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The Ice Soldier
One man's quiet life is shattered when he's forced to confront terrifying secrets he'd thought buried high in the Italian Alps
The New York Times has called his work "daring and remarkably assured," The Washington Post has dubbed it "shamelessly entertaining," and the Los Angeles Times claims it renders "the raw elegence of the human experience itself." Now Paul Watkins returns with his most engaging and atmospheric novel yet. The ice soldier of the title is one William Bromley. Following a disasterous turn in the Alps during the Second World War, William has constructed for himself a quiet and lonely life as a history teacher at a London boarding school. For different reasons, he and his best friend Stanley have given up the world of mountaineering for a more peaceful existence. Peaceful that is, until a soldier from William's mountain regiment reappears, tragedy occurs, and a terrible bargain is made. Slowly, the horrifying events of the war come back to William, and he realizes what he must do. He is to confront his worst fears and memories by returning to the glaciers and peaks of northern Italy.
The little-known role of the army's mountaineer corps comes brilliantly to life in this story of men pushed to the limits of endurance and survival, and haunted by the ghosts of war.
"Paul Watkins is without question one of the most gifted writers of his generation." —Tobias Wolff
The New York Times has called his work "daring and remarkably assured," The Washington Post has dubbed it "shamelessly entertaining," and the Los Angeles Times claims it renders "the raw elegence of the human experience itself." Now Paul Watkins returns with his most engaging and atmospheric novel yet. The ice soldier of the title is one William Bromley. Following a disasterous turn in the Alps during the Second World War, William has constructed for himself a quiet and lonely life as a history teacher at a London boarding school. For different reasons, he and his best friend Stanley have given up the world of mountaineering for a more peaceful existence. Peaceful that is, until a soldier from William's mountain regiment reappears, tragedy occurs, and a terrible bargain is made. Slowly, the horrifying events of the war come back to William, and he realizes what he must do. He is to confront his worst fears and memories by returning to the glaciers and peaks of northern Italy.
The little-known role of the army's mountaineer corps comes brilliantly to life in this story of men pushed to the limits of endurance and survival, and haunted by the ghosts of war.
"Paul Watkins is without question one of the most gifted writers of his generation." —Tobias Wolff
372 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
4 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Paul Watkins
144 books92 followersPaul Watkins is an American author who currently lives with his wife and two children in Hightstown, New Jersey. He is a teacher and writer-in-residence at The Peddie School, and formerly taught at Lawrenceville School. He attended the Dragon School, Oxford, Eton and Yale University. He received a B.A. from Yale and was a University Fellow at Syracuse University, New York. His recollections of his time at the Dragon School and Eton form his autobiographical work Stand Before Your God: An American Schoolboy in England.
Writes crime fiction set at the birth of Stalin's Russia under Sam Eastland.
Writes crime fiction set at the birth of Stalin's Russia under Sam Eastland.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
November 30, 2007
I think that Paul Watkins is one of the finest writers of today. His writing brings to mind the style of Hemingway, and his characters have the same kind of inner machismo, though without boasting of it.
It is very easy to get caught up in the prose and the characters that Watkins brings to life, but this book leaves something to be desired with its plot. While I fully understood the main character's lonesomeness and even later understood why, I never believed his desire for a certain young lady was anything but a mere physical attraction that would (or even should) develop into something more.
Too, one of the main protagonists was well set up as being the object of conflict, but we never see him again in the last 140 pages of the book. There, the conflict is the final climb and the mountain itself. In this sense, the book is as uneven as the terrain on which "Auntie" and Stanley make their journey
Still, I would much rather read a book by Paul Watkins that is lacking in some story, than most books by other authors.
An author worth reading, but not necessarily this particuar book until you've read a few of his others.
It is very easy to get caught up in the prose and the characters that Watkins brings to life, but this book leaves something to be desired with its plot. While I fully understood the main character's lonesomeness and even later understood why, I never believed his desire for a certain young lady was anything but a mere physical attraction that would (or even should) develop into something more.
