Review of "The Color of Everything"

 This was a different type of book on mountain climbing.  While it did have an expedition on one of the summits I often read about, Mt. Everest, this was very different from other climbing books I have read.  Here is my review of "The Color of Everything." 

Title/Author:

“The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within” by Cory Richards

 

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:  

Cory Richards is known by some as an award-winning photographer for National Geographic.  Others know him for being the first American to climb an 8000 meter mountain (Everest) during the winter. No matter how one knows of him, or doesn’t, his memoir is one that would interest many readers.

This is because the topics covered in his book are numerous: mountaineering, bipolar disease (and mental health in general), loss, and reflection.  Given that this review is for a sports book site, the mountaineering aspect was my attraction to the book.  There isn’t a lot of technical jargon or stories from base camps like there are in other climbing books I have read.  But these sections are satisfying because the reader will get to know the emotions of not only Richards, but his climbing partners as well.  There is some climbing vocabulary and there are stories of the physical dangers as well, but the climbing aspect is more mental than physical.

That is important to this book and very appropriate since more than a book on sport, it is more a book on mental health.  Richards documents his time spent in institutions, the addictions he was suffering and the toll these took on his relationships and his physical condition.  There are stories of his mental health issues all through his life – from childhood to now.  I found that while some of this material seemed choppy and scattered about for no particular reason (especially Part III, the last section of the book), it all really comes together to paint a complex picture of a brilliant but complex man. 

I wish to thank Random House for providing a review copy of the book.  The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Link: The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within: Richards, Cory: 9780593596791: Amazon.com: Books