1 out of 4 stars
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Outdoor Adventures, by Eliot, is a man’s memoir of his off the wall adventures starting back in the 1970s and continuing up until the modern day. The author’s stories often center on winter sports, trekking, beer fueled shenanigans, and surviving modern day winters. The book is aimed towards anyone with close familiarity to any of those aforementioned subjects. The author sets the tone of the book right from the start with an entire page full of a disclaimer claiming that, “…stories are made from 100% recycled electrons.” He also advised readers to, “Read in a well-ventilated area.” The book then segues into forty-two chapters of crazy stories, interspersed with the author’s own life hacks and fun facts.
Many of the stories in the novel revolve around skiing and hiking because the author spent time living and working near ski resorts in Colorado and Vermont prior to moving to Pennsylvania in the 80s. The first story in the book takes place in 2010 and is about a spectacular ski accident that can mostly be attributed to the hubris of the author and his inability to dodge an errant skier. He uses this story to open up a conversation about the thirty-one senses he believes that people possess. The remaining chapters skip around in time to outline the many strange situations the author knowingly or unknowingly gets himself into and the oddball friends and vehicles he is usually dragging into the mix. The book takes an odd twist about three quarters of the way through; however, when examples of energy transference, odd poetry, and UFOs join the conversation.
The author’s writing style is extremely conversational and reminiscent of a cross between Tucker Max and Edward Abbey drunk at a bar telling stories that anyone within earshot can here. Bad decisions fueled by alcohol or perceived youthful invincibility abound, and the language used to describe those escapades is quite colorful. Eliot often addresses the reader directly from the text and includes many asides in parentheses. Often, capitalization is used for emphasis and leads to phrases like, “WOOSH! (HOLY SCHLITZ!),” and “The pay sucked, but HEY … FREE SKI PASS!”
While spelling was on point, grammar and sensible punctuation were completely missing throughout the memoir. Ampersands, pound signs, and numerals under ten were ever-present, as were inappropriately used parenthesis, ellipses, and bold text. Paragraphs were overly long and there was little fluidity to the arrangement of the chapters. The book would be a lot easier to digest if it was set up chronologically or if stories were grouped by similar themes. While numbered in the front of the book, the chapters had no numbers in the body of the text and were not separated from the prior chapter with a page break. Oftentimes, the only way the reader can tell that a new chapters is beginning is a short chapter title in bold and underlined text.
While the underlying stories can be interesting and entertaining, they are told in such a way that makes it hard for the reader to follow along. At minimum, the book needs a solid round of editing for grammar, punctuation, and ease of reading. Preferably, the current book should be handed over to a ghostwriter who can capture the relaxed storytelling tone that the author is trying to convey. The memoir that was presented for review is, at best, a very rough draft of a book. While some entertainment value could be gleaned from the stories, I have to rate it 1 out of 4 stars due to the completely unfinished nature of Outdoor Adventures.
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Outdoor Adventures
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