The Final Summit, Andy Andrews

This was a terrible book. I was bored from beginning to end. Andy Andrews attempts to voice his self-help steps through the mouths of historical figures, which just doesn’t work. The characters were one-dimensional and stupid. By stupid I mean really lacking in intelligence – although each offered their own (unoriginal) pearls of wisdom, these great historical figures seemed to be really clueless and I found myself rolling my eyes every time they had an “a-ha!”moment. The narrative was slow and basically extended dialogue between the characters. The long and unnecessary explanations made me feel like the author assumed an extremely idiotic audience. Andrews’ attempts to insert humor into the narrative fell flat every time. The only interesting part of this book was the section on Eric Erickson, a relatively unknown but very intriguing figure from World War II. I would like to read more about his life. Other than that, this book was a waste of my time. It was neither inspiring nor motivational. When the travelers finally arrive at the solution to the problem, the promised “one principle that will save humanity,” this solution is both unoriginal and just one more strand of secular humanism which has never, and will never, save humanity. For a better answer, I suggest looking more deeply into the life and writings of King David, who Andrews grossly misrepresents in his book. David found his strength and hope in something outside of himself – this too is where humanity needs to look to find its salvation.

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