Skip to main content

Out of the Silence: After the Crash by Eduardo Strauch Urioste: book review


 

Out of the Silence: After the Crash (2012, English version 2019) is the memoir of a survivor of the 1972 Andes Mountains plane crash with 45 people on board, including the Uruguay rugby team. 

 

Thirty-three people survived the initial crash of the flight that left Montevideo bound for Chile. This is the truth of the 72 days on the mountain after the crash, and what the survivors have to do to continue living—at 3,500 metres (11,700 feet) in freezing, treacherous conditions.

 

The silence refers to the author’s long silence in talking about it. It also refers to the first silence, straight after the crash, before the moaning and acknowledgement of survivors. It also refers to the silence of death. 

 

A mountain climber finds Eduardo Strauch Urioste’s wallet near the crash site in 2005 and returns it to him. This is the impetus for Strauch, who was twenty-five at time of the crash, to break his silence and write about the tragedy, and the rescue, and how it changed his life forever.

 

Thinking they would be rescued the next day, the crash tests the limit of each person’s moral identity, integrity, resilience, determination, and spirituality: ‘most of us had never faced a decision more difficult than what subject to study at school, whether to start or end a relationship, whether to accept or reject a job offer.’ After the crash, their decisions meant life or death. There were individual decisions to be made, and decisions that must be made by the remaining group. 

 

An avalanche killed eight, and weeks later, two men—Nando and Roberto—set off on yet another exploratory trek to find help (the previous attempts were aborted). 

 

Despite several books and movies about the tragedy, Strauch writes his own personal account of the ‘quiet but continual battle between fear and hope.’ Half of the book is about the mountain and how he survived, and the other half is about his life after the rescue of the final 16 that survived. 

 

Decades after the crash, love, family, and friendship are the main themes. And time and transcendence. And the elements and nature.

 

This well-told, easy-to-read memoir is both interesting and revealing in its honesty and poignancy. 

 





 

MARTINA NICOLLS

Website

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...
1 comment
Read more