I recently read the book Endurance written by Alfred Lansing. For the most part I did enjoy the book. It was particularly difficult for me to get personally attached to any of the characters because I just didn’t connect well to any of them. however I felt the most connected to Green, the cook, because he was quiet and just worked by himself most of the time, which is similar to me because I am shy and I just don’t go out and talk to people very easily. Most of the characters that were on the voyage just seemed as though they had no fear even though they were had a very serious problem. Out of all the characters in the book I really didn’t have any that I particularly disliked very much at all.

It was seemed like it was mainly focused on the crew members, all of which he introduced each to the reader in the beginning of the novel, during the adventure and the way that each of them changed due to the challenges that they faced. At first they were really confident and calm but later after the first big disaster befell them the crew seemed to start getting a bit fearful about dying in the wilderness. Their reactions to the problem made me feel as though they were really just men because they reacted as I would have expected anyone to in that or a similar predicament.
I got the sense of adventure it gave off just off of reading the back. Lansing really worked hard to get as much accurate information to the reader as he could and although I don’t know much about the actual event I did skim his acknowledgements and understood that he got sources from people who were actually there in the event and was able to use the diaries of several of the crew mates.
Lansing was clearly able to show the reader when it was he who was speculating on things to the reader and when it was the people in the book who were speaking to each other. The pictures Lansing was able to produce in my mind while I was reading were spectacular because of the stunning attention to detail. Lansing did a great job of capturing the emotions of the people and described each event and challenge quite well.
Although I did enjoy the book, I would not particularly recommend it because it was honestly quite similar throughout the majority of the novel. If you are into the nonfictional adventuring books or maybe just adventure books in general then you will probably enjoy this book.