TODD BALF
1 A tragedy indeed....
"The Last River - The Tragic Race for Shangri-la".......Tragic. Yes I'd agree that this book is tragic.
Tragic that I bothered reading it.....tragic that I paid for it in order to read it.....tragic that Todd wasted his time writing it......tragic that I disliked it so much that I can be bothered writing a review.
The warning should have come upon examination of the back of the dust jacket. "Advance praise for The Last River" it reads. In retrospect this means no one is prepared to recommend the book after they have read it.
It seems that Todd had a vision of how big a book needs to be, and went to great lengths to flesh out the story to reach his goal. So much of the content has so little relevancy to the story, that you soon tire trawling through it.
This was my third Tsango experience. I do recommend the Outside documentary on the Lindgren expedition. "Hell or High Water" is not outstanding, but is worth a read, but on this book, my advise to Todd is please make this the Last River that you drag through the wringer.
2 Last River or Diamond Sow?? It's a toss up.
My comments come after finishing the books "The Last River" and "Courting the Diamond Sow", both of which I read over the last 2 weeks, and was provoked to write by a couple of factors. Reading the existing reviews for "The Last River" particularly, I was struck by the number of people who felt it necessary to slam the book.
First, after reading these books I have a better appreciation for the writing skill needed to write a book that is entirely engaging, brings the personalities to life, allows the reader to become part of the adventure, all the while being true to its subject.
Second, I appreciate that the writers made the story available so that we could learn about this trip and I don't mean to suggest that either effort was a waste of time and that the writers should hang up their quills.
Sadly, in my opinion neither of the books written about the same 1998 Tsangpo journey is terribly engaging. Last River is an easier read while I found the first half, particularly, of Sow a literary slog. Not sure if it was bogged down in description or what; I just found it slow going.
Neither book had much of an ebb and flow in the narrative. Even as the tragic events of Doug Gordon's death neared, there was nothing to indicate that one's blood should be heating up and that now was not the time to put the book down. They were very flat in that regard. I differentiate between sensationalism and a literary tidal cycle; perhaps the authors were extremely cognizant of avoiding the former.
The Last River spends a greater percentage of ink relating the experiences of the 4 paddlers on the river and off while Sow balances more equally the stories of both paddlers and support team. Also, Wickliffe Walker in Sow deals with the `fallout' from Gordon's death much more comprehensively than does Todd Balf; Walker spends several pages relating the effort needed to battle rumours and judgments that were circulating at home half-way around the world.
While the actual journey and the salient events I expect to remember, these books I expect to forget quickly (but then, I forgot Into Thin Air fairly quickly also). If there are poignant moments from the tale and thoughts to come away with, the one I recall most easily is the second-guessing of Gordon's paddling buddies as described most clearly in The Last Rivers account of Roger Zbel's "What if" self-flagellation. As a paddler, I pray that I am never faced with that.
.
It was disappointing that The Last River did not have any photos at all of the area and only a minimalist map. On the other hand, Sow's small collection of photos was hardly comprehensive though the satellite photo was helpful in placing the story.
Nether book rates more than a 2.5 - 3, in my mind, nor does one stand head and shoulders above the other.
My context: Canadian class IV kayaker; 3 Himalayan river trips in Nepal (in fact and unbeknownst, I was on the Tamur River at exactly the time this group was on the Tsangpo); read years ago the American Whitewater article of the Gordon/McEwan trip down the Homothko in BC.
3 The Last River
This book is a true story about a team that goes on an expedition to kayak the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet. The book begins out in the United States describing how the characters have grown and why they came to like kayaking so much. It tells of their families and how they met, and also if they had any influences to the sport of kayaking. After it describes the characters and their backgrounds, it goes into the team coming together and meeting one another to get the idea of planning an expedition to go to the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet. They get to the planning stage of the expedition, which was to try to kayak the gorge as long as they can. The planning goes over for them to all take a flight to the Tsangpo Gorge. Once they are there they meet many different people who are on other expeditions. They practice techniques for kayaking the river and even practice safety techniques in case of any danger on the expedition. Once it gets into the part where they're in the gorge it gets exciting and really tells in detail what happened. It contains many surprises and lots of information.
