5/5
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing is one of the top 3 books I’ve read this year. Maybe ever.
In 1914, right as World War II broke out, Ernest Shackleton took a crew of 27 men to Antarctica with the goal of being the first humans to reach the South Pole.
They did not make it.
Instead their ship froze in the Antarctic ice and was slowly, violently crushed under the immense ice pressure. Now the men were stranded without their ship on the frozen continent, hundreds of miles from civilization.
Over the next 2+ years (!) they survived through harrowing challenges, working together under Shackleton’s leadership to make it across the desolate icepack to the nearest station where they could possibly get rescued.
Incredibly, they all made it back alive.
This book is RIVETING. It is SO captivating and well written that you wouldn’t think twice about it being published in 1959. Alfred Lansing is a masterful writer. For one, he meticulously researched his material, reading diaries and meeting with actual survivors of the expedition. He brings episodes from their life into sharp detail, from small and intimate moments of camaraderie to the frustration and desperation they felt from enduring hardship after hardship. While Shackleton is the looming main presence throughout the book, just as he was in the actual expedition, the crew members are vividly illustrated too. The group dynamics are so clearly portrayed that you feel like you know and understand every member of the crew.
The stories are just spellbinding. These guys are in a hostile, alien environment dealing with freezing temperatures, howling winds that prevent sleep, and constant wetness. They run out of food, constantly have to abandon more and more of their personal belongings, and make some really difficulty decisions when it comes to their dogs… There are tales of hunting sea lions and penguins. Passing time with plays. The inevitable resentment that builds up after that one guy keeps making excuses to get out of his chores. So much of the human experience is captured in this book!
These kinds of books are great because they help put your personal challenges into perspective and help you realize sure, you can handle that annoying work thing – it’s so minor compared to Shackleton’s crew’s literal life or death situations.
I could not stop raving about this book to absolutely everyone. Now I’m raving about it to you. Go get this book right now and just start on page one. You’ll get sucked into a reading time warp and by the time you look up you’ll have been transported over a hundred years and hundreds of miles away. The best kind of reading.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing is a tale of survival, leadership, and overcoming challenges that most of us will never, ever come close to experiencing. Read this book to better appreciate your life and the endurance of the human spirit.
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