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Touching the Void (Vintage Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Joe Simpson
Publisher: Vintage Books
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  154 reviews
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 0099511746
EAN: 9780099511748
ASIN: 0099511746
Publication Date: November 25, 2008 (In 49 Days)
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Amazon.com Review
Concise and yet packed with detail, Touching the Void, Joe Simpson's harrowing account of near-death in the Peruvian Andes, is a compact tour de force that wrestles with issues of bravery, friendship, physical endurance, the code of the mountains, and the will to live. Simpson dedicates the book to his climbing partner, Simon Yates, and to "those friends who have gone to the mountains and have not returned." What is it that compels certain individuals to willingly seek out the most inhospitable climate on earth? To risk their lives in an attempt to leave footprints where few or none have gone before? Simpson's vivid narrative of a dangerous climbing expedition will convince even the most die-hard couch potato that such pursuits fall within the realm of the sane. As the author struggles ever higher, readers learn of the mountain's awesome power, the beautiful--and sometimes deadly--sheets of blue glacial ice, and the accomplishment of a successful ascent. And then catastrophe: the second half of Touching the Void sees Simpson at his darkest moment. With a smashed, useless leg, he and his partner must struggle down a near-vertical face--and that's only the beginning of their troubles.
Product Description
Tackling the unclimbed west face of the remote Siula Grande in the Andes, Joe Simpson and his partner Simon Yates achieved the summit before disaster struck. A few days later, an exhausted Simon staggered into base camp to tell their non-climbing companion that Joe was dead. For three days he wrestled with guilt as they prepared to return home. Then a cry in the night took them out, where they found Joe, badly injured, crawling through the snowstorm. Far from causing Joe’s death, Simon had saved his friend’s life when he was forced into the appalling decision to cut the rope.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 149 more reviews...
 One of those exceptions where the movie is better than the book August 21, 2008
Joe Simpson's disastrous experiences climbing Siula Grande in 1985 make for one of the greatest true adventure stories of the twentieth century. After Joe's accident on the mountain, he and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, nearly achieved an unlikely descent. When Simon is unable to continue Joe's rescue, he does the unthinkable (which Joe does not blame him for), and Joe's hellish troubles begin.
Sounds like the outline for an exciting and heart-wrenching adventure, doesn't it? Unfortunately, Joe was not an experienced writer when he penned Touching the Void, his first book, and it clearly shows. The reader is often disoriented by Simpson's use of mountaineering jargon (e.g., cols, ridges, and gullies). And although the book provides a brief glossary, it's not easy to picture what he's writing about if you've never seen a couloir before. In short, although the story has universal elements, climbers are likely to feel most at home in the account's setting.
There are some wonderful observations and images in the book, but these gems rarely glitter against the more plentiful heaps of cliches. The book needs to be edited and whittled down, and the IFC film based on the book is an absolutely spectacular rendering of Joe's experiences--the film captures what Joe is unable to accomplish in this book.
It's difficult for me to write a review recommending a movie over a book, but I'm positive that you'll enjoy the film much more. I found the book difficult to finish even though it's only around 200 pages long, yet the movie had me riveted from the beginning; I felt physically colder watching the movie, for example. Joe is certainly not the worst untrained writer to publish a bestseller, but in Touching the Void his weaknesses as a writer does not properly relate his greatness as a climber.
 Exciting read August 13, 2008
After watching the movie version of this book I wanted to read Touching the Void. I usually like to read the book first but in this case I am glad that I did it in reverse. I am not a mountain climber and do not know the terms used in the sport. So watching the movie helped set up the book to where it made a lot of sense. The book provided a more realistic vision of what the climbers thought and felt. It put me there with them. I am in awe.
 Snore August 13, 2008
This is a very boring book. I thought it would be an action packed survival book, but it put me to sleep.
Outstanding book - you won't be able to put it down August 6, 2008
Touching the Void is one of the best books I've ever read. Wow. I am still kind of stunned. I started it way too late at night and couldn't put it down. I went to work the next morning with only four hours of sleep.
It's not even that the writing's good, per se. It is - it's VERY good. But the story itself and the way he wrote it is just amazing.
I've read a lot about the high altitude hallucinations people have (conversations with your feet at 27000 ft or people sitting on your ice ledge telling you they have tea set up just around the corner) but his experience was not at all like that. He had what he calls a voice inside that was insistent about keeping to a timetable and doing certain things, especially as he dragged himself off the glacier. It was deeply fascinating and the only thing that made the suspense at all bearable was that I knew he must have lived, since, hello, holding his book in my hands. I could not put it down.
I was also really impressed with the sections written by his climbing partner, Simon Yates. OUCH. Painful and honest but not self-exculpatory or irrational.
Augh. This is the worst review ever. But, jeez. Read it! See for yourself!
An Incredible Story June 28, 2008
If you liked "Into Thin Air," then you will love this book, which is just as brilliant and perhaps even more incredible. If you've been to Peru, even better. Great writing, great story, and an unforgettable tale. Again, a rare book that once begun, is almost impossible to put down. Simpson has written some others, but none as good as his first. Read it. And try his "This Game of Ghosts" if you want more.
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