Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite: Gripping Accounts of All Known Fatal Mishaps in America's First Protected Land of Scenic Wonders

by Michael P. Ghiglieri

Book Overview

Gripping accounts of all known fatal mishaps in America's first protected land of scenic wonders. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970097360
• ISBN13: 9780970097361
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Puma Press
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

About 2.5 stars; not even half as good as 'Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon'

Having read 'Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon,' I had high hopes for this book. 'Grand Canyon' is a well-balanced history of fatalities within the canyon itself, making good use of humor when dealing with non-lethal incidents and treating the subject of (often gruesome) deaths with a sober tone, and ALL of them with the question, "What can be learned from this so that it never happens again?" It wobbles off course a couple of times in late chapters, but overall, I'd give it 4.5 out of 5 stars and recommend it highly. Unfortunately, 'Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite' starts off a little shaky and begins to fall apart before the halfway point. Why? I'm guessing that something went amiss during the editing process. 'Death in Yosemite' includes a chapter on murder that is as tenuous as the chapter of the same name in 'Grand Canyon' (the wobbling off course mentioned above.) More than that, however, it repeats itself--a lot. From the same death listed in the statistics of two or three different chapters (is it that difficult to classify a death as an accident vs. a river death vs. a drowning?) to the question 'How did (name) manage to (verb)?' in slightly different permutations OVER and OVER within the same story...often on the same page, it often feels like a student trying to bring up the word count on a report. Making this even more tedious, there are some deaths mentioned in the statistics but not elaborated upon within the text that sound as if they could have made riveting additional reading, if a higher page count was the goal. Sometimes incidents are referenced out of chronological order in ways that makes one (or both) stories confusing, and finally, there are obvious typos, some of which make the meaning of sentences unclear. I have great respect for the rescue workers and often brave and responsible bystanders who tried to prevent or mitigate these tragic deaths. I wish their stories were conveyed in a book I could recommend. :( If it had been available in my local library, I would have saved my money.