Review: A pretty good story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2011
I purchased "Up the Down Volcano" by Sloane Crosley because I like to read Kindle Singles, and the story had a high sales ranking. Frankly, at the time, I knew nothing about the author, so I looked her up and learned that Sloane Crosley is a writer living in New York and the author of the bestselling collections of essays, "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" and "How Did You Get This Number.""Up the Down Volcano" was an interesting story about the author's trip to Quito, Ecuador on assignment from a travel magazine. While there, she decided to climb Cotopaxi, a volcanic peak in the Andes Mountains. It turned out to be a bit more grueling than she imagined, and having a guide who only spoke a few words of English didn't help.The story was funny, in a painful sort of way. There are real dangers in mountain climbing, not the least of which is altitude sickness, as Ms. Sloane quickly learned. She did a skillful job of writing humor into situations that were far from funny at the time.It was a good story and a good introduction to Ms. Crosley's writing. The story was written in the present tense, a style that I don't particularly care for, but it's a legitimate writing style.Overall, it was a pretty good story.