Chessler Books
Rock Climbing - Mountaineering - Exploration
New - Used - Collectible - Signed
Home
|
Titles Site Map
|
Subjects Site Map
|
New Arrivals
|
What's On Sale
|
Contact
|
View Cart
All Orders Shipped via United States Postal Service
$20 & less
10th Mt Div
7 Summits
8000 M
Africa
Alaska, Denali
Alps, UK, Caucasus
Andes, Patagonia
Annapurna Signed Herzog
Antarctic, Arctic, Voyage
Anthologies, Essays
Autographed
Avalanches, Rescue
Biographies
Canada
Cascades
Caving
Chessler Catalogs
Children
CO, UT, Rockies
DVD Video
Ephemera, Catalogs
EVEREST, KHUMBU
Expeditions, Narratives
Fiction
Glaciers, Geology
Guidebooks
Ice Axes Pitons Biners
Indian Himalaya
K2, KARAKORAM
Magazines, Journals
Maps Antique
Maps Topo
Nepal Himalaya
Northeast USA
Norway, Greenland
NZ, AU, New Guinea
Photos, Photo Books
Posters, Art
RARE, USED, COLLECTIBLE
ROCK & ICE CLIMBING
Sale
Skiing
Technique, Reference, His
Tetons, WY, No Rockies
Tibet China Asia Japan Ru
USA Climb Hike History
Yosemite Sierra CA AZ NV
Author:
Title:
Keyword:
Item #:
Select a Subject...
$20 & less
10th Mountain Division, Military
8000 Meter Peaks
Africa
Alaska, McKinley, Denali
Alps, Britain, Europe, Caucasus
Andes, Patagonia, South America
Annapurna Signed by Herzog
Antarctica, Arctic, Polar, Voyages
Anthologies, Essays, Collections
Autographed
Avalanches, Rescue, Survival, 1st Aid
Biographies, Narratives
Canada
Cascades, Olympics
Caving
Chessler Books Catalogs
Children's Books
Colorado, Utah, Rockies
DVD and VIDEO
Ephemera: Postcards, Newspapers, Programs, Advertising, Catalogs
Everest, Khumbu
Expeditions, Narratives, Biographies, Adventure Travel
Fiction, Cartoons, Poetry
Glaciers, Geology, Weather
Guidebooks, Climbing, Hiking, Travel
Ice Axes, Pitons, Ropes, Carabiners
Indian Himalaya, Bhutan, Sikkim, Kashmir
Karakoram, K2, Hindu Kush
Magazines and Journals
Maps: Antiquarian, Collectible
Maps: Topo, Climbing, Hiking
Nepal Himalaya
New England, Mid Atlantic
New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea
Norway, Greenland, Scandinavia
Photography, Illustrations
Posters, Art
Rare, Used, Collectible
Rock & Ice Climbing
Sale
Seven Summits
Skiing
Technique, Reference, Climbing History
Tetons, Wyoming, Northern Rockies
Tibet China Central Asia Russia Japan
USA Climbing, Hiking, Travel, History
Yosemite, Sierra, California
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
Mc
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
100 Best Mountaineering Books
About Us
After Thin Air [Everest 1996 legacy]
Are Your Signed Books Authentic?
Book Collecting: Condition and Value
Book Repair Hints and Hacks
Can I visit your bookshop?
Certificates of Authenticity
Customer Feedback UPDATED 2024
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
How To Collect Mountaineering Books
How to Order and Pay us
How to Pack and Mail Books
How To Search: Good Ideas
Shipping Rates and Delivery Time
Want List; Books We Are Buying
We Buy Mountaineering Books!
Gift Certificates
Modify Customer Info
Contact Us 720-560-4963
Item #: BK2454-8603
A CHANGE IN ALTITUDE: A NOVEL OF CLIMBING MOUNT KENYA Anita Shreve 2009 1st ed Hardcover DJ Fine 3 Copies Available
By Shreve, Anita
Price: $4.99
List Price: $26.00
You Save $21.01 (81%)
Add to wish list
Click Here For
Related Selections
Detailed Product Description
New York, 2009. 320 pp. Fiction. Hardcover with dust jacket. Fine condition.
Margaret and Patrick have been married just a few months when they set off on what they hope will be a great adventure-a year living in Kenya. Margaret quickly realizes there is a great deal she doesn't know about the complex mores of her new home, and about her own husband.
A British couple invites the newlyweds to join on a climbing expedition to
Mount Kenya
, and they eagerly agree. But during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.
A Change in Altitude
illuminates the inner landscape of a couple, the irrevocable impact of tragedy, and the elusive nature of forgiveness. With stunning language and striking emotional intensity, Anita Shreve transports us to the exotic panoramas of
Africa
and into the core of our most intimate relationships. New hardcover with DJ.
