A mixture of adventure story and mysticism, featuring two young men who go climbing in the Himalayas near the source of the sacred Ganges, searching for the meaning of life and death through water. Joe Simpson is the author of the mountaineering book, "Touching the Void".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The author's only novel to date is a masterpiece. In a work that transcends the spiritual and reaches to the true nature of man, Simpson has again created a book that sends surges of adrenaline around your body. The reader is introduced to the life of a young climber by means of a series of seemingly disconnected anecdotes. The links between sections develop throughout the largely personal narrative and soon build a picture that is quite familiar to Simpson fans. The occasional reflective passages reveal the key to the sequence, water. The most essential of substances is shown to have a truly profound influence on not only our lives, but on our very existence and thoughts. Increasingly the reader is drawn in to the adventure, as the climber travels and explores both his surroundings and inner-self. Only in the closing sentences is the circle completed, and we see from a new dimension that it was after-all a cycle rather than a journey. Utterly absorbing.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By SCM
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Joe Simpson was initially famous for not dying on Siula Grande, but is becoming just as well known for the quality of his writing. The Water People is an interesting window in Simpson both as writer and a mountaineer. The Water People is a novel, with mountains and water at its heart. It is the tale of two climbers - one who openly embraces the spirituality of the mountains and a second how is less inclined to see sprits in the rocks and water. As you read the book I think you get a clear picture which one of these is mostly closely modelled on Simpson himself.
Some sections of this novel are a little "preachy", where it is clear that the author has a point to make, and the tone of the book as a novel slips somewhat.
This is a book written early in Simpson's journey as a writer, without the urgency of Touching the Void or the polish of his later works. However, this books has much more to say about being in the mountains and what they can mean to people than most of the "it was a hard slog to camp 3" type mountaineering books.
Most people will find this an interesting extension to the author's factual mountaineering books, and it deserves to be more widely read than it seems to be.
It's far from a great novel, but the themes it tackles - spirituality and connection between distant lands and sometimes distant people - are worthy of exploration.
Recommended.
Some sections of this novel are a little "preachy", where it is clear that the author has a point to make, and the tone of the book as a novel slips somewhat.
This is a book written early in Simpson's journey as a writer, without the urgency of Touching the Void or the polish of his later works. However, this books has much more to say about being in the mountains and what they can mean to people than most of the "it was a hard slog to camp 3" type mountaineering books.
Most people will find this an interesting extension to the author's factual mountaineering books, and it deserves to be more widely read than it seems to be.
It's far from a great novel, but the themes it tackles - spirituality and connection between distant lands and sometimes distant people - are worthy of exploration.
Recommended.
By Diana Birch
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very interesting read. A climbing novel but focussing more on the characters & their thoughts & feelings. Quite spiritual & looking at life through the eyes of climbers.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was disappointed. Those who were gripped by Touching the Void and Joe Simpson's other climbing books may be likewise. Another novel of his 'The Sound of Gravity' is really very good and will appeal to those people but this one left me thinking What was that?
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