The Will to Survive

...Twenty-nine of the 45 original passengers on the chartered flight survived...

...In eschewing any appeal to morbidity and simply letting the myriad details speak for themselves, he crafts a tale made all the more chilling and heroic by its bare understatement...

...For 72 days they lived in the damaged fuselage, cramped like subway riders during rush hour, protecting themselves from the subzero temperatures with blankets made from seat cushions, eating their dead companions for food...

...Thus, one is left to speculate about how the pilots could have thought they had already crossed the Andes and were lowering the plane for a landing in Chile...

...There was little variation in age, background or religion-All were Roman Catholic-And as athletes for the most part, they were in excellent condition...

...Read's fairly elaborate description of the battering game of rugby seems at first merely an indulgence, but it serves as a partial explanation for the miraculous physical feats later performed...

...When Christ died he gave his body to us so that we could have spiritual life...

...the rest were killed instantly, or perished for lack of either the medical supplies or the skills that might have saved them...

...Some, particularly the three youngest, proved ineffective...

...Perhaps most important, since they had worked together as teammates, the crash survivors already had a degree of insight into each other, an established hierarchy from which to proceed, and a sense of themselves as a societal unit with each person dependent upon the next...

...Still, what compels the reader constantly is the character of both the group as a whole and the individual personalities in it...

...But these are very minor criticisms...

...Yet interestingly enough-And it is a tribute to the group's ability to make use of its resources-the same Delgado was chosen to tell the story to the waiting journalists at the end, which he did adroitly...

...Sometimes Read's tact seems to intrude on his function as journalist...

...Charming and articulate to the point of being glib, Delgado at the beginning entertained the rest with anecdotes, yet in time he practically became a scapegoat, for his very abilities proved utterly useless under the circumstances...

...Alive isn't totally without flaws...

...Read also refrains from probing the actions of the parents, who, while displaying the same faith as their sons, unfortunately didn't evince their coolness under pressure...

...and, towering above the rest, Nando Par-rudo, typifying the faith, love and tragedy that mark the whole book...

...others, like the comparatively sophisticated Pancho Delgado, possessed talents that were ill-suited for the ordeal...

...To any self-styled suave urbanite, it is a devastating portrayal...

...He recreates moods, decisions and events with admirable care and restraint, and juxtaposes the struggles of the victims with the efforts of their parents-A few of whom never gave up hope-to rescue them...

...As one might expect, though, their cruel experience affected the 16 differently...

...Read handles this extraordinary material masterfully, descending neither into easy sentimentalism nor crass hystrionics...

...In Alive, novelist Piers Paul Read expands this no doubt common phobia to outrageous, Kafkaesque proportions...

...To answer the question Read looks unflinchingly at the main figures in this tragedy, especially the ones who lived...

...The boys, by and large members of a Uruguayan rugby team, were flying to Santiago, Chile, from Montevideo when they hit a mountain...

...Given their grim situation, they began with a number of advantages...

...How were these 16 men able to overcome a seemingly impossible plight...

...Reviewed by David Gleicher As a life-long city-dweller, I confess to always experiencing a slight twinge of uneasiness when traveling through barren, relatively isolated regions...

...I would be inclined to say Read got somewhat carried away, inventing a plot that calls for an inordinate suspension of disbelief, except the story happens to be true...

...He played life as if it was poker but did not realize that at that moment he had a weak hand...

...It's like Holy Communion," one of them told the press afterward...

...It was weak because he was hungry and he, alone . . . could neither pilfer himself nor count on friends and protectors to pilfer for him...

...Indeed, the most dramatic albeit not the most difficult problem, the issue of food, was resolved through an almost mystical feeling that took even the dead into the single entity...

...This, I think, explains the mixed reception his account has received from the participants: Read candidly admits in his Acknowledgment that "when I returned in October 1973 to show them the manuscript of this book, some of them were disappointed by my presentation of their story...

...He depicts a group of boys trapped in the heart of the Andes mountains during winter, deprived of even minimal food, clothing or shelter, who survive against incredible physical, moral and emotional odds...

...Later, a sudden avalanche killed nine others, including the captain of the rugby team, Marcelo Perez, the informal leader up to that point...

...At the root of this feeling is the fear of being stranded in a "state of nature," without resources or the means of securing outside aid...

...This is a fine book, one demanding to be read...

...My only real caution is that you begin it at a time when you have little else to do-for, as they say in the trade, once you start it, you won't be able to put it down...

...Four more subsequently died as well, leaving 16 alive...

...Both wings and the tail of then-plane were severed in the crash, leaving only the fuselage to come to a skidding halt on the snow...

...If Alive has its victims, however, it certainly does not lack for heroes...

...Delgado already had a lawyer's mind...

...Eduardo and Fito Struch, who became the chief organizers and arbiters...

...Finally, two of the strongest and most stable walked 10 days over some of the tallest mountains of the Andes to get help...

...There is Roberto Canessa, temperamental but ingenious, and amazingly strong, the first actually to eat from one of the bodies...

...My friend has given us his body so that we can have physical life...

...They felt that the faith and friendship which inspired them in the Cordillera do not emerge from these pages...