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Reviewed by Valerie Sayers
Anita Shreve is a best-selling novelist in large part because of the economical way she builds suspense. In the very first line of 'A Change in Altitude,' a young white doctor who has arrived in Nairobi to conduct research, announces, 'We're climbing Mount Kenya.' In those four words to his wife, he suggests the story's central questions: Why is Patrick telling Margaret, with her scant climbing experience, rather than asking her? Can the young American couple rise to the physical and psychological challenge? And what will this climb allow them to discover about Kenya and about themselves?
The novel, set in the 1970s, is told from Margaret's angle and, because she is a photographer, that perspective is often visual and sharply focused. It's clear from the beginning that she's especially sensitive to those who claim authority, and that includes all five of her climbing partners: She and Patrick, accompanied by a guide and porters, take on Mount Kenya with two European couples well accustomed to wielding the authority of post-Mau Mau white colonials. Patrick and Margaret's landlord, Arthur, is the one who has suggested the climb, and Margaret has certainly noticed the proprietary attention he pays her. Arthur's athletic wife, Diana, has noticed, too.
Shreve moves relentlessly from plot point to plot point, and Arthur's frank interest, Diana's jealousy and Margaret's inability to keep up with the other climbers create plenty of momentum to keep readers panting alongside. Mount Kenya's debilitating altitude sickness, with the ongoing possibility of delusional behavior, renders the atmosphere fraught with tension. Shreve's prose is workaday here and the dialogue is occasionally stiff, but she knows how to keep a reader engaged. Sometimes, Margaret's interior monologue does a good job of explaining a bit of action: 'After she had stumbled a couple of times, she noticed that the cook, whose name she didn't know (whose name she didn't know!), stood near her in case she fell badly.'
More often, however, Margaret's thoughts are separated from the action and tend to state her dilemmas baldly. In the middle of the night, she wakes in their mountain shelter to find rats crawling over her, and allows Arthur to comfort her by taking her hand. The passage describing the morning after seems designed to reassure those readers who are a little slow on the uptake: 'She wondered who else had seen her hand in Arthur's, and if that explained the angry voices outside.'
Margaret and Patrick are thwarted in their attempt to reach the summit when the jealous Diana breaks away from the group as they cross a treacherous glacier. The ensuing accident haunts Margaret for the rest of the novel. As she sorts through her own guilt and resentment at being blamed, she finds herself sexually attracted to Rafiq, a young journalist of Pakistani and Welsh descent. Rafiq's brown skin (but not too brown) embodies Kenya's exotic appeal, and Margaret's reflection that there is 'something inscrutable' about this man is obtuse, to say the least. She is, however, attracted to him for other reasons, too, chief among them his political and moral sensibility.
The sexual threats to Patrick and Margaret's marriage are played out against a series of yet more ominous threats: Thieves steal their car, furniture and research notes; Margaret overhears a conversation about a mass grave that hides massacred protesters; Arthur and Diana's servant is viciously raped. The landscapes Margaret is drawn to photograph are spectacular, but fire ants, buffaloes, leopards and snakes all surprise her (the leopard and snake, appearing in tandem, are perhaps two natural threats too many).
She decides to concentrate, ultimately, on photographing the people of Kenya, and her decision to take a newspaper job provides some of the novel's richest material. She leads Rafiq to former servants so that he can write about the harsh privations they endure as urban migrant workers separated from their villages and families. And when Patrick takes Margaret along to a psychiatric hospital where 'many of the women suffered from hallucinations and delusions, while others could not control their bodies,' her desire to photograph them is fueled by her shock and outrage at their treatment -- and perhaps by concern over her own dependent condition.
By the end, Margaret's personal crisis crowds out the novel's consideration of the political crises in East Africa or, for that matter, the moral challenges facing white visitors like herself. Shreve packs an impressive amount of sympathetic and intelligent detail into this narrative, but ultimately the novel is more interested in Margaret's gooey self-discovery and the resolution of her romantic dilemma. But Shreve's introduction to recent Kenyan history, however romanticized, may lead readers, like Margaret, to learn more about the country's rich ethnic cultures and ongoing political struggles.
--Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.