Too, one of the main protagonists was well set up as being the object of conflict, but we never see him again in the last 140 pages of the book. There, the conflict is the final climb and the mountain itself. In this sense, the book is as uneven as the terrain on which "Auntie" and Stanley make their journey
Still, I would much rather read a book by Paul Watkins that is lacking in some story, than most books by other authors.
An author worth reading, but not necessarily this particuar book until you've read a few of his others.
August 9, 2014
Forty year old history teacher William Bromley (whose name I kept reading as Wilford Brimley) is living in London in 1950. He can't escape his haunted past as a member of a mountaineering brigade in World War II: he and his fellow soldiers were tasked with taking a radio beacon to the top of the Italian Alps, but the Germans were there waiting for them, there was a shootout, and three Brits perished.
He sits in his club with his best friend Stanley and they drink wine and shoot the breeze. At first, it felt like Watkins might be a poor-man's John Buchan: the introspective adventurer, reaching early middle age, has room in his psyche for one last adventure. But Buchan was a good writer and a gifted storyteller, who knew how to structure and pace a story. Watkins' novel only really comes together in the final section; everything up to that point is a random mess, plot points being driven around in circles, a lot of repetition, and the dissipation of multiple tensions where there could be one continuous buildup.
If you remove the two lady love interests, this reads like a novel for 12 year old boys. 12 year old boys from 1950. Actually, even if you leave in the two lady love interests, it feels that way. Everyone is completely chaste.
You also have to swallow your disbelief that the great mountaineer Henry Carton, uncle of Stanley, asks in his will that William and Stanley .
March 31, 2008
I really loved this book and couldn't put it down. This was the first time I'd read anything by Paul Watkins, and didn't know what to expect. I was definitely pleasantly surprised. This is a great story about mountaineering set in 1950 & even touches on WWII by recalling what the main character went through during that time. Ever since I read Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" I have been fascinated with the whole mountaineering thing and what makes mountaineers tick. This book didn't disappoint on either front. This was a well-written story in which the author stingily reveals details of a horrific experience the character, William Bromley, experienced during the war. But Watkins isn't so stingy that it's maddening, like authors will sometimes do. Both the present-day story of a new predicament for William and the past war experience unfold all in their proper, due time. It's a story of friendship and even has a little romance thrown in for good measure. But at its core, this is a story of how people deal with guilt (whether justifiable or only self-imposed) and either find a way to rise above and live life fully, or let it eat away at their life. And to think Watkins did all this without having to resort to bad language as a crutch (I only noticed 2 instances of very slight "cussing"!). And I was totally surprised by the ending to the major plot - did not see it coming at all. The overall ending might be a little cheesy, but I'm willing to forgive that since it was such a well-crafted story. I can't wait to see if Waktkins' other books are as good as this one.
June 18, 2020
"We told him to leave us alone. We do not need the advice of another crazy Englishman!" Now Salvatore began to walk back through the cemetery, talking to me over his shoulder as he went. "We are mountain guides! If a baker puts the wrong name on a birthday cake, he can make another cake. but if a guide makes a mistake, he may lose his life and the lives of his charges. Our work is very serious. We do not listen to little men like your Mr. Pringle. He thinks he knows everything about the mountains. He is like a thousand other people who go into the hills and come back to tell us what they have learned about climbing or about themselves or about the world."
"What is the harm in that?"
He turned and glared at me. "No harm at all, most of the time. The harmful ones are those who believe that they have found one thing, one truth above all others, that this is the only way it can be seen from now on, that everyone else is wrong and the rest should be humiliated for seeing it differently. These people are the dangerous ones. Mr. Pringle thinks that because he knows the height of all these mountains, and a catalogue of names and dates, he is as important as the mountains themselves. And Mr. Carton, he believed that because he was the first to climb a piece of rock in whose shadow we have lived for ten thousand years, that he was somehow in possession of that rock. Of course these two men ended up hating each other, not because they are so different but because they are so much the same. If you English were not so busy despising each other, you might find the time to understand what it means to live in the mountains, not just to visit them."
