Alone on the Wall (Expanded edition)
Category: Books,Biographies & Memoirs,Arts & Literature
Alone on the Wall (Expanded edition) Details
Review “Alex Honnold spends his life cheating death.” - New York Times Magazine“Honnold here recounts his ascents on some of the world's most dangerous rock walls. You'll come away questioning his sanity for choosing this controversial sport…but it's also impossible not to feel awe.” - People“Honnold blows wide open any conventional understanding of the term 'comfort zone.'…He engagingly conveys his love of climbing.” - Barbara J. King, NPR“[Honnold] is the foremost practitioner of the dark art of free solo rock climbing―ascending extremely difficult cliffs hundreds, sometimes thousands, of feet tall without ropes or protection hardware of any kind. That is every bit as stupefying as it sounds.” - Wall Street Journal“Alone on the Wall is set to inspire multitudes [of climbers]. With his off-the-charts abilities and laconic, whip-smart, no-B.S. persona, Honnold has made climbing cool.” - Men's Health“[Honnold's] ability to connect with a larger audience and bring a humble perspective to his many accomplishments makes him a great ambassador to the sport…[R]eading the vivid descriptions captured by Honnold and Roberts will surely cover the book's pages in a fine layer of palm sweat.” - Gripped Magazine Read more About the Author Alex Honnold is a world-class American rock climber best known for his free solo ascents of big walls.David Roberts is the award-winning author of twenty-nine books about mountaineering, exploration, and anthropology, including Alone on the Wall which was written with world-class rock climber Alex Honnold, whose historic feats were featured in the film Free Solo. Read more
Reviews
I was surprised after reading Alone On The Wall to discover that David Roberts is a climber, because when I was reading this book, it really seemed like he didn't "get it". It didn't seem like Roberts really understood or was on board with what Honnold was and is doing--his lifestyle, his climbing, and yes, his free soloing. Maybe it was because he didn't insert his own opinion into things--a lot of Roberts' writing is just summarizing interviews with other people. But there's a ton of people out there who either don't climb or climb more conservatively who have opinions about Honnold, and if I wanted to hear that, I'd read any of the hundreds of articles about Honnold on the internet. This book was a chance to hear from Honnold and find out what he thinks, and instead Roberts' writing is about what everyone else thinks--I just don't care about that.For the parts of the book which were actually written by Honnold--a lot of what he wrote is just responding to what other people say, which yields some insights, but I'd much rather have read what Honnold wanted to say. The problem here maybe is that Honnold doesn't want to say anything--he'd rather be out climbing. Which is great--that's how he became the climber who inspires me. But it doesn't make for a great book.I'll also point out that this book was published two years ago as of this review, and was probably mostly written in the year before that. In that time, I've seen Honnold mature a lot--his interviews on TV and podcasts show a person who has had a lot of emotional and mental growth over the last few years. The Honnold who wrote passages in Alone On The Wall is not the Honnold we know today--the one who wrote this is a bit immature, a bit distracted. I get the feeling that Honnold was pressured to write this book a bit before he was really ready to be writing a book--it's a bit weird to write your story before it's over. I really hope this isn't the last book we see from Honnold, because I think if he were to write a book now or later in his life, it would be a lot better.Contrast this with The Push by Tommy Caldwell. There's a book written by an older climber who knew what he wanted to write. At the surface level, it turns out to be a book that's much less about climbing, but it's far more vulnerable and insightful, and gives readers a much better understanding of what motivated Caldwell to become one of the best climbers in the world.