I recommend this book to any adult who wants to read an exciting true story and that wants to learn about a kayaking adventure on the Tsangpo Gorge in Tibet.
4 Book-on-Tape Review
Although I "listened" to this book on tape, I too was lulled into thinking this is like Jon Kraukauer's "Into Thin Air" -- hardly. It is interesting and at first I didn't realize it was a true story. Balf's book does give a bit of a behind-the-scenes glance at how a trek like this is set up & the importance of the personalities of the people undergoing the trek....but I agree with previous reviewers that this was no page-turner (or let's put it this way, I wasn't sitting in my garage, after coming home from my commute, to stay listening to the tape). If you are a kayaker, maybe this is for you - having trekked in Nepal, I found some of the countryside info of interest, but can't really recommend this book.
5 Sweaty palms
This book is a measured and gripping account of the ill-fated attempt by 4 ultra-rational guys to attempt the seemingly irrational - a run down the long and extremely remote class VI wild water gorge in a remote section of Tibet. If you're a whitewater paddler and /or know any of the participants the book is especially vivid - it gave me sweaty palms and pumped heart rate just reading about it. One big problem was the lack of a decent map, and a photo of one sort or another would have been nice, but overall it succeeds in taking you along on a wild ride, with tragic consequences.
6 Definitely not up there with Krakauer!
One of the blurbs I read on the book jacket compared this book to Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm. No way!. Those two books were edge-of-your-seat reading experiences. This account of a kayaking expedition is just plain boring. The action doesn't start until about halfway or more into the book and even then, the cliched writing and deification of Balf's subjects make this book very hard to get through. Unless you are a serious kayaking fan, I would not recommend this book.
7 Poorly written and not worth the time....
I have to agree with the previous reviews that gave this book low marks. From the very beginning, Todd Balf rubbed me the wrong way. The whole build up is disgustingly sycophantic and so much of it is irrelevant and boring--in reality maybe it wasn't, but it's presented that way--that it's hard to even make it to where the actual boating occurs (2/3s into the book). Balf's incessant fawning is just nauseating. They're just people Todd, they really aren't gods. Being a kayaker myself--admittedly not even close to the same league as the book's characters--I found Balf's handling of the story to be very poor. I may be wrong, but I just don't think he has a clue to what it's all about. My impression of Balf is that he's a wannabe that couldn't be, so he took to writing about his fantasies he couldn't fulfill. I know that sounds harsh, but if you read the book, you might just see what I'm talking about. But don't waste your money. Check it out at the library is you're really curious.
8 A Rare Find
I found this book enjoyable and interesting. I am thankful that there are those who are willing to be explorers, and I am thankful that there are authors who can write their stories for all of us to enjoy. This is a rare find if you want to read about expedition kayaking. It moves like a whitewater river. It's not all rapids. Sometimes you have to float in an eddy while the author gives you some historicial perspective before the next plunge. Sure it could have been shorter, but then we would never have known these men well enough to appreciate why they did what they did. I don't see this as an extreme sport outing anymore than the Lewis and Clark expedition. These men are modern day explorers in an uncharted world who met with tragedy. This is their story.
9 It's not "Into Thin Air" but neither is it boring
This is a good book. Not great; not horrible. Just a good, solid read. Yes, the author does provide some superfluous background material. Yes, the author does tend to jump around some in his narrative. No, the author does not necessarily keep you riveted with sensationalistic prose. However, anyone who can read this book and find either the book itself, or the story for which it serves as a medium, "boring" is apparently the type of reader who tends be dissapointed because there aren't any pictures to look at. This is no "Into Thin Air", but then again not many stories of survival or loss in the wilderness, no matter how interesting, quite carry the epic weight of that ill-fated occurence (and thank god they don't).
This author sets out simply to convey the details connected with this particular expedition, much as if he were writing an article for Outside magazine (go figure) and the resulting story is both informative and, for those interested in the subject matter, well worth reading.
10 Boring
My wife and I both found the book could be condensed into 5 pages the rest being repetitive background documentary material. No comparison to Into Thin Air should have been made. Don't buy it!
