[.ca] View From the Summit (ISBN 0385600208)

a view from over the hero's shoulder.:
Hillary is not going to get a Nobel Price for this book. It is written in a rather 'choppy' style. Hard to follow and sometimes plain boring. From time to time, many basic inportant information is left out leaving the reader completely lost. However, this book gives us a chance to take a glimpse at the human side of this great explorer. We finally see details about adventures never revealed before because authors deem them unimportant but this kind of details actually allow the readers to see the adventures from a different angle. We see Hillary as a human being and share with him his adventures and his goals. It is just extraordinary to see a man raise from a life as a simple beekeeper to become one of the most important figures of this century and not lose his human quality in the process. This book is a good alternative to a rootcanal.

Remarkable autobiography by an outstanding man:
I found this book a pleasant surprise, after having read a few mountaineering adventure books. If you are looking for one, look elsewhere; Hillary climbed Everest, but did not have any major mountaineering accomplishments thereafter. Instead, we see the picture of a simple man, a very likeable and sincere one, with flaws and virtues. We can see his sneakiness in going for the south pole despite orders not to, we can see his dedication to the people of Nepal, we can see his somewhat estranged relationship with Tenzing and the tensions that arose after Tenzing said he had reached the summit first. The discussion is a futile one, but it seems to put a damper on the relationship. In this book we also follow his life, not just his great conquests. We see the backstage of the lecture circuit he went through after Everest, then the honors he received and his attempt to maintain some normalcy in his life. Overall, it is a very good life book, and despite it being filled with adventures, we see the character of a person that is much more than simply an adventurer.

How Hillary got to the top of Everest - and kept on going.:
The metaphors are almost irresistable. What does a man do after he reaches his peak? For New Zealand beekeeper and amateur mountaineer (as they all were, then) Sir Edmund Hillary, the answer was to strap on the crampons and find new peaks to conquer. View from the Summit is an autobiographical look back at a large and heroic life. After sharing the conquest of Everest with Tensing Norgay in 1953, Hillary went on to accomplish many more firsts, any of which would have been enough to crown most people heroes. He travelled by farm tractor to the South Pole (poking the British leader of the Trans Antarctic Expedition seriously in the eye in the process). He led an expedition of New Zealand-designed jet boats up the Ganges. He was the first man to stand at both poles and the summit of Everest. The achievement that stands out most clearly for Hillary though, is his lifetime of work in the Himalayas, building schools, airfields and hospitals. Using his fame to maximum effect, he travelled widely seeking donations, then returned to the mountains he will be forever associated with to give something back to the people who made his triumph possible. But all these stories have been already told, and were it to merely retell them, View from the Summit would be little more than an anthology. What makes this book most rewarding is its insights into the man behind the stories. The beekeeper. The RNZAF navigator. The husband and father. In looking back on his epic life, Sir Edmund Hillary shows that mountains, rivers and icecaps are nothing compared to the peaks of human achievement, courage and compassion that he so well embodies. Why look for heroes at the movies or in cartoons? Read this book and see how an ordinary bloke from New Zealand conquered the world's highest mountain - then went looking for more.

Every turn of the tractor wheel is recounted:
This is a reasonably interesting autobiography, but does get bogged down a bit, especially in the Antarctica passages. At some times it seems as if you are living out every turn of the tractor wheels across Antarctica. Flipping a few pages doesn't hurt though, and the rest of the story more than compensates. It's nice to hear about Hillary's later relationship with Tenzing Norgay...and Hillary's account is borne out in Jamling Tenzing Norgay's story (Jamling is Tenzing's son).

A bit of a disappointment:
After reading narratives of a few of the contemporary Everest adventurers (Krakauer, etc) I was interested in reading the views of someone who's been around awhile. Unfortunately, Hillary's account of his own life was even more self-serving than Krakauer's tale of his Everest expedition...and not half as interesting. Maybe it just goes with the personality type but I expected someone at Hillary's stage in life to have a broader view. Also, the writing style is definitely less than spectacular. That said, by the time I get to be Hillary's age I'll be pleased if I can still read...let alone write anything. Overall, not an inspiration and not particularly interesting...I'd pass it up.