Adventure is an easy word to bandy about. And while adventure has the connotations of big things happening to important people, of being simplistic and bombastic, it's really far more complex and subtle than most people might imagine. Adventure is not about plot or action, or even thrills, though any or all of those might be an element of action. Action is about momentum, a combination of impulsion and propulsion, of control and chaos, where intention collides with the unexpected.
Dan Simmons' 'The Abominable' is a work of top-notch adventure, an immersive journey of characters who are bigger than life but have the ring of truth through landscapes both natural and very human that have the capability of killing them without a qualm. Simmons writes in a variety of styles; stripped down, hard-boiled mysteries, lush horror-novel sagas, epic science fiction series that are thankfully limited in length but not in scope, page-turning-thrillers, and detailed, immersive historical adventures that combine a dash of Dickens and a hearty helping of Hemingway.
'The Abominable' is Dan Simmons in the latter mode, as he creates an early, unrecorded attempt to summit Everest, in the year following Mallory's tragic failure. At 646 pages, it reads like a book half its length, but it is full of the stuff of life, intense and vital. The plot is quite straightforward, as befits an adventure. Simmons puts himself in the action in a wrapper that is both funny and poignant, as he and his readers meet a 92 year-old Jake Perry, finally ready to tell his story. It's not complicated. Back in 1924, Perry was recruited for an attempt to find a body on Everest; the expedition intends to summit the mountain while they are searching. Everything proves to be a bit more complicated than advertised.
Readers who want to summit 'The Abominable' may need a nice warm place to read and steady supply of food and drink. Simmons takes is time with characters, giving each of the three main climbers, Jake, Jean Claude ("JC") and "the Deacon" and eventually the fourth (Reggie Bromley), richly crafted back-stories that have all the depth and scope required to give them the momentum to make the ascent. None are perfect; each is a bit broken in one way or another, which make them settle more firmly in our reading hearts. But a book of this size gives Simmons just enough time to linger on all the other ancillary characters and bring them to fully-realized life. Reading this book is the literary equivalent of attending a rather large party to celebrate and eulogize the aftermath of an expedition from which return is unlikely.
Given the size of the book in question, the most important part of the operation may be the pieces of prose that put it together, and here Simmons plays it smart. There are lots of wonderful, evocative descriptions of every bit of landscape you can imagine here, and they do the trick and seem beautiful without ever pointing to their own beauty. 'The Abominable' is a pleasure to read, with nice pacing and cutting between dialogue and description so that we never overload on one of the other. Mostly, we just disappear into the narrative.
It's in the story, the indefinable way we put it together in our minds that 'The Abominable' is transformed from conversation and action and thrills and the pleasures of historical recognition (some very nicely-done Germany before WWII set-pieces, for example) into something more than a story about climbing Everest and what the characters find. Simmons uses his form, the density of description and complexity of character to seed for the reader an investment in what happens. He creates not just plot tension, but the momentum of true adventure, the feeling of being caught up and somehow at the same time, controlling a chaotic advance into the unknown.
Our supposed understanding of everything on the planet is often considered a cure for curiosity. It's generally thought that once we know something, we can't be surprised by it. but that's simply not the case. Adventure can be created anytime; it's a state of mind, not the result of novelty. 'The Abominable' is the perfect demonstration that we can know everything and still be surprised by life, and in that surprise, the shock of the new, we can find adventure.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
