At first I thought it would have been better written in the first person, but then that would have made the lavish praise heaped on Greg Mortesen impossible. He seems to be humble enough but by the third time I read about his exceptional skills and abilities, I was ready to puke.

The author, not Greg Mortison but David O. Relin, has obviously done a lot of research interviewing nearly everyone who ever had contact with Greg. The guy who helped Greg make photocopies is named and quoted for example. The idea, I suppose, is to make the account ring true and objective, but it is actually tedious to read. In keeping with this newspaper style, he refers back to people with simply their last name. I found this annoying and had to backtrack to see who was being referred to.

What could have been beautiful mountain descriptions or even riveting action fell flat and soggy for me as I had to read a few passages several times to figure out what was meant. Often I just gave up and jumped ahead to the next “plot paragraph”.

While too much time and detail were spent on some aspects, at other times key points seem to be missing.

I can appreciate that there is a lot to encompass and it is not an easy story to tell, but I think of Wild Swans or Milan Kundera or even Bill Bryson and I wish this book had been written by someone else.