Becoming a Mountain

Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime

By: Stephen Alter

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown. He felt like a foreigner in the land of his birth.

This audiobook is his account of a series of treks he took in the high Himalayas following his convalescence - to Bandar Punch (the monkey's tail), Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India, and Mt. Kailash in Tibet. He set himself this goal to prove that he had healed mentally as well as physically and to re-knit his connection to his homeland. Undertaken out of sorrow, the treks become a moving soul journey, a way to rediscover mountains in his inner landscape.

Weaving together observations of the natural world, Himalayan history, folklore, and mythology, as well as encounters with other pilgrims along the way, Stephen Alter has given us a moving meditation on the solace of high places, and on the hidden meanings and enduring mystery of mountains.

©2014 Stephen Alter; First North American Edition 2015 (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Great Visual Account

The book is not an adrenaline packed sit on the edge of your chair thriller. It is a beautifully written and excellently narrated. It is an account of nature including some history of climbers and travelers in the Himalayan Mountains.

Thoughts on mountains, religion, and South Asia

Positives: I enjoyed and even agreed with many of the deep thoughts the author had regarding mountains and religion. He is extremely intelligent regarding these subjects and has an intense passion for the Himalayas like I do for the Blue Ridge here in Virginia. I sincerely appreciate his thoughtful insight and his poetic language. I appreciate his acute observations on Hindu and Buddhist cultures along with conservation.

Negatives: Like a previous reviewer stated, there seems to be an incoherency of storytelling that also confused me at points. I was disappointed that neither the intense attack nor its life-altering impacts were not revisited throughout the story. I would have enjoyed hearing about the struggles of his recovery and the challenges of climbing immense peaks afterward. At times, I did not know if his stories occurred before or after the attack. As a matter of fact, I thought the physical attack on he and his wife would be the basis for the story, but neither (attack nor wife) were central to the rest of the book. I also felt his obvious disdain for religion was overly told. That really became the gist of the story in my mind. Although I may agree with his feelings on religion's harmful impact upon the environment, I was hoping for more connection of he and his wife healing together as mountaineers. In my opinion, that should have been the driving force for his storytelling. Finally, I felt that some of the scenes (like the travel with his team) dragged on without much depth or purpose. The descriptive writing was excellent, but there just didn't seem to be a story there.

With that being said, I would read other texts from this author. He is relatable regarding his passion for mountains and his knowledge of faiths.

Boring, confusing, meandering storytelling

Long winded, meandering and confusing. Never gets to any point. Goes on tangents midway through a story about a past trek or a tale of someone's else's trek or book, making it exceedingly confusing to the point where you're not sure whose story or which expedition the author is talking about. Rarely actually finishes a story but rather plows right into the next one with no warning.