~~A small Italian town in the shadow of one of the mountains that forms the range separating Italy from Switzerland. Will and Stanley may have started their climb with a view similar to this.
My two cents: Paul Watkins writes beautiful prose, as illustrated by my numerous quotes below. I loved the illustration of male friendship--between Stan and Will--which has endured despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges of WWII. Will is wracked with guilt and self-doubt. Watching him first try to ignore, and then struggle through these emotions was one of the over-arching themes for me. I do feel that there were threads of the story-line that were thrown in, and then dropped abruptly. For instance, one of the main-antagonists just disappears from the story without a trace. Overall though, Watkins has given us an offering that is well worth reading. Given a rating of 4 stars or "Excellent". Recommended for all, and highly recommended for those who love mountain climbing, or reading about more unusual facets of WWII.
Favorite quotes: "Once we had dispensed with any gossip about old schoolmates, most of whom were also members of the Montague, we would settle down to our drinks. Over the next few hours, we would polish off the wine. At the end of this we would, with great solemnity, forgive the world for all its many sins.
By Monday, all bets would be off and the world would have returned to its previous unforgiven state. But on Friday afternoons, Stanley and I made our peace with the planet, which always seemed easier to do after six glasses of Bordeaux."
~~"There were nights when Stan and I walked back to the club, having said good night to the woman, and I would dread the moment when he'd ask how I thought it had gone. We both knew exactly how it had gone, and Stanley would be in the process of what seemed to be one long exhaling of breath, as he slowly returned to himself. With me, he had no reason to be anything other than who he was, and if he had been this same person when he was with the ladies, they might have liked him better for it. Or perhaps the Melancholy Angels would have steered clear of him to begin with. But something clicked in him when he was trying to impress these ladies, and he became like a dancing bear, lumbering about on the stage, without reward, without dignity, without a chance."
~~"There was nothing more boring to [students] than a quiet, conservative teacher, mild-manneredly trotting out his lessons day after day. The teachers they would remember were the ones who ranted and waved their arms about and drew unintelligible scrawls on the blackboard to illustrate their equally unintelligible trains of thought. But these men loved the subjects they taught, with the madness of those who cannot understand why everyone else is not enchanted with algebra or the anatomy of locusts or the last hemlock-drugged words of Socrates. We knew those were the ones they would remember, because we remembered them ourselves."
~~My father used to make this walk almost every day, in the company of a bull mastiff he'd named Trouble. He had bought the dog a few years after the death of my mother, and quickly became a doting servant to the beast. Even if he didn't feel like walking, he had to take the dog out and run it around or it would have torn the house to pieces. The sight of my father being pulled up the road by the huge animal, with its apricot-colored fur and fierce blackface, and the sound of my father trying to control his pet with shouts of "Trouble! Trouble!" provided the town with one of its more enduring comedies.
~~"I'd realized that the war, and the changes it had brought to my life, had removed not only a plan for the future but even the future itself. I woke up each morning surprised to find that I was still alive. This phenomenon had thrown me into a permanent state of amazement. The smallest things, like the blue flame balanced in the old spoon in which I melted black polish for shining my boots on Sunday afternoons, or the smell of toasted granary bread, or the sound of a distant train clattering along the tracks in the middle of the night, would bring to life in me a bewilderment that lasted for days. Such apparently trivial details, I had to remind myself, had long since been taken for granted by most people around me, or else had never been noticed at all."
~~"Mr. Pringle," I said. "We make jokes not in spite of the fact that people die but because they die, and because, as you have pointed out, we might soon be among them. We make jokes to remind ourselves that we are still alive."
Further Reading: An article describing the role of mountaineer soldiers in WW2. Based on the article, the mission Will was sent on sounds quite realistic. https://rockandice.com/features/mount...
~~And a list of some of the most famous mountaineers of all time. http://www.thrillophilia.com/blog/5-g...
"What is the harm in that?"