11 Average
The marketing of this book was the only reason I picked it up. It claimed to be as good as Into Thin Air, all the book did for me was to make me appreciate Into Thin Air even more. I have to admit that I have never even wanted to trek to the middle of the Asian continent to go white water kayaking down a very dangerous river with no civilization near you. That is basically what these people did and of course, fell into a horrible life and death situation due to high water levels. Given this lack of drive in my own life I was hoping to live vicariously through this adventure, unfortunately the book did not live up to the excitement or drama the actually participants of this adventure experienced. The book provides all the details, many of which are very interesting, and runs down the action as it took place, but it just does not grab me the way other books in this category have. Overall it is an interesting book, and if you are involved in this sport or are interested in this part of the world then you will come away with far more then the general interest reader.
12 Don't waste your time with this one!
Awful story telling. Spins its wheels for the first two thirds of the book. Jumps around in time with agonizing drivel.
13 If you liked "Into Thin Air"...
Todd Balf did not do himself a favor by allowing the editors to include phrases such as the above into the dust jacket reviews. While "Into Thin Air" was certainly has its merits, Balf struggles with a number of limitations that keep his book from attaining the popular standard that was set by the aforementioned.
First and foremost is that Balf's account is not first hand, and as a result, lacks the authority and clarity of Krakauer's book. Second, is that there are no photographs. Descriptions of the big water, the individuals, and the challenges they faced would have been a lot less abstract than the scenarios created by Balf (tho I recognize the National Geographic's contract with the team probably did not allow photos from the trip to be used).
Lastly, a different level of writing might have corrected the above ills - his prose was sometimes difficult to plow thru, and often times his descriptions of the rapids and environs, which were meant to envoke, only served to dull. To boot, on numerous occasions he would reference an event or conversation in the book as tho it was the first time, when in fact it had been referenced before.
And lastly, the photo of the kayak and the skull on the cover appears contrived and sensationalistic.
All of the above could be passed off as minor irritants to be sure. However, being a sucker for anything that intersects my interests in Tibet, travel and kayaking with extra-ordinary individuals, I expect a more adept handling of the subject.
14 Tradegy and awe of river running
I immediately loved the book from the beginning. The first pages will pull you into a kayak of your own with the expedition group. The only negative feedback would be that I already knew who was to die only a few chapters into the book. It is must-read for anyone that loves whitewater and BIG WATER!
15 The last River - A Journey most won't want to take
"Extreme", "lantern jawed", "boulders the size of buildings". Mix these three cliches, stir in an almost incomprehensible mix of first names and some [partial] biographies and you have the essence of Todd Balf's The Last River - The Tragic Race of Shangri-La. Ostensibly the tale of a river exploration by kayak gone awry it's focus is continuously blurred by disorganized snippets of arcana and personal information about the participants and (too many) peripheral players in this tale of a grand scheme gone bad. The real tragedy of this story seems to be the fact that Balf is the self- appointed chronicler of it. Balf continuously mires the reader in minutiae that is scattered seemingly hodge-podge throughout the story. The timeline of the book wavers between serpentine and non-existent and further clouds an already confusing tale. The story itself, the story of a group of experienced paddlers seeking the ultimate challenge on one of the mightiest rivers in the far east, has unlimited potential to be engaging. Instead, Balf scrawls such a circuitous, hackneyed missive, that the weakly developed principal characters rush down a river of unpredictable, choppy and confusing prose long before they reach the river that shares those qualities. In the Author's Note Balf writes of his struggle to give shape to an original article about the topic of his book. The reader is predisposed to think that Balf underwent the same struggle with the book..and lost. Balf seems overwhelmed by the topic at hand: too much information, too much forced drama and too many characters have resulted in an unruly pastiche of a story. In the end it is the story that suffers: the clarity of the participant's vision has been lost, the essence of the experience that beckoned them left unexplored. For [the money] CAN there are more entrancing journeys for the reader to take.
16 Writing doesn't flow in this "Into Thin Air" wannabe
I picked up this book based on the intriguing cover, and the back cover description likening it to Into Thin Air by John Krakauer, only with kayaks.
