Crazy For The Storm: A Memoir Of Survival (P.S.) Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
“Breathtaking....Crazy for the Storm will keep you up late into the night.”—Washington Post Book World Norman Olstead’s New York Times bestselling memoir Crazy for the Storm is the story of the harrowing plane crash the author miraculously survived at age eleven, framed by the moving tale of his complicated relationship with his charismatic, adrenaline-addicted father. Destined to stand with other classic true stories of man against nature—Into Thin Air and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm—it is a literary triumph that novelist Russell Banks (Affliction) calls, “A heart-stopping story beautifully told….Norman Olstead has written a book that may well be read for generations.”
Series: P.S.
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Ecco; 1 Reprint edition (May 11, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006176678X
ISBN-13: 978-0061766787
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (296 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #87,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #60 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional U.S. > West #3436 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs
Sons--give a copy of CRAZY FOR THE STORM to your fathers. Fathers--give a copy to your sons. And everyone else--share this harrowing and luminous story with someone special in your life.Norman Ollestad's memoir has so many things going for it I'm not even quite sure where to begin. The tragic event at the core of the story will be well documented so I'll focus on the book's numerous other qualities.On some level, every son will recognize in himself the relationship between Norman and his father with its profoundly human emotional intricacies--a yearning to please, simmering resentment, subsequent guilt, enduring loyalty and love. Ollestad brings these to the surface in such a truthful way that--as a reader--you can't help but look in the mirror and take some time to reflect on your own journey.I also enjoyed greatly Ollestad's ability to transport me to places I've never been--the sun-soaked beaches of southern California's bohemian surf culture, the ice-capped peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains. You are there throughout with young Norman as he crosses the threshhold into manhood, aided by the wisdom and lessons of his late-father, whom he tragically loses.
Norman Ollestad Jr and his dad were enroute to Big Bear Mountain when they ran into a storm. Unaware that he'd lost his bearings, the pilot of their small plane crashed into Ontario Peak. Norman Ollestad Sr died as a result of the impact.Fortunately, Ollestad Sr. lived and raised his son to push limits and move beyond fear. Although he regularly put Norman Jr. in precarious spots, he simultaneously taught him to keep his wits about him in dangerous and unpredictable situations. It was this training that helped Ollestad Jr. keep his wits about him and survive the true life and death battle after the crash."Crazy for the Storm" isn't written in a "linear" format. The story moves back and forth between other events in Ollestad Jr.'s life and then back to the crash. For this particular story, this style didn't work for me. I kept wishing we could get back to the crash.Additionally, the events specifically relating to the crash are vivid, tense, and "in the moment". The other events seem muted and distant, as if they occurred in a detached dream world. They didn't come out and draw me in.I think that guys who are into extreme sport lifestyles will like this book. It will resonate with them and maybe they'll enjoy the coming of age events that are interspersed between the crash narrative.For those of you who dig this kind of lifestyle, you may want to look up the video of Ollestad Jr. speaking of his experiences personally. I wasn't wild over the book, but the video definitely added a new dimension to the story for me. ETA: He is a riveting speaker and as I was listening to him, I kept wishing he had written the book in that "voice". It would have taken the book to a different level.
This isn't my type of book, but I managed to finish it in two days. This is the story of a plane crash at 8600 feet in a snowstorm and how an 11-year-old crawled and slid down the mountain to safety. It's a story about death, but it's even more about life and living life to the fullest. It's about how a free spirit father forced his son to push through fear to experience life.I wasn't sure about the writing style at first - Norman Ollestad trades chapters back and forth between the crash and immediate aftermath, and events that happened the year before and up to getting in the plane on that fateful morning. There is a lot of dialogue in this book, but there are no quotation marks, which threw me for a chapter or two, but then lent the entire story a hazy, memory quality to. It almost had a stream of consciousness feeling to it, though the story is told in a linear way and doesn't really veer off into unrelated tangents.After a couple of chapters, I settled in and enjoyed the spare, crisp, dreamlike style. The writing is pure, and I felt like I was there, both struggling to get down the mountain, and mastering fear to get through the waves. I don't know anything about surfing or skiing, but the author conveyed the sensations of flying through the world with fear and lightness. He conveyed how the things his father taught him saved him after the crash.This is a fascinating story, and I'm glad I read it.
I bought this book after seeing it make appearances on most of the best-seller lists. This is a "Memoir of Survival" according to the subtitle, and it tells of Ollestad's survival after a plane crash that took the life of his father and his father's fiancee. Though that plane crash provides some cohesion to the story and though it was a life-defining event, it was a matter of only a few hours. So the survival in the story is much deeper-rooted in Ollestad's story of his relationship to his father. His father was a strange, egocentric man who had a very odd relationship to his son, constantly pushing him to do things he had no desire to do. Ollestad both idolized and despised his father. The story is interesting enough, I suppose, but after reading to the end I could think of few reasons that I would want to recommend this to anyone else beyond the usual human interest reasons. Though there is nothing inherently wrong with the book, I also did not find enough right with it that I'd recommend it to others. I wouldn't bother with it.
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