Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Rites of Passage is a compelling collection of essays describing the grandeur and challenge of rock climbing in the Southern Sierra Nevada in California. For those just branching out, as well as seasoned rock climbing experts, Joe offers a compendium of adventure, beauty, and pain through exploring these particular peaks.
Prose: The prose is appealing, though somewhat uneven, and snippets of awkward phrasing edge in at times. However, the narrative moves quickly and will grip readers' attention.
Originality: Joe's topic is specialized, providing readers an intimate view of a stunning natural landscape. The delivery method—entertaining and absorbing stories shared by climbers in the area—adds originality to the book.
Character/Execution: Joe's characters come to life through their riveting stories, as they share exploits, risks, and pleasures gained from their climbing experiences in the Southern Sierra Nevada. The mountains are imbued with a sense of life themselves, evoking a sense of both their danger and magnificence.
Date Submitted: October 06, 2023
Throughout Rites of Passage, Joe brings together hard-earned wisdom and stories that legitimately will “inspire future generations to explore their limits” (as Vitaliy Musiyenko puts it in the forward). Some of the tales shared are of people doing truly bold, risky things (such as, memorably, in the “Gorge of Despair”), but the contributors also always stress the need for climbers to be careful. The photos, illustrations, and sketchy topos (guides to climbing routes) help the reader feel the reality of these stories. Joe also helpfully includes bios of all the contributors, as well as endnotes and photo credits which would help the dedicated reader chase down more information about the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains.
Rites of Passage is full of detailed and technical accounts—such as of mastering complex walls and difficult crack systems with only sketchy descriptions to work from. That is the spirit of the Sierra Nevada which Joe hopes to pass on to a future generation: enabling future generations to “climb as if the route was being done for the first time,” as one contributor puts it, and truly experience the wilderness. For those who love the outdoors, particularly members of the “small spiritual tribe” of climbers, this is a beautiful and inspiring collection of stories, reminiscences and wisdom about the southern Sierra Nevada—and what it takes to thrive there.
Takeaway: Gorgeous, inspiring stories and photos of climbing the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Comparable Titles: Clarence King’s Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, Lauren DeLaunay Miller’s Valley of Giants.
Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A