The author insists on comparing this kayak expedition down the Tsangpo river to Everest, to the point of becoming repetitive and annoying. He takes a cookie-cutter approach to an adventure/survival non-fiction work, with history, character sketches, logistical work, a flashback, and then the actual attempt.
The historical part of the book is boring and not very well fleshed out, and is extremely American/Anglo-centric. An Indian explorer who spent 5 years trying to penetrate the area, including being sold into slavery, is treated as a bungling incompetent. During the present-day part of the book, a Chinese team is trying to run the river, but they are ignored almost completely.
Parts of this book are extremely trite - "legendary Valley Mill outdoors camp"? And the references to one character's previous military/CIA experience are just plain fawning.
I think this book would have been written much better by one of the river team who was actually there, so I look forward to reading Wick's book on the subject. The story is there, but the author couldn't capture it.
17 a few notches below Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm
By now, the world is familiar with the Outside Magazine writer-turned novelist after Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm. I did enjoy this narrative, but it strives too hard to imitate Krakeneur's style without succeeding very well. Sure, we have the present tense action sequences, the character shots (also not as nuanced as Junger and Krak.), the action, the unconquerable foe, but it's missing the emotional ummmff that the others had. I couldn't get over the feeling that I was reading a formula (now some background of the area, then a look at the characters, the scouting, the set up, the river, etc...)
On its own merits, the author does a nice job providing background to previous Himalyas exploration and expeditions and captures quiet nicely the river its incredible force. It's simply not as sharp as the others in its genre -- one too many "oh and did I mention that rescue was impossible" that an editor should have caught. Still, it's a pageturner that should entertain anyone interested in experiencing the thrill of white water kayaking and understanding a bit of the mystique behind the sport. Despite my small complaints, I did enjoy the book.
18 the last river
i realy enjoyed this book. i am a whitewater kayaker myself, and i was very interested in the planning and dynamics of the expedition. it seemed like real life to me. the only thing i wish is that there were some photos or maps...
19 Don't waste you money
This is an appalling book which should never have been written. Whitewater kayaking is about the most exhillerating sport around but this book never gets near to it. Sure the characters in it are some of the finest boaters around but this was hardly their greatest trip. Indeed they never really even started the trip before disaster struck. There is only so much you can write about a trip that barely started and this description is about 200 pages too long. It might have been a little more interesting with some photos or, if the print budget couldn't stretch to photos, at least a decent map. But there is nothing. It is a complete waste of time.
20 Why compare kayaking to climbing?
I have read this book recently, and couldn't stop wondering about the fact that Todd Balf keeps writing about climbing. His book is about kayaking! Athough he gives a lot of information about the preperations of the trip and the characters of the people who joined, I just missed extensive descriptions on the actual kayaking on the river. As a kayaker, it's always interesting to read about kayaking, but I expected more.
21 Problems
This book could stand a translation into English; or, at least, a language editor. I found myself, repeatedly, struggling to understand what a given sentence might have been intended to mean; and, occasionally, failing.
22 A Good Read; Entertaining
As someone who knew zero about paddling before this book, I found it interesting as an introduction to the sport.
As for the story, I could have used more information on the locals and the wildlife as a backdrop to the main event. I get a little tired of the thread that if it isn't American, it isn't important.
I also have a new perspective on National Geographic, both magazine and televison. I will in future read and/or watch with a high level of skepticism.
23 Characters
The essence of this book is its characters. If you want the typical second-by-second action, the literary equivalent of "slow-motion" - tense faces, surging muscles, tall waves bearing down, and all that - then this isn't your book. I mean, the river scenes are there, but they aren't the essence. If you want a cheap thrill, read something else.