He turned and glared at me. "No harm at all, most of the time. The harmful ones are those who believe that they have found one thing, one truth above all others, that this is the only way it can be seen from now on, that everyone else is wrong and the rest should be humiliated for seeing it differently. These people are the dangerous ones. Mr. Pringle thinks that because he knows the height of all these mountains, and a catalogue of names and dates, he is as important as the mountains themselves. And Mr. Carton, he believed that because he was the first to climb a piece of rock in whose shadow we have lived for ten thousand years, that he was somehow in possession of that rock. Of course these two men ended up hating each other, not because they are so different but because they are so much the same. If you English were not so busy despising each other, you might find the time to understand what it means to live in the mountains, not just to visit them."
~~A small Italian town in the shadow of one of the mountains that forms the range separating Italy from Switzerland. Will and Stanley may have started their climb with a view similar to this.
My two cents: Paul Watkins writes beautiful prose, as illustrated by my numerous quotes below. I loved the illustration of male friendship--between Stan and Will--which has endured despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges of WWII. Will is wracked with guilt and self-doubt. Watching him first try to ignore, and then struggle through these emotions was one of the over-arching themes for me. I do feel that there were threads of the story-line that were thrown in, and then dropped abruptly. For instance, one of the main-antagonists just disappears from the story without a trace. Overall though, Watkins has given us an offering that is well worth reading. Given a rating of 4 stars or "Excellent". Recommended for all, and highly recommended for those who love mountain climbing, or reading about more unusual facets of WWII.
Favorite quotes: "Once we had dispensed with any gossip about old schoolmates, most of whom were also members of the Montague, we would settle down to our drinks. Over the next few hours, we would polish off the wine. At the end of this we would, with great solemnity, forgive the world for all its many sins.
By Monday, all bets would be off and the world would have returned to its previous unforgiven state. But on Friday afternoons, Stanley and I made our peace with the planet, which always seemed easier to do after six glasses of Bordeaux."
~~"There were nights when Stan and I walked back to the club, having said good night to the woman, and I would dread the moment when he'd ask how I thought it had gone. We both knew exactly how it had gone, and Stanley would be in the process of what seemed to be one long exhaling of breath, as he slowly returned to himself. With me, he had no reason to be anything other than who he was, and if he had been this same person when he was with the ladies, they might have liked him better for it. Or perhaps the Melancholy Angels would have steered clear of him to begin with. But something clicked in him when he was trying to impress these ladies, and he became like a dancing bear, lumbering about on the stage, without reward, without dignity, without a chance."
~~"There was nothing more boring to [students] than a quiet, conservative teacher, mild-manneredly trotting out his lessons day after day. The teachers they would remember were the ones who ranted and waved their arms about and drew unintelligible scrawls on the blackboard to illustrate their equally unintelligible trains of thought. But these men loved the subjects they taught, with the madness of those who cannot understand why everyone else is not enchanted with algebra or the anatomy of locusts or the last hemlock-drugged words of Socrates. We knew those were the ones they would remember, because we remembered them ourselves."
~~My father used to make this walk almost every day, in the company of a bull mastiff he'd named Trouble. He had bought the dog a few years after the death of my mother, and quickly became a doting servant to the beast. Even if he didn't feel like walking, he had to take the dog out and run it around or it would have torn the house to pieces. The sight of my father being pulled up the road by the huge animal, with its apricot-colored fur and fierce blackface, and the sound of my father trying to control his pet with shouts of "Trouble! Trouble!" provided the town with one of its more enduring comedies.
~~"I'd realized that the war, and the changes it had brought to my life, had removed not only a plan for the future but even the future itself. I woke up each morning surprised to find that I was still alive. This phenomenon had thrown me into a permanent state of amazement. The smallest things, like the blue flame balanced in the old spoon in which I melted black polish for shining my boots on Sunday afternoons, or the smell of toasted granary bread, or the sound of a distant train clattering along the tracks in the middle of the night, would bring to life in me a bewilderment that lasted for days. Such apparently trivial details, I had to remind myself, had long since been taken for granted by most people around me, or else had never been noticed at all."
