Experienced sailors become stranded at sea and, even though they possess all the mental and physical tools to survive their ordeal, some succumb to thirst and madness while their fellows keep hold of their faculties and survive.
seventeen year old girl, with no formal training, is the only survivor of a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle. On her own, she executes a ten day hike out to safety in spite of concussion, lacerations to her arms and a broken collarbone.
Why did they survive? Why, in a disaster, do some people make it through, mind and soul intact, while others in identical positions do not? Luck surely plays a role, but luck does not explain why people who are confronting the same problem, and who are equally wounded, have different fates. What is left but some fundamental element of human nature, some trait which blesses some of us while forsaking the rest.
Laurence Gonzales has devoted much of his life to discovering answers to the questions of survival, getting an early start in his crusade when, as a child, he watched his father return home to him from World War II, having improbably survived a horrific crash while in combat. Why did his father come home while the other fathers of other boys did not?
The answer is not an easy one. Certainly, there are commonalities across most successful survivals: calmness in the face of danger, focus on the task at hand. And in any event, the kind of trait is almost secondary to whether or not that trait can be acquired, or whether or not Cool under fire is something with which we are born. In pursuit of his white whale, Mr. Gonzales investigates plane crashes, boats lost at sea, and hikes gone horribly wrong, all in an effort to find an answer to his lifelong quest for the essence of survival. An excellent and memorable book for its thought-provoking premise and its earnest execution. Mr. Gonzales' passion shines through and the interviews he's done with survivors are unforgettable. (4/5 Stars)
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