For Balf, this expedition wasn't like that. It wasn't about cheap, take-home, made-for-tv summiting. Sure, they called it "The Everest of Whitewater," but these were no twenty-something testosterone freaks selling an image. These were middle age guys, Harvard and Yale grads, writers, chemists, intellectuals. They all had wives and kids. Yet, at the same time, they were unmatched paddlers - pioneers and legends. Roger Zbel is famous for running the big Eastern rivers in flood when all the young dudes were scared off, and he has dominated extreme kayak racing for 15 years, ever since he and his buddies pretty much invented it, along with the whole new discipline and culture of squirt boating. Tom McEwan was the first big waterfall runner, and he has first descents in many countries. He's considered untouchable in a boat, and he runs his own kayak school nowadays. Jamie McEwan was an two-time Olympian paddler, and a Bronze medalist, the only American male to win a medal in whitewater solo craft. And on the river Doug Gordon was the best of them all . . .
Balf knows that. He knows that Tom McEwan could drop off a thirty-foot falls without much thought, that Roger Zbel could run class V in his sleep, that all these guys had been near death on the river.
But what Balf gets at in this book is the characters themselves -- what made these intelligent, middle age fathers and husbands leave their daily lives to paddle a river that left many of the world's great kayakers shaking in their spray skirts?
He looks at them from many different angles, and it's great stuff. For example, there is a great part about Tom McEwan's paddling camps - Balf calls it an "Outward Bound-meets Bad News Bears" approach to travel, or a "Charlie Chaplin approach" to camping by the river -- a kid would be told to dig a ditch, but he wouldn't have a shovel. So he'd be directed toward a shed. But it would be locked. Next, he'd be sent to the neighbor's for wire-cutters . . . And then, after he gets back from the Tsangpo, McEwan is right back out there again, leading paddling trips in his way -- guiding clients expertly, infectiously down harrowing rivers by day, camping out with his four clients on someone's porch by night. "Why does it seem, the older I get, the more stuff I accumulate, but the older Tom gets, the less stuff he accumulates?" asks one of his clients. While most clubs are having a nice lunch, Tom's wealthy DC-area clients are being led through the noise and trubulence of a waterfall curtain, up into a secret room behind the falls, and not even thinking about lunch. And again, he's not just some insane guy. He dropped out of Yale with one semester to go, and then he lived out of his kayak for a year in a Florida swamp, training for the Olympics. I found this kind of thing fascinating, and it's much deeper and more interesting that my little summary, of course.
What I took from this book was the characters -- interesting, complex guys -- brillant, highly talented men who found something in paddling that wouldn't let them go -- some challenge -- that led them to a river that everyone called insane. Certainly, what happened was tragic, but that's the nature of paddling whitewater, and right up to his last breath Doug Gordon was excercising the personal judgement that he valued so greatly.
Any claims that Balf is a poor writer are unfounded. And anyone who claims that Balf doesn't get to the point is clearly looking for something different than I am. I found some of the most interesting characters I have ever come across, written about clearly, and with vigor. It's a book about brothers, friends, family, and a trip that was years in the making. Balf called it a "Celebration of Life." Dispute their judgement all you want, but this book shows you the men themselves -- and they are some of the most fascinating men I've ever read about.
24 Disjointed and easy to put down
When I picked up this book, I was SO excited, as the back cover compared it the hard-to-put-down "Into Thin Air" and the subject seemed to be an exciting one - unfortunately it never takes off, was an utter chore to finish and does not flow well... Sorry
25 Waste of Money, too
I couldn't agree more with Michael Craig Johnson's review. Structurally, this book is a mess, as well as being a completely uninspiring story of guys with bad judgement. I have never seen a real-life adventure story without any, repeat any, maps of the area or pictures of the participants. Balf could surely have found one picture, or showed us one of the maps mentioned on page 13, and never referenced again. It takes the group 105 pages of disjointed biographical info to get to Lhasa. There we meet more people we have no reason to care about. The group gets on the river on page 143. After some history and more bios, the group is off the river by page 227. After less than two weeks, the action is over. Even the river scenes fail to give any sense of place to help the reader along.
Mr. Balf obviously said what had to be said about the expedition in his magazine article. It was no service to the buyers to produce a whale of a book from the original minnow. As Mr. Johnson says, don't buy this book. I wouldn't even borrow it, or lend it to a friend. Instead, check out Alfred Lansing's classic, "Endurance". With maps nd pictures.