~~"Mr. Pringle," I said. "We make jokes not in spite of the fact that people die but because they die, and because, as you have pointed out, we might soon be among them. We make jokes to remind ourselves that we are still alive."
Further Reading: An article describing the role of mountaineer soldiers in WW2. Based on the article, the mission Will was sent on sounds quite realistic. https://rockandice.com/features/mount...
~~And a list of some of the most famous mountaineers of all time. http://www.thrillophilia.com/blog/5-g...
November 22, 2022
After hearing about the mountaineering exploits of his friend Stanley's Uncle Henry Carton, William Bromley joins Stanley & a group of four other young men & starts climbing mountains for fun. When WWII breaks out, five of them join up whilst Stanley refuses to enlist & goes to work at his father's firm instead. Bromley is sent to train mountaineering corps & at one point is asked to put together a team for a highly secret mission. He requests his five friends (again Stanley declines), & the small team are parachuted in to plant a radio beacon on the Italian Alps to help guide bombers returning from their missions.
Several years later Bromley is now a teacher who lives with the guilt of what happened on that mission & he has never climbed a mountain since. He is now only in contact with Stanley as the other surviving member of the team blames Bromley for the deaths of their friends. When Henry Carton dies, he asks that Bromley & his nephew Stanley, take his coffin to the top of Carton Rock, scene of Henry's greatest climbing achievement.
I seemingly have a inexhaustible fascination with books about mountaineering - fiction or nonfiction. This wasn't quite in the league of 'The Abominable' by Dan Simmons when it comes to sheer length, but the pace of this book is glacially slow (they don't even start climbing until page 250), but something kept me reading. I can't quite put my finger on what it was. There were some side plots that just stopped - a fellow mountaineering enthusiast called Pringle begs them not to climb with the coffin & calls Carton a charlatan basically, but we are never given any idea of what he knows or what evidence he has. Similarly, the other surviving member of the group threatens Bromley if he doesn't back out & allow him to climb, but we never hear from him again. Although I enjoyed it enough to keep reading, I have no intention of reading it more than once. 2.5 stars (rounded up)
Several years later Bromley is now a teacher who lives with the guilt of what happened on that mission & he has never climbed a mountain since. He is now only in contact with Stanley as the other surviving member of the team blames Bromley for the deaths of their friends. When Henry Carton dies, he asks that Bromley & his nephew Stanley, take his coffin to the top of Carton Rock, scene of Henry's greatest climbing achievement.
I seemingly have a inexhaustible fascination with books about mountaineering - fiction or nonfiction. This wasn't quite in the league of 'The Abominable' by Dan Simmons when it comes to sheer length, but the pace of this book is glacially slow (they don't even start climbing until page 250), but something kept me reading. I can't quite put my finger on what it was. There were some side plots that just stopped - a fellow mountaineering enthusiast called Pringle begs them not to climb with the coffin & calls Carton a charlatan basically, but we are never given any idea of what he knows or what evidence he has. Similarly, the other surviving member of the group threatens Bromley if he doesn't back out & allow him to climb, but we never hear from him again. Although I enjoyed it enough to keep reading, I have no intention of reading it more than once. 2.5 stars (rounded up)
June 19, 2007
What I like best about these books is that they are what I imagine would have been great adventure novels to read as a boy. In each of Paul Watkins’ novels you're treated to violent but also romanticized stories from wars across the earth. The small characters are brought to life as much as the large ones, but none of the characters are ever overdrawn, and because of that you can place yourself easily into the story. The Ice Soldier is about mountaineering as much as it is the British army's mountaineer corps, and the story too is about personal redemption and what we perceive to be our personal successes and failures. After reading nearly everything else Watkins has written, I doubt I could find much poor to say about this one, so I claim no objectivity. The Ice Soldier tells a great story, suspenseful to the very end. It'll be a long wait until the next one.
April 21, 2009
This was my first encounter with Paul Watkins. I picked up a used copy for $3 and had no preconceived notions. I didn't know whether to expect a military thriller, adventure, or straightforward history.
