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Maybe I have to reread this. I renember enjoying the shit out of this book when I read it. Then again, I think I was in middle school! I dont remember the Christianity being forced down my gullet. "I dont remember" should be my tagline for this comment thread.

It wasn't really that it was forced down my gullet, it was that there was an overall theme on survival due to faith rather than survival due to fact.

Hmmm interesting point. But I think that faith, however dopey it seems, was the engine that kept them living, no?

I agree that in some circumstances faith can induce a greater will for survival, and this did happen to some of the survivors.
On the other hand some survivors despaired about being not good enough to join god, let themselves starve due to survivors guilt and despaired in general about a god who would cause this suffering.

So having faith does not necessarily enhance odds of survival.

You speak of the ole double edged sword. You are absolutely correct.

Do you know of any other written accounts of this accident?

If you wanted a Wikipedia synopsis of geographical facts or diet logs you can read the Wikipedia article. I found the book to be really comprehensive about the facts - as far as geographical locations there are answers, but not all is revealed until the survivors themselves know what happened to the Fairchild. It makes a lot more narrative sense when they have no idea where they are, to delay those facts.

Towards the end of the book there is discussion about God, and the author is very fair about it - asking questions about why a loving God would manufacture such awful circumstances. He mentions the survivors who discounted religion and became skeptical about God - "If we relied on only prayer we would still be up on that mountain". One boy said it had made him less religious and he now had stronger faith in man.

I'm an atheist and I wouldn't be interested in reading a book entirely about some person's religious experience, but it is crazy to me that you finished such an incredible story and your take away is that there was too much religion in it - when the survivors had an intense need for something to cling to for survival and several do claim their nightly rosary sessions and faith in God was integral to their community and to their hope to survive.

I disliked the seeming affirmation of the psychic and the diviner's predictions too - these kind of people are despicable in their exploitation of desperate and grieving family. But I don't think the author went to far with it - he claims to try only to record the bare facts, and this is what he's doing here.

I find your complaints/criticism to be a bit confusing. I just finished the book and the author seemed to be simply telling the story from the survivors� point of view. I did not take a single bit of the religious aspect to be something the author was trying to sell me nor did he in any way declare God saved these boys or anything like that. He was simply telling us what was told to him by the people who lived through it and you have to figure a plane full of heavily religious Catholics are going to discuss God and religion and faith quite a bit through such an ordeal. That is not the author’s doing, that is what happened.

Additionally, the author was not validating or justifying the use of a psychic to find the boys and the plane. He was telling us exactly what the parents did and who they sought out for help, and one of those people happened to be a psychic or clairvoyant or whatever he is referred to as in the book. That is not the author’s fault or doing, that is what happened and that is what he was telling us. Do I personally find so-called psychics to be absurd and dangerous and sickening? Absolutely. But that is what went on so he told us about it. In no way was he saying the psychic was legitimate or the right thing to do. At most he stated that a few of the details the psychic provided were in fact accurate, but that’s all and again that is what happened. And what would you expect the author to do? Call the parents idiots for being desperate enough to try ANYTHING to find their missing kids? No way is he going to offer an opinion on it and if anything he probably pointed out the few facts the psychic got right as a way to maybe make the parents feel slightly less silly. You have to remember that this book was written right after this ordeal happened.

As far as your fixation on caloric intake due to eating dead people...I just don’t get it. It’s not a biology book and he got into a LOT of detail regarding what they ate and how much and all of that so I do not understand why a calorie count is necessary or how on earth a calorie count would add to the book whatsoever; you might be the only person on earth who wants to know that bit of info and certainly you can do your own research on that.

Additionally, the book does go into detail about geography and the rescue and there are even multiple maps included in the book. So that is another criticism I do not understand at all.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I find your hangups to be a bit odd and it would be a real shame if someone were to pass on such a great book because of your comments here which I do not even feel are accurate except for the calorie bit. I am an agnostic and while I am in no way religious, the faith discussions here did not in any way take away from the enjoyment of the book. The author was just telling us what happened from the survivors� point of view and that was his job. It seems more like you are taking issue with the survivors� beliefs than the book itself.

I don't normally comment on reviews this old. However I'm glad I read you wrote. This book was far to religiously bias for me as well.

Sorry a book about human survival and the things that motivated them to carry on in a human way wasn't clinical and detached enough for you. YAWN! I'm an atheist but I am so bored with your type who try to act like you're the most intelligent person in the room and everyone is being stupid for having religion. Their religion is why they pushed on and why they survived, as well as the physical aspects of it. Grow up.

it'0s religious because the survivors were very religious. sow ere their families. it's an accurate account and the book is sold as the story of the survivors. It talks about what they ate, it spends a lot of time dealing with their rescue... I don0t get the compaint about the book. I don't believe in any god and still didn't mind how heavy handed the religious aspect is because that's how it was.