26 Disappointing
Poorly written and an undistinguished entry in the survivor adventure genre. Hard to believe a book like this, where a National Geographic film crew accompanied the kayakers, does not have a single photo or illustration. And no map!!
27 Horribly written
While the subject matter itself is very interesting, Todd Balf is a substandard writer. Much of his writing contains vocabulary terms that are unknown to 99% of Americans (who knew there was a glossary at the back?). Furthermore, Balf's writing is amateurish even if he is judged against other "journalistic" authors. I expected this to be a page turner, but instead found myself trudging on in order to finish. Balf has no idea how to create any sense of suspense in his writing, which, in the end, is part of the purpoose of this book.
28 Mysterious Tibet
The largely unexplored Tsangpo region of Tibet is the backdrop for a story that weaves adventure and sport (river kayaking) into a very compelling story. Todd Balf's The Last River is the story of 4 men's attempt to take on one of the world's last great challenges, the Yarlung Tsangpo River. Balf does a good job of explaining the complexities of kayaking without eliminating the thrills. He also balances the telling of the story with a throughtful analysis of the four participants rationale for taking on such a potentially deadly challenge. As an armchair adventurer, I found this book to be engrossing - I recommend highly!
29 A Good Read
Todd Balf's The Last River was a very compelling read about something I know little about - the sport, adventure and competition of white water kayaking. It was also a very interesting read about a part of the world that I always find intriguing - Tibet -- and the history of the Tsangpo region and the river itself. However, what made the book compelling was the story of the group of people involved in kayaking and this adventure, both those who went on the trip and those who didn't. I also enjoyed Into Thin Air and Perfect Storm, and would be surprised if this book wasn't another bestseller.
30 Entertaining, personally insightful - do I need more?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. OK,so I live in Isrel and the though of a huge river pulsating with white water waves is already a bit dreamlike, but then I am reading to be entertained which I certainly was. I felt that the book gave meaningful insights into the thought processes and personalities of a group of people who came together to do something that seems positively insane to me. I was enthralled by the descriptions of the river and the kayaking, attracted to the dilemmas of middle aged guys doing something that doesn't jive with middle of the road expectations and had my appetite whetted for understanding more about Tibet. Could any of us ask for more in a book?
This is a good adventure book that makes you think, imagine and grimace. The story flows, the chacters are real and while the river came alive I am happy to say that my living room stayed dry all the way through. Get out and enjoy the book.
31 Entertaining, personally insightful - do I need more?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. OK,so I live in Isrel and the though of a huge river pulsating with white water waves is already a bit dreamlike, but then I am reading to be entertained which I certainly was. I felt that the book gave meaningful insights into the thought processes and personalities of a group of people who came together to do something that seems positively insane to me. I was enthralled by the descriptions of the river and the kayaking, attracted to the dilemmas of middle aged guys doing something that doesn't jive with middle of the road expectations and had my appetite whetted for understanding more about Tibet. Could any of us ask for more in a book?
This is a good adventure book that makes you think, imagine and grimace. The story flows, the chacters are real and while the river came alive I am happy to say that my living room stayed dry all the way through. Get out and enjoy the book.
32 Shagri La where are you?
I thoroughly enjoyed The Last River as I have always had a fascination with the idea of Shangri-La. The book was an exhilirating read, just like running a rapid. I am no expert on whitewater adventure, but I was caught up in the expedition's challenge to run an unrunnable river and finished the book in about two nights worth of reading!! This book brought out the daydreamer in me who would love to find Shangri-La and experience the thrills that go along with it. Since that won't happen, I lived vicariously through this book and came away feeling very satisfied. If one is looking for light-reading on an adventure most of us will never experience, then The Last River may just fill that spot inside of you.
33 This book makes me want to run high risk rivers
A caveat -- I've never done any river running. Now, after reading Todd Balf's book, I feel like I partially understand, in a white water sense, much more of the sport. The best thing about this book is that you fully experience the running of this mad river in Tibet! The river is awesome, beautiful, and irrestible. The guys running the river were nuts but somehow believed they knew what they were doing - and that they could survive. Not true. Not only do you learn a ton about the sport of extreme river running but also about the politics, and second guessing, of putting together an expedition to a far off country. I recommend the book highly and predict a breathless reading experience. Maybe someday I will go to Tibet and experience the last river!
