My father was a Vietnam veteran, whose experiences and lessons for me mirrored those of Laurence Gonzales' World War II veteran father's for him. It is no surprise that both Gonzales and myself spent much of our lives choosing to put ourselves in very high risk taking activities. This book, a collection of Gonzales' personal essays, is one of the most intensely engaging non fiction thrillers I've ever read (and I have a large collection of books within this genre). Like his other books, Gonzales' storytelling skills are beyond description- his use of language is brilliant and craftful, yet without pretentiousness. The imagery is haunting. I left many of the essays feeling as if I had been through the experience, whether it was his own personal experience or that of someone he interviewed. Here's a quick preview of the chapters and the topics the stories encompass: Marion Prison starts the book out, and is a graphic, brutal introduction into "The House of Pain". It makes Shawshank Redemption feel like a romantic story for middle school literature class. The World Trade Center made me very emotional, and I am haunted by it weeks afterwards. This is one of the most difficult essays I've ever read. Wire Walker, the essay in which the cover picture is taken, is about the painful sacrifices the families of a traveling circus make- both in physical pain as well as other types of suffering. Blue Memphis brought out into the light the darkness of the South's history and continued struggle with racism and despair. Empty America is symbolic of the changing nature of America's most isolated places. House of Pain is about cancer treatment at Cook County Hospital in Chicago; it reminded me why when I was in college and I would go home from working a shift in the Emergency Room I would soak my pillow in tears as I cried myself to sleep. Night in the City of Sun was a tour through Miami's red light district, a symbol of the madness and despair of Southern urban cross cultural epicenters of extreme existence. The Rites of Spring was a summary of his first wife's battle with breast cancer, which she ultimately lost; the perspective of a spouse going through that fight left me completely horrified of what horrors lurk that affect all of us, not just extreme risk takers and those finding themselves in extreme circumstances. Bush Pilots was a relative joyful account of the pains of being an Alaskan bush pilot, regularly taking risks that most would consider inconceivable. Big Bend is a romantic account of the history of the Big Bend Texas area; it exemplifies Gonzales' relationship to his personal history (grandparents) and mother nature. Fire Fighters was one of the most engaging nonfiction compositions I've been blessed to read; it answers many questions about why risk takers do what they do, and how those risk takers cope when their best friends die horrific deaths burning alive. In the Belly of the Whale Gonzales takes us out to Gulf of Mexico oil rigs; the costs in terms of human life for us to drive gasoline powered vehicles is enormous, far more enormous than any of us ever give them credit for or understand. No More Immelmans is a very personal account of Gonazales confronting his own risk taking as a nearly-life long acrobatics pilot; his list and recounts of people and friends dying participating in this endeavor is sadness at some of its most deep and revealing levels. The last chapter, No Escape, takes into a large psychiatric hospital that includes the criminally insane; just as we enter the book in a prison, we leave the book from a psych ward; it is beautifully extreme in its symbolism of all of us living and coping with existence, an existence that will be filled with challenges, pain, and eventually end; we are all, in our own ways, carefully negotiating the existential House of Pain. Although at least one or more of these essays will leave you shaken, as they should, I FULLY recommend this phenomenal book.
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