Hester RumbergRecensioni
Autore di Ten Degrees of Reckoning: A True Story of Survival
Recensioni
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My Thoughts: This is a difficult review to write as I had to separate out the story of what happened to the Sleavins and the book itself. What happened to the Sleavin family is heart-breaking, chilling and oddly compelling. I can’t even imagine the pain and fear that Judith Sleavin must have experienced in those 44 hours until she was saved. Losing your family right before your eyes in such traumatic circumstances would make it difficult to go on. The book certainly doesn’t sugarcoat Judith’s recovery, and it seems that she is still broken in many ways. The fact that Judith chose not to share her story until years afterward made me admire her for not capitalizing on the tragedy of her family. Her motivations for sharing her story seem honest and true. In fact, she chose her close friend Dr. Hester Rumberg to tell her story, a decision that I’m sure allowed her to open up about her tragedy with less stress.
Although Rumberg does her best to tell the Sleavin’s story as objectively as possible, therein lies the problem with the book: the narration is just too clinical and objective to be affecting. The story never fully came alive for me, and I think this was due to the nature of the writing. Although the writing is competent and workmanlike, it just doesn’t have the emotional impact that you would expect from a story like this. The fact that I didn’t shed a tear surprised me. This is a real tragedy, and yet I felt oddly unaffected while reading. I would have loved to see someone like Jon Krakauer or Sebastian Junger tell this story instead. Both of those writers are masters at telling nonfiction stories that make the story fully come alive while still maintaining a journalistic distance. Sadly, this book just didn’t have the emotional “oomph” it should have had …though I certainly don’t mean to take away anything from Judith Sleavin’s story itself.