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Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air

1302 Words6 Pages

In Jon Krakauer’s masterpiece, Into Thin Air, he provides an in-depth explanation of what happened one disastrous day on Mount Everest. While the book is essentially a memoir, it incorporates the excitement of an adventure novel, the suspense of a mystery, and the factual detailing of a school textbook. Jon Krakauer doesn’t leave out any experience to the reader; he very carefully explains every detail so anyone can read his book, even those who have never heard of what happened in Spring of 1996 on Mount Everest. The story essentially explores Jon Krakauer’s months of preparation for and climbing of Mount Everest. Krakauer is a newspaper writer for Outside magazine and gets the opportunity to go on the most prestigious and expensive (a whopping $65,000) …show more content…

From Krakauer’s letter to the reader, we have a basic understanding of his immense personal grief as the result of a tragedy on Mount Everest and the reason for writing the book. Then instead of jumping right into the narrative from the very beginning, Krakauer starts in the middle– the time and day when he reached the peak of Mount Everest and returned, and how eight others couldn’t do the same. This interlude first shocked me but also prepared me for what was to come. Most are unaware of what occurs at Mount Everest but this book awakens those who are oblivious, including myself. The book was incredibly informative, starting right from the beginning when the author gives the complete history of those attempting to reach the top of the world. Krakauer obviously well researched this book, which is unsurprising because of his journalist background, but provides for a good read. In fact, the additional elaboration never seemed too much and always made me seem like an omniscient and omnipresent participant. However, Krakauer also manages to make it seem conversational, always explaining his thoughts and opinions in every

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