Watkins writes in a style that makes the most mundane plot ingredients interesting. I found myself savoring many passages, relating to his descriptions of the character's environment and impressed with how Watkins captures so much in the simple written word.
The Ice Soldier offers much more depth than the subject matter would indicate. I'll look forward to reading more of Watkins work (regardless of the subject) soon.
Watkins writes in a style that makes the most mundane plot ingredients interesting. I found myself savoring many passages, relating to his descriptions of the character's environment and impressed with how Watkins captures so much in the simple written word.
The Ice Soldier offers much more depth than the subject matter would indicate. I'll look forward to reading more of Watkins work (regardless of the subject) soon.
February 19, 2008
In my spare time I like to read antique thrillers by dead male Brits. This living author has managed to conjure that same atmosphere of foolish certainty and brave incompetence as a good Buchan or Sapper or Dornford Yates. Not unlike Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans. Very unlike Flashman, it plays straight. A throwback, but a decent, honest one; a ripping yarn.
December 7, 2022
This novel is probably one of the best I've read so far this year. Watkin's prose expertly drives the story forward with appropriate use of flashback mixed with current time of the novel. We get to see the PTSD of Bromley (the protagonist) that he developed in WW2, as well as the everyday trauma experienced by other characters. Importantly, this novel shows the resilience of the characters to the bad hands they have been dealt. This story carries you along in London, the Cotswolds, and the Alps. Lovely descriptions of the experiences endured by Stanley and Bromley as they undertake a Herculean task (one that Hercules may have bowed out of). I was very satisfied with the narrative arc and the conclusion. I recommend this novel to anyone interested in the lives of the English WW2 generation, mountaineering, and seeing the bonds of love and friendship that can bind men's lives together.
June 21, 2008
William Bromley is a World War II veteran living in 1950's London. In the war, he led a mountaineering expedition that ended disastrously. He has never moved past this and started living again. He's just existing--teaching school, admiring the secretary from a distance, spending Friday evenings with his one friend, and visiting his father on school breaks. There's nothing exciting in his life and that's the way he likes it. Notably, he has also completely given up mountain climbing. Then something changes and he is left wondering if his life is really enough and does he have the courage to start truly living his life again?
I enjoyed this. The story itself was very well-written and easy to read. The pacing was good and the way that things were slowly explained really worked. Probably the best part was that within this very straightforward story, the author manages to explore big themes like man vs. nature, the nature of friendship among men, and what war can still do to those lucky enough to survive. In other words, it works on many levels. If you want a simple adventure story, that's in here. If you want something to chew over and think about for a while, that's in here too.
I enjoyed this. The story itself was very well-written and easy to read. The pacing was good and the way that things were slowly explained really worked. Probably the best part was that within this very straightforward story, the author manages to explore big themes like man vs. nature, the nature of friendship among men, and what war can still do to those lucky enough to survive. In other words, it works on many levels. If you want a simple adventure story, that's in here. If you want something to chew over and think about for a while, that's in here too.
January 9, 2008
An impulse read, found browsing through the New Books section at the library. The Tobias Wolff endorsement on the jacket was enough for me, and the praise turned out to be well-deserved. Splendid book, from beginning to end...and this, coming from someone with little-to-no interest in mountaineering. Complex but subtle, all in all a very balanced and well-paced novel.
August 26, 2014
If you want to climb a mountain and cross a glacier without moving from your armchair then this is the story for you. Kept me entertained from beginning to end despite really poor proof reading.
June 25, 2017
Almost poetic!
Read
April 15, 2021~"I'd realized that the war, and the changes it had brought to my life, had removed not only a plan for the future but even the future itself. I woke up each morning surprised to find that I was still alive. This phenomenon had thrown me into a permanent state of amazement. The smallest things, like the blue flame balanced in the old spoon in which I melted black polish for shining my boots on Sunday afternoons, or the smell of toasted granary bread, or the sound of a distant train clattering along the tracks in the middle of the night, would bring to life in me a bewilderment that lasted for days. Such apparently trivial details, I had to remind myself, had long since been taken for granted by most people around me, or else had never been noticed at all."
