Disaster adventure stories hold a special, if guilty, appeal, since it does not say much for the reader, sitting in a comfy chair, getting their kicks from experienced trekkers stranded on Mount Everest or seasoned fishermen trapped in a vicious storm. Every so often, however, comes a tale about folks just like you and me that is so heartbreaking that no chair is comfortable enough. Devon O’Neil takes on the story of three fathers and four teenage children who, in 2017, set out for a wilderness trip in the Colorado Rockies, only for two of their party to be caught in a sudden blizzard. There is death, alas, but The Way Out is, most importantly, a tale of courage and spirit and survivor guilt as a community attempts to heal from the trauma. O’Neil never over-dramatizes, and his prose is clean and precise as he dissects what really happened on that fateful day.
In the annals of misunderstood kings, few rank as high as James VI and I, who gained his first title as King of Scotland in 1757 and the second when he ascended the throne of England and Ireland in 1603. It was a tumultuous reign, with many attempts on his life (most famously Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, in 1605), but Clare Jackson vividly rescues her subject from the prurient interest in his sexuality and physical appearance and instead gives him credit for doing an impossible job improbably well. “Intelligent, resilient, idiosyncratic, irascible, guileful and witty” are her adjectives for him, and by book’s end, the reader will certainly apply the first and last of those to Jackson’s biography.
Walking around Broadway today, blinded by flashing jumbotrons and accosted by panhandling Snow Whites and Elmos, it is hard to discern just what made the area so special decades ago and how much of its past still remains—unless one has the right guide. Teale Dvornik, who is a dresser for actors in Broadway shows, is just that guide, and in this delightful book, with nifty illustrations by Sarah McMenemy, she dissects the district by its theaters, the shows and stars that have played there, and the superstitions that keep the magic alive. (No whistling backstage, and always say, “Break a leg!,” never “Good luck!”)
Jim Kelly is the Books Editor at AIR MAIl. He can be reached at jkelly@airmail.news
