Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

From the Publisher

After her plane crashes, a seventeen-year-old girl spends eleven days walking through the Peruvian jungle. Against all odds, with no food, shelter, or equipment, she gets out. A better-equipped group of adult survivors of the same crash sits down and dies. What makes the difference?



Examining such stories of miraculous endurance and tragic death-how people get into trouble and how they get out again (or not)-Deep Survival takes us from the tops of snowy mountains and the depths of oceans to the workings of the brain that control our behavior. Through close analysis of case studies, Laurence Gonzales describes the "stages of survival" and reveals the essence of a survivor-truths that apply not only to surviving in the wild but also to surviving life-threatening illness, relationships, the death of a loved one, running a business during uncertain times, even war.



Fascinating for any reader, and absolutely essential for anyone who takes a hike in the woods, this book will change the way we understand ourselves and the great outdoors.

Publishers Weekly

When confronted with a life-threatening situation, 90% of people freeze or panic, says Gonzales in this exploration of what makes the remaining 10% stay cool, focused and alive. Gonzales (The Hero's Apprentice; The Still Point), who has covered survival stories for National Geographic Explorer, Outside and Men's Journal, uncovers the biological and psychological reasons people risk their lives and why some are better at it than others. In the first part of the book, the author talks to dozens of thrill-seekers-mountain climbers, sailors, jet pilots-and they all say the same thing: danger is a great rush. "Fear can be fun," Gonzales writes. "It can make you feel more alive, because it is an integral part of saving your own life." Pinpointing why and how those 10% survive is another story. "They are the ones who can perceive their situation clearly; they can plan and take correct action," Gonzales explains. Survivors, whether they're jet pilots landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier or boatbuilders adrift on a raft in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, share certain traits: training, experience, stoicism and a capacity for their logical neocortex (the brain's thinking part) to override the primitive amygdala portion of their brains. Although there's no surefire way to become a survivor, Gonzales does share some rules for adventure gleaned from the survivors themselves: stay calm, be decisive and don't give up. Remembering these rules when crisis strikes may be tough, but Gonzales's vivid descriptions of life in the balance will stay with readers. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Katherine Gillen - KLIATT

Subtitled Who Lives, Who Dies and Why, Deep Survival is a series of true adventure stories where only some of the protagonists make it through. The link between the stories is Gonzales' analysis of the survival strategies—or deadly lack thereof. Originally prompted, at least in part, by curiosity about his own father's survival of a plane crash in WW II, Gonzales easily carries the reader along with a variety of tales. From experienced hiker Ken Killip's terrifying experience of being lost in the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains to 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke's lone survival of a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle, Gonzales offers well-told tales of lessons learned. Who survives is often surprising; "It's not who you would predictasometimes the one who survives is an inexperienced female hiker, while the experienced hunter gives up and dies in one nighta" (p.170). Gonzales analyses the stages of being lost (the first step is denial) and also the rules to survival (the first one is "be here now" or "perceive and believe"—a type of super-awareness of your situation). Gonzales also visits two survival schools where he learns that they teach not only the practical side of survival such as shelter and making a fire, but the psychological and even spiritual side. Being "aware of the moment" means not only thinking of how likely you are to be hit by lightening and how to avoid it, but realizing your own sense of self in a potential deadly environment. Such added insights make the book also appropriate for surviving the challenges of everyday life—loss and stress are not unique to the jungle or the mountaintop. Gonzales is an editor for National Geographic Adventuremagazine and has written numerous other articles for journals. (Editor's note: some adult language.) KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2005, Norton, 318p. bibliog. index., Ages 15 to adult.

Kirkus Reviews

Humans have a way of courting accidents. What separates survivors from victims is preparation and spirit—but also sheer dumb luck. "To survive," writes novelist/journalist Gonzales (One Zero Charlie, 1993, etc.), "you must first be annealed in the fires of peril." Well, yes: and peril, though sometimes in the eye of the beholder, is a constant companion of many folks, whether they court it or not—one reason, Gonzales observes, that inner-city kids tend to do better in outdoor survival training than do suburbanites, who have far less experience with predators. Thrill-seekers who put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of the adrenaline rush may have all the right gear and even a little know-how, but most of them are just ordinary Joes who, "when put under stress, are unable to think clearly or solve simple problems. They get rattled. They panic. They freeze." Cataloguing, often by way of personal anecdote, the dazzling array of possibilities by which gnarly outdoor experiences can become annihilating ones—a body surfer hits the wrong tide and gets dashed against the rocks, a snowmobiler gets chewed up in an avalanche, a hang glider augers into a mountain or a parachutist into the waiting earth—Gonzales ponders just what traits, and just what training, can increase such an ordinary person’s odds of survival in tight situations, short of simply staying home. (But even then, he reckons, we get snuffed. Given that one person dies in this country every minute in a transportation accident, the death of only a dozen-odd climbers every year makes mountaineering seem a safe bet by comparison.) This work, oddly delightful for all its gruesome moments, closes with a compendiumof tips for staying alive in the wild, among them the necessity of staying calm when danger rises, waiting for the fear to pass, planning what to do next, and believing that the odds are with you against all evidence to the contrary. A superb, entertaining addition to a nature buff’s library—or for anyone not tucked safely away in a bunker. Agent: Gail Hochman/Brandt & Hochman

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