~~"Mr. Pringle," I said. "We make jokes not in spite of the fact that people die but because they die, and because, as you have pointed out, we might soon be among them. We make jokes to remind ourselves that we are still alive."
Further Reading: An article describing the role of mountaineer soldiers in WW2. Based on the article, the mission Will was sent on sounds quite
https://bestowtourpackages.in/best-honeymoon-places-in-india/
~~"Mr. Pringle," I said. "We make jokes not in spite of the fact that people die but because they die, and because, as you have pointed out, we might soon be among them. We make jokes to remind ourselves that we are still alive."
Further Reading: An article describing the role of mountaineer soldiers in WW2. Based on the article, the mission Will was sent on sounds quite
https://bestowtourpackages.in/best-honeymoon-places-in-india/
April 28, 2023
A crisply written proficient book. Technically sound. Good and realistic plot lines. What I really loved was how Paul Watkins nailed post-war England and English social strata in the fifties. Notice how Paul Watkins career path so closely follows William Bromley's.
I am a hard/harsh critic, so if I am giving Ice Soldier a decent review it is probably better even than that. Written in the under-stated British way (even though he a Yank), and as someone else mentioned - similar style to the great British adventure writers of a bygone era, John Buchan, etc.
Suspect Paul is an Anglophile. Nothing wrong with that.
I am a hard/harsh critic, so if I am giving Ice Soldier a decent review it is probably better even than that. Written in the under-stated British way (even though he a Yank), and as someone else mentioned - similar style to the great British adventure writers of a bygone era, John Buchan, etc.
Suspect Paul is an Anglophile. Nothing wrong with that.
March 29, 2025
in the end it was SO good but i swear i could’ve completely skipped part 1 (literally the entire first half) and just read part 2 and 3 and fully gotten the entire story. the main focus (the climb) was SO well written and i LOVED it. the build up was SO LONG and SO SLOW and then the after part (the climb down and life after) was so rushed it was crazy, like one sentence would be “we got married the year after” and the next would be “our kid attended …. college”. so i did really like the writing and the book but it was just weirdly paced
April 12, 2020
A wonderful surprise
It must have been a year between buying the book and reading it, so I didn’t really know anything about it except the title. I expected a World War II book about survival and beating the odds, but this book was so much more. It’s a book rich with character and insight, and the healing of the main character from his war experience to the present (6 years later). It was a very deep and rewarding read, and one I highly recommend
It must have been a year between buying the book and reading it, so I didn’t really know anything about it except the title. I expected a World War II book about survival and beating the odds, but this book was so much more. It’s a book rich with character and insight, and the healing of the main character from his war experience to the present (6 years later). It was a very deep and rewarding read, and one I highly recommend
January 31, 2018
Hard to believe they could survive the glacier, glad they did.
January 21, 2021
If you're thinking of bailing out after a couple of chapters I would urge you to reconsider. The writing is quite frankly superb. Its heartening to experience a writer with such a complete set of tools at their disposal and nothing is wasted.
April 5, 2009
This guy has a definite knack for conveying time and place. He paints 1950s London so vividly you'd think you were there. But the real magic of it is he does it in smaller details rather than grand descriptions: a character's carrying bag or his cigarette case; the knick-knacks in a kitchen or on the mantle. He's no slouch with the broad brush strokes either. You can feel the scope and isolation of the glacier too.
This is also a very exciting book, with characters who remain real, despite the intensity of the plot. Watkins may like his similes a little too much (though they do balance out the otherwise clipped Hemingway-esque style), and I'm tempted to tear out the last two pages, but all in all, a great book.
This is also a very exciting book, with characters who remain real, despite the intensity of the plot. Watkins may like his similes a little too much (though they do balance out the otherwise clipped Hemingway-esque style), and I'm tempted to tear out the last two pages, but all in all, a great book.