Other Items You Might Like
Similar Items Available
Items From This Author
Items From This Category
SUMMIT MAGAZINE USA BACK ISSUES 1960s: This List is of Available Issues betyween 1960-1969
By: Summit Magazine
Price $10.00
~ Regular $20.00, You Save $10.00 (50%)
- Item # JR154J-868
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
MAZAMA BULLETIN Individual Back Issues 1905 - 1975 New issues recently added
By: Mazama Bulletin
Price $5.00
- Item # JR225-127
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
ALPINE JOURNAL 100s OF INDIVIDUAL ISSUES LISTED HERE! PAPERBACK, WRAPPERS or HARDCOVER ISSUES 1863-1986
By: Alpine Club UK
Price $10.00
- Item # JR207B
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
CLIMBING MAGAZINE LIST OF ISSUES AND DATES: FOR REFERENCE TO TAKE INVENTORY & MAKE A SET
By: Climbing Magazine USA
Price $0.00
- Item # J152G
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
THE WALL [Yosemite Novel] 2006 1st ed Hardcover DJ Fine SIGNED by Jeff Long Multiple copies available
By: Long, Jeff
Price $14.95
~ Regular $34.99, You Save $20.04 (57%)
- Item # BK2077B-8614
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN 2009 1st ed Hardcover DJ Fine SIGNED by Steve House Multiple Copies Available
By: House, Steve
Price $39.95
~ Regular $75.00, You Save $35.05 (47%)
- Item # BK2425A-8433
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
THE CLIMBING ART MAGAZINE Individual Back Issues Numbers 1 to 31
By: Climbing Art Magazine, Pat Ament
Price $10.00
- Item # JR156-869
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
SUMMIT MAGAZINE USA BACK ISSUES 1990s: 1990-1995 See This List of Available Issues
By: Summit Magazine
Price $10.00
~ Regular $20.00, You Save $10.00 (50%)
- Item # JR154A-868
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN Steve House 2009 1st ed Hardcover DJ as New [Not signed] Winner of the 2009 Boardman Tasker Prize
By: House, Steve
Price $24.95
~ Regular $30.00, You Save $5.05 (17%)
- Item # BK2425B-8422
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS [Canadian Rockies] Shiro Shirahata 1997 1st Canadian edition Extra Large Hardcover DJ Like New
By: Shirahata, Shiro. Essay by Pat Morrow
Price $150.00
- Item # BK804A-859p
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
Sorry, we were unable find any similar items available by this author.
OSCAR WILDE A BIOGRAPHY H. Montgomery Hyde 2001 Trade Paperback
By: Hyde, H. Montgomery
Price $5.95
- Item # OP3433-864
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
A SNOW GOOSE & OTHER UTOPIAN FICTIONS Jim Perrin 2013 1st ed New Paperback
By: Perrin, Jim
Price $4.95
~ Regular $30.00, You Save $25.05 (84%)
- Item # PL90929-861
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
ABRIDGED EDITION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 1985 2nd Imp Paperback Very Good
By: Vivekananda, Swami
Price $1.99
~ Regular $20.00, You Save $18.01 (90%)
- Item # OP5691-492
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
THE ASCENT OF RUM DOODLE W.F. Bowman 1956 1st UK ed Hardcover DJ Fine 2 copies available
By: Bowman, W.F.
Price $125.00
~ Regular $350.00, You Save $225.00 (64%)
- Item # OP64A-8542
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
TARTARIN ON THE ALPS Alphonse Daudet 1896 Hardcover Very Good
By: Daudet, Alphonse
Price $4.99
~ Regular $50.00, You Save $45.01 (90%)
- Item # OP3261-932
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
CONTES A PIC [TALES of PEAKS] Samivel 1975 reprint Softcover Near Fine
By: Samivel [Paul Gayet-Trancrede]
Price $9.99
~ Regular $50.00, You Save $40.01 (80%)
- Item # OP1467-939
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
GABE'S FALL AND OTHER CLIMBING STORIES Peter Lars Sandberg 1988 or 1990 Softcover Fine Multiple Copies Available
By: Sandberg, Peter Lars
Price $4.99
~ Regular $14.95, You Save $9.96 (67%)
- Item # BK1355A-8606
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
TALES FROM THE STEEP: JOHN LONG'S FAVORITE CLIMBING LITERATURE John Long 1993 1st ed Softcover Fine
By: Long, John
Price $29.95
- Item # BK907-941
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
LOST IN THE WILD: DANGER AND SURVIVAL IN THE NORTH WOODS Cary Griffith 2006 1st ed Paperback New
By: Griffith, Cary
Price $9.99
~ Regular $17.95, You Save $7.96 (44%)
- Item # BK5561-934
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart
TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT [Novel] Lucy Rees and Alan Harris 1981 1st ed Hardcover DJ Near Fine 2 copies available
By: Rees, Lucy and Alan Harris
Price $9.99
~ Regular $45.00, You Save $35.01 (78%)
- Item # OP1814-8522
View Details
Add To Cart
Adding...
Added! Click To View Cart