The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry Garrard - Book
Review
This is the book acclaimed by those who do the acclaiming as
the bar-none most compelling tale of people having a bad time,
ever told. Paul Theroux describes it as the best adventure book
he's ever read. Couple that with the perennial appearances on
the 'best this' and 'best that' lists and it becomes clear that
it deserves considerable consideration by those wishing to be
well-read.
There is no doubt Garrard had a horrible time of it. Nor can it
be argued that this narrative is anything but compelling; or
that the quality of the prose is less than stellar.
None-the-less, the accolades given this book lead one to ask,
what is it that makes a book the best adventure book ever
written? And is this it?
The Worst Journey in the World was written a decade after the
fated 1911 Scott expedition to the South Pole. It is a
compendium of Garrard's reminiscences and diary entries, as well
as the diary entries of Scott, Lashy and others. For the most
part it's a clear-heading accounting of the expedition that is
both realistic of the hardships encountered and of the team's
strengths and shortcomings. Granted, there is certain amount of
romance in the telling, but for the most part it avoids the late
century gosh-gee-whiz-let's-add-an-adjective school of story
telling which ruins so many contemporary tales.
That said, how good is the book? If the first criteria is the
note-worthiness of the adventure itself, rest assured that
Garrard's account qualifies. That Scott was runner-up in the
race to the pole is reason enough to record the event. The fact
that he did so in such miserable, and by all accounts unusually
harsh conditions makes it even more so. Cherry-Garrard's winter
expedition to collect eggs of from the previously unstudied
Emperor penguins was downright awful, and a pre curser to the
year ahead ...
" ... a trip so appalling, so horrendous, so absolute in its
misery and its danger that you cannot think a man could endure
it for a day, much less for five weeks"
In an era where falling into a crevice just once is seen as a
cheating death, Cherry and crew impress with their daily,
sometimes hourly plunges through rotted snow bridges. As do
their accounts of floundering snow blind through mazes of
impassable pressure ridges. Temperature as low as -60 and -70
degrees were common. Every morning the team would prop open the
mouths of their sleeping bags so that they would be able to
climb back into the frozen bags the subsequent evening.
Horrendous hardly seems to be the appropriate epitaph. The fact
they survived is beyond comprehending.
As odd as it to say, Scott's return journey from the pole
replete with spectacularly frigid conditions, depleted supplies
and eventual stormbound death seems almost manageable. Not that
his journey was easier than Garrard's, but rather quieter and
more in the norm of what you and I might expect to be overcome
by ...
... blizzard bad as ever -- Wilson and Bowers unable to
start -- tomorrow last chance -- no fuel and only one or two
days of food left -- must be near the end. Have decided it shall
be natural -- we shall march for the depot with or without our
effects and die in our tracks.
Thursday, March 29th. Since the 21st we have had a continuous
gale from W.S.W and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea
apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have
been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the
door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not
think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it
out to the end but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end
cannot be far.
It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.
R.Scott
There is something familiar about the end; proof perhaps that we
are mortal, that we are decent, and that there is an intrinsic
worth in attempting the unlikely.
There is never any queston that the adventure itself (if one can
call it an adventure ... Garrard certainly wouldn't object) is
eponymous; it records one of the great endeavours of the modern
era. As an adventure in-and-of-itself, however, it's hardly
possible to rate it as greater or lessor on some arbitrary scale
against F.A. Worsley's, Endurance. It's quite the tale; I'd be a
fool to say otherwise. I'd also be a fool to claim it was the
greatest of all and so, remain agnostic.
Which leads then to criterium number two; apart from the
subject, is the narrative compelling? Well ... it isn't a page
turner like Touching the Void is a page turner, but it was
written in a different era. And while it doesn't plod, it is
true to its intent and records the expedition as fully as
Garrard thought possible. What this means is that everything
from zoological observations to crew manifests are recorded,
along with the joys and tribulations of the event.
Nor is Garrard interested in leaving the reader hanging at the
end of each chapter; he was NOT negotiating a film deal in the
background and the story proceeds accordingly ... everyone knows
the ending and we get there eventually. What will surprise is
how quickly it comes and how quickly the 550 pages disappear. Is
it the most compelling narrative ever ... ? Not really, but it
is good. And if one were to take readers' reactions from
consumer sites into account the over-arching opinion has it that
it's very good.
An adventure, no matter how worthy, coupled with a narrative
superbly paced does not make a good book if the telling of the
tale gets in the way. Common to much recently written adventure
lit is a quality of over-enthusiasm ... a seeming need by the
author to convince a reader of the awesomeness of the events;
adjectives multiply, perspective seems lost and we're left
wondering why the author needs to try so hard.
What will strike a reader is how unassuming Cherry-Garrard is,
and how he under-states what the expedition was faced with. His
is the precise opposite of a typical over-written, over hyped
post millenial account. Stiff-upper-lipped-Britness explains it
partially. Eric Newby does the same thing in A Short Walk in the
Hindu Kush where hardships are downplayed and collegiality
reigns. It may be last-gasp-of-the-empire mentality, but the
Brits of that class had class. And it shows. It's this quality
exactly that has endeared the account to readers for the last
century ... and I suspect it's what readers and editors are
responding to when they call it the best adventure book ever.
It is good. It is very good. The best, however ... ? Geez, I'm
going to weasel on this ... for it to be the best, it has to
feel the best and somehow ... somehow ... somehow ...suffice it
to say that Cherry Garrard's, The Worst Journey in the World is
more compelling than most, better paced than most, and better
written than almost all else. It will impress.