34 A waste of time and money (and paper and ink)
There are troubling questions in The Last River that are never fully dealt with: Did our intrepid kayakers blunder into a dangerous situation because they were racing others to be the first to explore and conquer a new territory? Were they pressured by big money sponsors to move forward with an ill-timed expedition?
Well, there's been another race, too, a rush among big-money publishers to be the first to capitalize on the Tsangpo saga. This race is to blame for Todd Balf's faltering missteps. In a book obstensibly about kayaking the last great untamed river, there's almost no kayaking. Some guys plan a trip, things go wrong, they go home, and people argue about it in Internet newsgroups.
There's no bone-pounding thrill of whitewater; the river is just cubic feet per second. The landscape isn't spiritual or ugly or haunted or massive; it's just a curvy line on a globe. And the kayakers aren't driven or psychotic or lonely or deluded; they're just pins on a map. And the pins are all the same color.
Balf wasn't there, and the people who were haven't shared much with him, and it shows. Don't buy this book; don't read this book.
35 Fair to middling
If you're hoping for a whitewater Into Thin Air, forget it. Last River never overcomes its "as-told-to" narrative style that distances the author from his subjects and setting. The characters are cardboard cutouts (what's with the team member with "ties to the Pentagon"? A good reporter gives us more than a calculated line like that); the local people and landscape are curiously indistinct; and the big picture stuff is rushed at the end and hardly satisfying. As for the reader from CT below, you're missing the point. No one disputes that the Chinese occupation of Tibet is a travesty, but what about our own smaller-scale incursions? You'll be hard-pressed to find a sophisticated commentary from Balf, much less a consideration of adventure travel's impact on such places. The chapter on past explorations of the Tsangpo is okay, but aren't more recent expeditions just another form of the same old cultural imperialism? "Save Tibet" stickers on Volvos aside, what happens when the Americans go home at the end of the day after bagging their peaks and rivers? Maybe it's global trade in action--or a millennial retrofitting of the old saying from Vietnam: We paid them to save them. More than a few of the interactions between the paddling team and the locals turned sour, after all, so communication isn't carrying the day. Could it be that the author didn't have time for such an "off-point" discussion because the "official account" from a team member was nipping at his oars? That said, the Potomac chapter is a gem, and overall Last River makes serviceable airport reading.
36 Good snappy journalistic read
First, I want to say that Langdon Cook's comment, in the above amazon.com review, about the "actual tragedies (cultural fallout)", is one of the strangest I've ever read. Remember that Tibet is under the direct subjugation of a hostile foreign power; that it teems with Chinese soldiers, and it's capital city is now more than 50% Chinese; that enormous efforts are being made to stamp out the Tibetan culture; that it is illegal even to own a photograph of the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader; that Tibeten children, even many of those from remote villages, are indoctrinated in Chinese-run schools. And Langdon Cook feels that the sight of some lost American wandering around in Gore-tex constitutes a "tragedy"? What planet is he from?
But oh yes, the book. Balf has more of a feel for Tibet than Mr. Cook, and a pretty good feel for whitewater adventure, as well. It's a little too journalistically smooth, perhaps, but consistently interesting and engaging, and a couple of pages devoted to 'why they do it' is among the best I've read. I gave it three stars, but I'm a tough grader. Recommended.
37 The River Wild
Anyone who enjoys stories about the Himalayas, Tibet, or people pushing themselves to peak performance, needs to read this. It's not quite the five-star material of Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", but it's very close. Mr. Balf uses the accounts passed to him by the members of the doomed October 1998 Tsangpo expedition so well that you forget he wasn't there. The History is well used and interesting. The descriptions of the mammoth arena in which the story takes place are highly vibrant. And, the relationships of the men on the team are portrayed with realism, as well as a careful depth that could rival the Gorge itself. These are not people out for glory alone. These are people with a passion. Read this book, and see how they fare against one of the last untamed patches of earth we have left.
