Review (Well kind of)

[catz]

prompted by alibali saying she was rereading this one and she thought it was partly responsible for the strange state of mind she was in before her travels, i thought i'd give it another go. As usual, each time I read one of Joe's books for a second (or in this case 3rd) time, new things jump out. What stands out for me at the moment are the last few pages of the book when he is trying to explain why he continues to climb despite the attrition of his friends over the years and how he feels about all this.
"Ghosts everywhere I look, all I see are ghosts - or perhaps I am the ghost, a spectre of my past standing in the rubble of my present, anxiously awaiting the future. The one certainty is that I will soon be gone, and in going so will a legion of ghosts" Not sure whether he's talking about lifetimes in geological spans of time or a more normal span of time as seems to come across but it does seem a strange thing for a man in his early 30s to write - or maybe not given the experiences he'd had up to that point and seems to continue to have.
"And if the ghosts are gone, I wonder whether anything I have written, anything I have thought, is worth the time or paper it uses." Damn this man can write. How is it he can construct phrases that are so haunting? I wonder if he still feels this way? He wondered himself whether his words would still be true in a decade...
Apologies for rambling - strange state of mind is persisting longer than usual

[Tia]

I’ve promised myself the luxury of rereading Joe’s books back-to-back and in the order in which they were written (but I have some other books to read first). I like rereading books I’ve previously enjoyed—I know I’ll enjoy it and, like you say Catz, you always pick up something new.

“And if the ghosts are gone, I wonder whether anything I have written, anything I have thought, is worth the time or paper it uses.” I suppose Joe has an answer to that in the ongoing enthusiasm for his books.

In the acknowledgement section Joe said four of his friends died while he was writing TGOG. I think one of the strengths of Joe’s writing is that even when things are grim he can convey humour. Like when he heard about the PIA crash and left a message on a friend’s answering machine asking him if he was dead. It’s just the sort of quirky thing you would do in a moment of confusion.

I usually have an aversion to reading poetry, but I liked the choice of the Christina Rossetti poem at the end.

[Kay]

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote> It’s just the sort of quirky thing you would do in a moment of confusion.<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

My son lived in Hatfield at the time of the rail crash in 2000. He used to commute to University in London on that line. When I turned on the news that morning and saw what had happened, I thought, 'Well I can't phone him up and howl "Are you still alive, son?"' So I sent him a text message saying "I hope the crash hasn't caused any travel problems for you." He sent one back saying, "What crash?"