Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le! mineros de Chile!
What a miraculous gathering! After years of neglected responsibilities and lost souls,
all twelve of us came together and re-appeared Last Thursday above ground in the far
Sandia Heights, and related our own private and personal stories of redemption and
deliverance: one of us worked for 8 hours straight as an 18-year-old skinny kid in a
horizontal Mormon coal mine; one of us hiked the dreaded Atacama Desert following a 40-
year rain and emerged into a star-filled night with only a backpack, one
son, and a love of Kafka; one of us was dropped off in the Canadian Northwest with a hungry companion, disappearing rations, and a missing seaplane; and several of us drank bad Chilean wine
and never complained, not even once....
Their lawyer spoke first:
Bob Simon: A work of puffery, much to do about nothing. There was no moral. All ended up almost where they began. I wasn't attracted to the plot. I give it a B-
Rob Easterling: Compared to other heroic books, the quality was less than others. The tedious girlfriend stories were less than captivating. I liked the pastor who offered hope. I give it a B.
Rob Bousek: It held my attention. I liked learning the mining information which was interesting. It dragged some. A-
Bob Woods: B+ the story was filtered through the author; a remarkable work.
Mike B: I appreciated the background the author provided on this miserable desert area, to include Darwin "hopping off the Beagle." The author did an admirable job of introducing the miners, making several of them (e.g., Mario Sepulveda) memorable and helping th reader to recall as the calendar moved onward: Now which one was that? I don't think it is fair to compare this story to Shackleton's or Citizen Soldiers as these guys were going to work and found themselves unexpectedly thrown into survival mode; in the other stories the men were geared for survival going in. I was fascinated by what would happen next and appreciated what the author did with the story, especially the first half the book which was 19 days of pure survival. The author did not lionize his miners. A-
Keith Gilbert: 33 men thrown into high drama. Cheap psychological drama: In any such crisis situation. expect 1/3 to do nothing, 1/3 to demonstrate flight or fight, 1/3 to get into a corner and figure out the best we can do. Two forces come into play: fear and greed. Fear: the first 20 days; then greed slowly crept in after 20 days. These are the two great forces in the world. C+
Dick J: Hillbilly Elegy was great in that he liked this; this was just OK; a good book but not great. B+
Jack Ferrell: I liked the Rilke poem he started the book with. My comments are between Rob and Ron: I learned a lot from reading of the miners, a great deal about mining. I found it difficult to digest. B-
Dick Arms: I appreciated the craftsmanship. He did a good job with what he had to work with: 33 people, all had to get into the book, as well as lots of stories. A-
Charlie: He did OK with the material. A story of ordinary people who faced adversity and did about as well as one would think. B-
Tom G: Good book but not as good as Ghost Soliders. The drilling and the mining stuff was interesting as well as the extraction/rescue efforts. B
Ken G: I learned a lot about mining. Too many characters. Knowing the ending made reading it somewhat less appealing. Tedious. B+
No somos los mejores hombres.
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