I had no sincere interest in this book, mainly because I'd seen parts of that 1993 movie with Ethan Hawke and it was so incredibly corny and cheesy, I assumed that the book from which it was based was the same. Thankfully, I was wrong. In the early chapters, I did roll my eyes because I thought it was going to be nearly 300 pages of just how good the Irish Catholics are. Or that somehow rugby served as a metaphor for this tragic expedition. Parrado does go there but thankfully, the book explores other, reacher themes that are more philosophical. Somewhere between chapters 8 and 9, I was totally hooked and breathless. Although I knew, rationally, that the author survived, while reading I kept wondering HOW????

In all the book offers a great meditation about the value of life and one's place in the universe. I work at a Jesuit university, and I think this would make a great read for college students.