does a great job outlining the odd’s they were facing. These descriptions make you admire them as well as what we as humans can live through.
Against this heroic backdrop Gonzales also underlines that you cannot escape being human and inside the accomplishment of surviving the impossible is the reality that you will often be forced to make the decision to save yourself above and beyond anything else. While he does not explore this side of things in terms of morality or antihero-ism he does not shy away from the fact that in extreme situations not only will people will die but also anything you do to try and change that will drastically reduce your own chances of surviving. Flagging this aspect of extreme survival situations is commendable and I look forward to a long pub chat about that with friends.
While those things are all well and good there are two things that spoil this book. The first is his use of unrelated research areas to discuss each chapter and the second is his adolescent machismo. On the first point Gonzales has set out to write in an erudite fashion but when he starts combining chaos theory with neuroscience, self-organizing systems and various other concepts he begins to sound vague and unconvincing. A meta-approach like this would be a big task for any major academic but here the author is trying to do it in 250 and still sound conversational and masculine. Whatever links he makes between these things are tenuous at best and it gets in the way of his subject which he clearly loves and has a lot of experience in. I can’t help but wish he’d just interviewed related people involved in these stories and gone for reflection and/or straight journalism.
As for the second point Gonzales is prone to his fair share of cringe inducing phrases. On one page he is taking us over the top with the triumph of ‘cool’, then uses an anecdote with pilot slang in it and then bothers to decode it. He is also good at touching us with descriptions like “he saw himself, humbly, with spiritual empathy, and even gratitude, as a part of this sweet old world.” Really there is no end of it. Perhaps the part which illustrates his penchant for this type of thing while trying to link anything he has experienced in life to the concept of survival is when he talks about surfing. On page 145 he recalls “He told me that mana was the Hawaiian word for “spirit” or “spiritual power” or “energy.” If there needs to be a reason for surfing, mana is the reason, he said.” In the grip of this books narrative this awkward fireside sagacity is laugh-out-loud funny and only gets in the way of him making his point.
All in all I cannot say I am sad I read this book. I am disappointed that it didn’t make me excited about popular non-fiction. The basic tips for survival at the end are great and the people he discusses are remarkable, I will give him that. The erudition needs to be parked and his yearning to be cool needs to be sent down the Mississippi river where he grew up.
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