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on June 28, 2015
Interesting story, but the story could have been told in about 1/4 of the pages.
on July 31, 2012
I had high hopes [I really enjoyed Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, and thought that this book might be similar] but was disappointed by this book. The "narrative drive" mentioned in some of the promotional information ["...part detective story..."] is non-existent. This isn't a detective story; as rendered, it's a long, painfully plodding, description of a search that doesn't find anything. The author does give a sense of the daunting task the searchers were faced with, and there are also some interesting details about how wilderness Search and Rescue (SAR) operations are conducted. That said, there is also just way too much information - dreams people had about where Randy might be or what might have happened to him, visions offered by psychics about where to look for Randy, seemingly endless descriptions of Randy's personal problems and troubled mental state, leading to conjecture as to whether he might have commited suicide or staged his own disappearance. It's as if the author felt the need to include every detail he gleaned from his research, which seems to have been obsessively thorough.
The bulk of the book is really a biography. As with the chapters dealing with Randy's disappearance, there are some interesting details worked in - the training and day-to-day life of a back-country ranger; stories of wilderness rescues and tragedies; vivid descriptions of the beauty of Kings Canyon National Park - but the book goes on with some of these descriptions for far too long, includes way too much superfluous detail, and gets badly repetitive. Did you know that Randy never received any official recognition for his work as a back-country ranger? You'll be pretty clear on that fact if you read this book; Blehm brings it up at least four different times by my recollection, sometimes discussing it for pages. Where was the editor? After a while, the only reason I kept reading [or skimming, to be accurate] was to see whether there would be an epilogue or last chapter where some closure or explanation would be given.
With some heavy editing, I think that this could have been a superb Kindle single or long article in Outside magazine; as written, though, this book reads like a 50 page story bloated into a 350 page book. Not recommended.
The bulk of the book is really a biography. As with the chapters dealing with Randy's disappearance, there are some interesting details worked in - the training and day-to-day life of a back-country ranger; stories of wilderness rescues and tragedies; vivid descriptions of the beauty of Kings Canyon National Park - but the book goes on with some of these descriptions for far too long, includes way too much superfluous detail, and gets badly repetitive. Did you know that Randy never received any official recognition for his work as a back-country ranger? You'll be pretty clear on that fact if you read this book; Blehm brings it up at least four different times by my recollection, sometimes discussing it for pages. Where was the editor? After a while, the only reason I kept reading [or skimming, to be accurate] was to see whether there would be an epilogue or last chapter where some closure or explanation would be given.
With some heavy editing, I think that this could have been a superb Kindle single or long article in Outside magazine; as written, though, this book reads like a 50 page story bloated into a 350 page book. Not recommended.
on March 23, 2016
did not care of this audio book. description of the contents was not any where near what the book ended up being. disappointed. not in amazon by any means. just that i listen to a lot of audio books and this one is a NO.
on September 9, 2013
Too much preaching of the subject's own philosophy of life and how to see the world. Book would have been better with more facts. Author's other book about the Seal from Arkansas was written much better
on March 27, 2014
Got about a fourth of the way through and I just got burned out on a one trick pony subject. By that I mean, I just got tired of the thought of reading a whole book about a rescue mission. I think this was an article that should have appeared in an outdoor magazine instead of being made into a book. The writing seemed fine.....I just got bored way too early.
on March 15, 2008
I found this book to be tedious and depressing and yet I managed to read the entire thing, wanting to find out what finally happened. Randy Morgenson grew up in an idyllic setting (Yosemite Valley), was raised by caring parents, yet managed to make a mess of his life due to what seems to have been an obsession for living alone in the beauty of the Sierra. He married, but was away from home at least half the time, and never had children. Although a legendary and exemplary ranger, he was unfaithful to his long-suffering wife in a three-year affair, became ultimately disillusioned with his obsession, and finally died alone apparently having drowned after falling through a snow bridge into an alpine pond while on patrol. Tragic and depressing.