February 20, 2013
My interests of military history and mountains ( http://www.markmacduff.com )seemed to collide on the cover of this book: the Faber hardback of 2005. I read the review on the back by the Sunday Times which was glowing and on the strength of that I bought it as it appeared to be something akin to the novel I have recently had published.
The quality of writing is excellent, really first rate. The descriptive passages, especially the mountain scenes are brilliant. The plot is good and indeed there are several plots. Without giving anything away I must say the book did not turn out to be what I had imagined. Nevertheless I loved it and I will definitely look for more of Paul Watkins writing which is really very good.
The quality of writing is excellent, really first rate. The descriptive passages, especially the mountain scenes are brilliant. The plot is good and indeed there are several plots. Without giving anything away I must say the book did not turn out to be what I had imagined. Nevertheless I loved it and I will definitely look for more of Paul Watkins writing which is really very good.
August 21, 2007
So, I read this book because I felt sorry for it. It was one of the "Reader's Choice" selections at the county library and nobody had read it yet, so I decided that I should.
And, it was OK. It is the story of a mountain climber who is living with ghosts from his service in World War II. This book details his return to the mountains after the war.
Anyway, if you're into mountaineering, you might really like this book a little more than I did. I liked it, but it wasn't great. But considering that this is a genre I normally don't select, I was pleasantly surprised.
And, it was OK. It is the story of a mountain climber who is living with ghosts from his service in World War II. This book details his return to the mountains after the war.
Anyway, if you're into mountaineering, you might really like this book a little more than I did. I liked it, but it wasn't great. But considering that this is a genre I normally don't select, I was pleasantly surprised.
April 23, 2009
Another Paul Watkins masterpiece, even if the last two pages are a little over the top. While reading it, I felt I was climbing the mountain along with the two main characters and felt the struggle each faced along the way. My only complaint might be that the book started out with a focus on the narrator's struggle with ghosts from the war but abandoned that internal struggle somewhere in the middle. All and all, a good read.
April 13, 2009
This is an odd book for me...I thought it would be so much more, and then it lets me down in places.
And yet, I keep thinking about it and have gone back to re-read it. The confrontations between some of the characters aren't believable, but the description of climbing and the scenes on the glacier, along with some quieter scenes of the academic life of a teacher, stay with me. Watkins can write some really good scenes, and others disappoint. Uneven, but worth a read.
And yet, I keep thinking about it and have gone back to re-read it. The confrontations between some of the characters aren't believable, but the description of climbing and the scenes on the glacier, along with some quieter scenes of the academic life of a teacher, stay with me. Watkins can write some really good scenes, and others disappoint. Uneven, but worth a read.
August 21, 2010
A very different sort of book. After WWII, a mountaineer returns home and decides he is done with climbing. A number of other characters in the book, almost all mountaineers, have their own secrets or stories or aspirations about mountain climbing. It was hard to know where the story was going, but it ended up being something that refreshed the principles and high morals of others, including some reputations. All around an intriguing book.
July 31, 2014
I first read Archangel and loved it. A book for men or women. A gutsy story set in Maine.
I hope this one is as good because I found that not all of his books are startling.
This is a thought provoking book about climbing in the Alps , leadership, bravery and finding yourself. i think Watkins has captured the flavour of the times ( post war) well.
One thing that I admire about his books is the great variety of subject matter settings and themes which he chooses.
I hope this one is as good because I found that not all of his books are startling.
This is a thought provoking book about climbing in the Alps , leadership, bravery and finding yourself. i think Watkins has captured the flavour of the times ( post war) well.
One thing that I admire about his books is the great variety of subject matter settings and themes which he chooses.
June 6, 2008
Paul Watkins' books are either captivating or tedious. This one is captivating. I read it in just two days.
March 5, 2010
Slow in parts, but i really enjoyed it. Watkin's gives a great feel as to what the essence of climbing is all about. Not as good of fiction as Night over Day over Night though.
December 24, 2011
Contemp English...1940s-50s London and Alps....thought it would be historical and adventuresome. It was neither.
April 9, 2012
Wow - loved it.
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