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Who can resist stories with characters in desperate situations? Whether or not we consider ourselves fans of survival stories in general, we must have read a few. They are compelling because they feature one or two brave souls facing seemingly impossible odds against nature. While we would truly hate to be in their shoes, we're happy enough to put ourselves in their mindsets while we're reading.
Several of my picks feature just one key character alone against the elements. Maybe this appeals to the introverted side of my nature. Or perhaps there's nothing quite as satisfying as rooting for an intrepid underdog, and who could be more deserving than a loner who prevails against the merciless elements?
1) Robinson Crusoe
I had to read this classic for Uni and found it extremely boring, to be honest. However, Daniel Defoe's famous hero has left his mark on our Western cultural consciousness for generations. He is the quintessential Brit who cannot be subdued by decades on a desert island. Crusoe adapts to his surroundings, but maintains the faith and proud nationalist spirit with which he was born. By modern standards, his imperial attitude of superiority and dominance is not his most admirable trait. But boy did it work for our friend Robinson!
2) The Martian
Brilliant and creative astronaut Mark Watney is accidentally stranded on Mars, where his crewmates leave him for dead, but manages to stay alive with basically nothing but his own desperation and ingenuity. I think he can thank his seed potatoes, his botanical training, his bathroom self-fertilization habits, and his seemingly endless roll of duct tape. Above all, Mark proves that an offbeat sense of humor is a strong survival tool. Their attitude is always: 'This new development is really bad, and I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, but I'll think of something or I'm history!' (My opinion is here.)
3) Life of Pi
Piscine Molitor Patel is a resourceful teenager who not only finds himself trapped in a lifeboat in the vast Pacific Ocean, but shares it with a group of zoo animals, including Richard Parker, a ferocious Bengal tiger. Pi has to assert himself as the dominant animal on the boat or die. In short, this high school boy must embody the superiority of the human spirit just to stay alive. (See my comment.)
4) Piranesi
Not only does this young man have a massive case of amnesia, but he lives in a mansion full of statues and rising tides with the potential to drown him or starve him at any moment. Our boy figures out how to develop his fishing and record-keeping skills, and it takes all his time so he doesn't despair. And it certainly helps when he chooses to think of the House as a friendly environment he's cooperating with, rather than an enemy he's fighting. (I rave about it here.)
5) The Long Winter
There were six members of the Ingalls family in this true story, but they formed an unbeatable family unit. These guys were stuck in an isolated town buffeted by blizzards. They were slowly freezing and starving because the supply train could not move until spring. Electricity for homes was far in the future, so they had to improvise ways to produce heat and food practically from scratch for month after month, surprising themselves with their ingenuity with buttons and straw. (I wrote more about this compelling true story here.)
Phew, now that I think about it, what a great pile to read backwards. If you had to choose just one setting to enter, what would it be? Scorching desert, barren red planet, frightening ocean, frozen snow plain or strange house? I think if I had to choose, I would join Piranesi in the endless series of halls with all the statues. Even though it's a horrible prospect, something about it appeals to me.
Do you have any favorites you could add to my list?
