List Books In Favor Of Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
| Original Title: | Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival |
| ISBN: | 0061766720 (ISBN13: 9780061766725) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee (2011) |
Norman Ollestad
Hardcover | Pages: 272 pages Rating: 3.6 | 5146 Users | 864 Reviews
Point Appertaining To Books Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
| Title | : | Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival |
| Author | : | Norman Ollestad |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 272 pages |
| Published | : | June 2nd 2009 by Ecco (first published 2009) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Biography. Adventure. Survival |
Narrative As Books Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
Ollestad, 41, was thrust into the world of surfing and competitive downhill skiing at a very young age by the father he idolized. Resentful of a childhood lost to his father’s reckless and demanding adventures, young Ollestad was often paralyzed by fear. Set in Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970s, the book captures the earthy surf culture of Southern California; the boy’s conflicted feelings for his magnetic father; and the exhilarating tests of skill in the surf and snow that prepared young Norman to become a fearless surfer and ski champion--which ultimately saved his life. In February 1979, just as he was reaping the rewards of his training, a chartered Cessna carrying Norman, his father, his father’s girlfriend, and the pilot, crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California and was suspended at eight thousand feet, engulfed in a blizzard. Norman’s father, his coach and hero, was dead, and the 11-year old Ollestad had to descend the mountain alone and grief-stricken, through snow and ice, without any gear. Stunningly, the boy defied the elements and put his father’s passionate lessons to work. As he told the LA Times after his ordeal, “My dad told me never to give up.”Rating Appertaining To Books Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
Ratings: 3.6 From 5146 Users | 864 ReviewsJudge Appertaining To Books Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
In this fast, engaging tale Norman Ollestad tells about how he survived a mountaintop plane crash as an 11-year-old, a crash that killed the pilot, his father and his fathers girlfriend, and how his relationship with his father, and the skills he had learned under his tutelage, had prepared him for his near-death ordeal. Norman Ollestad - image from Counterpoint PressOllestad tells of his upbringing, of his charismatic surfer/lawyer/coach father who drove him to peaks of physical performance heCrazy for the Storm is by man who was stranded alone on the side of an icey mountain when he was only 11 years old. The private plane he was on crashed, and all the adults--his dad, his dad's girlfriend, and the pilot died. He tells in excruciating detail what he went through to get to a meadow on the bottom of the mounatin alive. Those chapters alternate with chapters about his childhood on Topanga Beach. He lives with his mom and her abusive boyfriends and has scary, exciting adventures with
A skinny memoir in search of an editor. How does one tell a 272 page story of a plane-crash in which your father, his girl-friend, and the pilot die and only you, an eleven-year old, survive, and somehow manage to continually and ultimately bore the reader to distraction? (He writes this 27 years after the event.) I learned self-serving banalities about surfboards, skiing, teenage parties, and on and on but precious little about the pre-crash/crash specifics. Not even a simple fleshing-out of
In February 1979, a small plane crashed in the San Gabriel Mountains of California. The pilot and two passengers died. Several hours later, an eleven year-old boy walked into the village at the bottom of the slope, the lone survivor. How did he survive? Was it good luck? What kind of eleven-year-old can make it down the practically-vertical face of a snow-covered mountain by himself? Ollestad tells his story, both how he survived, and how his father (who died in the crash) prepared him, with a
Opening Line: February 19,1979. At seven that morning my dad, his girlfriend Sandra and I took off from Santa Monica Airport headed for the mountains of Big Bear.Set amid the wild uninhibited surf culture of Malibu and Mexico in the late 1970s, Crazy For The Storm is a fascinating memoir that was hard to put down. It centers around 11 year old Norman Ollestad and the complicated relationship he had with his father. Demanding, charismatic and free-spirited, it is ultimately the thrill-seeking
As others have commented, this book can be a bit frustrating in its structure, given that it "bills" itself as a survival story, yet keeps alternating to chapters about the author's earlier childhood that are significantly longer than the survival chapters. Yet, perhaps this imbalance is a necessity, considering that the survival ordeal only lasted 11 (albeit harrowing) hours. But really, the book is centered around a compelling contradiction: it is his father's very reckless passion for life
I admire Mr. Ollestad and I cannot imagine what he went through.I don't mean to diminish his story or the insights he gleans and shares with the reader in any way. If I were a surfing or skiing enthusiast, I'm sure I would appreciate the exhaustive attention to detail afforded those sports.I have been spoiled by reading the work of Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger. The chapter by chapter flashes back and forward are initially engaging but become tiresome rather quickly. Also, no matter how
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