Classic Krakauer

'Mark Foo's Last Ride,' 'After the Fall,' and Other Essays from the Vault

By: Jon Krakauer

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Spanning an extraordinary range of subjects and locations, these ten gripping essays show why Jon Krakauer is considered a standard-bearer of modern journalism.

His pieces take us from a horrifying avalanche on Mount Everest to a volcano poised to obliterate a big chunk of Seattle; from a wilderness teen-therapy program run by apparent sadists to an otherworldly cave in New Mexico, studied by NASA to better understand Mars; from the notebook of one Fred Beckey, who catalogued the greatest unclimbed mountaineering routes on the planet, to the last days of legendary surfer Mark Foo.

Bringing together work originally published in such magazines as The New Yorker, Outside, and Smithsonian—all rigorously researched, vividly written, and marked by an unerring instinct for storytelling and scoop—Classic Krakauer powerfully demonstrates the author’s ambivalent love affair with unruly landscapes and his relentless search for truth.

©2018 Jon Krakauer (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Krakauer is a masterly writer and reporter.” —The New York Times Book Review

"A first-rate journalist." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Krakauer is an extremely gifted storyteller as well as a relentlessly honest and evenhanded journalist." —Elle

excellent book

loved the book but the narration was not very good. dull voice almost to the point of boring. no feeling expressed while reading.

Enjoyable

I read some of these when first published. They hold up very well. Very enjoyable.

A favorite author

These are good stories. As a fan of Jon Krakauer, I regret they didn’t find a few more of his stories to include. I also regret that Mr. Krakauer himself didn’t narrate, as he can do it better than anyone.

Krakauer + Scott brick = Great

Great Krakauer articles delivered by a great narrator! Some of the articles were not up to the standard that I have come to expect from the author but the majority were very interesting and well written.

Great Read Great Reader

Krakauer never disappoints and neither does Scott Brick. This collection of writings makes it an easy read with multiple stories and multiple topics.

An excellent collection of Krakauer essays

Chugged through this collection in less than a week. As always, Krakauer's writing is gripping and hard to put down. Prefer Phillip Franklin's style of narration for Krakauer but it's not a big enough detractor to make me shy away from listening to this collection.

Great stories, poor narration

All Krakauer work is good. But the narrator for this anthology was the wrong choice. This narrator did some fiction I read and his over-dramatics for that work was tolerable. But these nonfictional journalistic pieces need a more straightforward storyteller. Other than that the book’s worth reading.

Delicious bite sized Krakauer essays

I thoroughly savored and enjoyed every article. Krakauer has a gift for taking the listener into a fascinating world and introduces us to some of the most interesting people.

Krakauer is a great adventure writer, but Brick is over the top on this one

Long time admirer of JK, and I have enjoyed Brick in the past, but on this one there is so much forced drama in every uttered word, it’s hard to enjoy.

great adventure writing

Oh, what a sadness for me. Greg Mortenson was a hero of mine, and I even attended a talk by him. But, according to Jon Krakauer, he was a fraud, much to my disappointment. Krakauer is a great writer; I enjoy him very much so the book was well-written and convincingly researched. It's a wake up call for us soft-hearted liberals.