London, Diadem, 1990, 1st UK edition. 156 pp. Pictorial Hardcover, Fine condition.
A book of short stories dealing with climbing. Each of these seven short stories, written between 1962 and 1977, is set in a climbing milieu, yet each has a distinct theme. Some illustrate how the stress and danger of the sport can affect participants. At the beginning of the title story, for example, Ruth Turner is in awe of and dependent on her fiancé, Gabe, who has introduced her to climbing; but when he falls and lies unconscious, she must rally and eventually realizes that 'the two of them would never again be quite the same as they had been before.'
Other pieces are simple fun: in the exuberant The Old Bull Moose of the Woods, a garrulous good ole' boy from Texas and a standoffish Wheaton College senior climb the same peak: she eventually overcomes her initial antipathy toward him, and they wash up from the hike in unusual style. In a thriller, a climber is forced at gunpoint to ascend a Prudential Tower-like building in Boston so criminals can steal important records from an office. Sandberg is no innovative stylist; his stories are as solid and plain as the rock faces that his characters scale.
