9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Dissapointment, February 23, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Scraping Heaven : A Family's Journey Along the Continental Divide (Hardcover)
When i first saw this book on the bookshelf I was excited about reading the very appealing story of this family and the way they journeyed along the Contintental Divide Trail. I very much enjoy reading outdoor adventure books such as Bill Bryson's "A Walk In the Woods" and Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air". Both excellent and well written stories.
I picked up this book with similar expectations. I was very dissapointed to say the least. The story was redundent, not well written and extremely self-indulgent. Another problem I had with this book was the constant projection of thoughts and feelings onto her husband and children. Instead of telling a compelling story of long distance hiking with her familiy, friends and llamas, the author tries too hard to create a platform for her contrived introspection. She ends up portraying herself as very narcissistic.
My recommendation: Save your money.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scraping Heaven Merges the Sublime with the Nitty Gritty, September 19, 2002
This review is from: Scraping Heaven : A Family's Journey Along the Continental Divide (Hardcover)
Some adventure books are driven along with the end goal in mind, a striving to reach something, building to a climax. The book, Scraping Heaven, is a story where the end, the finish, is not as important as in these other tales. It is an adventure where the goal is the path,where Cindy Ross's dreams and life force become the motivation for the day-to-day jounrey along the Rocky Mountain spine of the Continental Divide. Experiences are what matter, both sublime and the nitty gritty.
She writes beautifully about her young son, "Bryce stands calmly on the rock ledge with the very exposed and rugged view behind him; pink cheeks and blue eyes the color of the mountain lake peep out from his dirty hood. His rosebud little-boy lips curve up in a smile, and he looks like the prince of this exquisite domain- his kingdom, his gold. My Continental Divide son."
Or how remote a place feels like home: "How can such a wild, unknown place come to feel so familiar?...You must live in it. You have to immerse yourself in the sylvan streams, the sunrises and sunsets, the sound of bugling elk. Living in the Tetons makes them yours. It's a different kind of ownership, a different kind of home, and perhaps it's more lasting."
You can feel and hear what she writes about; "Afterward we lie on large rocks that have soaked up the sun's rays to warm and dry ourselves. The kids yell across the lake to the granite cirque we sit in and it echoes their voices. The land is talking back to them, and it tells them of the largeness of their world."
Cindy does not gloss over the details of the nitty gritty: the personality clashes, the stinky socks, the kids fighting about getting cooties from drinking out of the same side of the water bottle, washing boogers out of hankies in lake water, and how intimacy with her husband tends to evaporate on the trail. Sometimes the sublime merges with the nitty gritty:
"At night it's a land of yipping coyotes and stars so abundant that if you are a little boy, and wake up in the middle of the night, you stand and stare with your mouth open and your head tilted way back, and you pee on yourself because you just can't believe how many stars there are in the sky."
What really emerges from these pages is the author's love of life. The only thing stronger that that is her love of family. Heh Ophra, Heh Kelly & Regis- You want books that are saturated with tales of strong women and families bonding while fighting daunting obstacles together? Here's your next book! This family even confronts the big questions:
"My Catholic faith of 42 years has left me wanting. After our hike last year, wew returned to our church, and a priest who is fond of preaching hell and damnation and sin. After one Mass, Sierra said, "We leave here feeling worse. I feel closer to God on the trail. Why do we go? And I started to wonder that myself"
Together they are living the big question, "How does one truly live?" Cindy's kids grew up on the backbone of the world, the majestic peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Eventually they came to a finish line at the Mexican border. I wished at that point that the book could go on. But in the Epilogue, we get the feeling that there will be more tales to tell from this wilderness family in the promise of the future. More good stories from Cindy Ross- mother, wife, and life explorer.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Next Best Thing to Being There, November 2, 2002
This review is from: Scraping Heaven : A Family's Journey Along the Continental Divide (Hardcover)
If you can't go out and thru-hike the CDT yourself - then read Cindy's book instead! As with all of Cindy's previous books, her writing puts you right on the trail with her and her family. You feel all of the joy, the pain, the tears, the laughter and see all of the incredible beauty on this magnificent trail. To hike such a trail is a monumnetal undertaking, but to include your young children in such a hike is incredible. Her honesty about life on the trail with her family only reinforces the respect I have for her and her family. I highly recommend Scraping Heaven - truly a work of art.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
