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CM . . .
. Volume X Number 2. . . . September 19, 2003
excerpt: Before Jon saw the cougar, before he smelled its steamy breath or felt its teeth pierce his scalp, he heard the cat coming. At first he thought it was the sound of his jacket scraping against his backpack, or perhaps the clang of the bicycle chain as he pedaled down the road. But no, the sound was too rhythmical, too steady, to be either one. Like fingers drumming on a tabletop, he heard the click of the cat's claw on the pavement. Then, just as Jon sensed danger, the cat pounced. Though Jon is a big man, the cougar managed to knock him off his bicycle and throw him to the ground. Before he could react, the cougar had its jaws locked over his skull. Survivors! confirms what worrywarts have known all along — danger lurks everywhere. The brief vignettes include accounts of tornadoes, rattlesnake bites and erupting volcanoes. The chapter entitled "Stranded" includes the remarkable story of Carolina Pedro who survived a devastating flood in Mozambique. While clinging to a tree for four days, she also gave birth. In the "Trapped" chapter, the unsuspecting Weiland family from North Dakota woke up to find that a tanker car carrying toxic liquid had crashed into their home. Verstraete relishes dramatic descriptions. When relating Bram Shaffer's grizzly bear attack, he writes: "its immense mouth clamped around his head, gnawing it like a walnut about to be crushed." Some of his comparisons are not for the faint of heart: "A hunk of flesh the size of a dinner roast was missing from his right side ... Raw muscle had been peeled and pulled from the one, and now it hung and flapped from his leg like meat hanging in a butcher shop." The individual stories also have tabloid style titles such as "I'm Going to Die," "Swallowed Alive" and "It's Tearing Off My Arm!" Survival tips, included at the end of chapters, offer advice on how to avoid a shark attack ("Wear dull, muted colours"), how to control bleeding ("apply pressure to the closest pressure point to the wound"), and how to survive hypothermia ("resist sleep"). An Epilogue reviews the 29 tales of survival and summarizes the "resourcefulness, swift action, courage and determination" displayed in each near-death situation. While these stories are told in a riveting fashion, often important details are not included. In "Explosion on Galeras," it is mentioned that Stanley Williams has co-authored a book about his experiences, but the title is never provided. There is no supporting information to back up statements such as "Lightning strikes more than 60 Canadians each year, [with only] a handful of survivors." Many of the grainy black and white photographs have no captions, and others are generic file photos of animals and volcanoes. Recommended with reservations. Linda Ludke is a librarian in London, ON.
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