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Loading... Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survivalby Norman Ollestad
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. A son's experience of his own father’s unconventional approach to parenting, and how it led to the boy’s ability to survive in a situation his father had not planned—the crash of their chartered Cessna into a mountainside. Ollestad recounts between his travels with his surfer father, his life with his mother and her abusive boyfriend, and his fight for life as the lone survivor of the plane crash. It is a story of both a father’s successes and his failures, and is as much about surviving the actions of child-like adults as about the dangerous descent down the ice-covered mountain. At times remarkable, at times heart-wrenching, Crazy for the Storm is a father, son read—a tale that proves the power of the human spirit can rise against any challenge. i reviewed it in Bookreporter as a arc reviewer, but I have mixed feelings to this book, being a mother it was a very sad read. (  ) rbooth43 | Feb 1, 2010 |  Men have it rough in our world, and boys have it even rougher. Norman Ollestad tells the story of the tough time he had growing up with a demanding father and a demanding stepfather. The trials he suffered as a boy served him well when he had to find a way to survive after a plane crash. I liked this book but I think men would find it even more captivating. It seems to be a rare book these days, a coming-of-age memoir of a boy. ( ) debnance | Jan 29, 2010 | In February 1979, a small chartered plane carrying the author, then 11 years old, his father, his father's girlfriend, and the hired pilot crashed into the side of a Southern California mountain. This memoir is the remarkable story told some 30 years later. Little Norm grew up surfing, skiing, skateboarding, and was pushed and challenged beyond any normal expectations by his dad, who claimed that competing wasn't about winning, not always with complete conviction. Big Norm was an attorney, had been a child actor and an FBI agent who wrote a book exposing some of the FBI's dirty little secrets. Among other things, his dad took Little Norm on a needlessly dangerous trip to Mexico, always confident that things would work out. Ultimately, the tough training saved the author's life. I am not a surfer, skier, or skateboarder, so some of the sports terms were foreign to me and the descriptions seemed overly detailed. For me, some of the language was a little too...flowery isn't the right word, but something close to that. Chapters about the author's early life are interspersed with chapters about the flight and the hours after the crash, and the book included a section of photographs that really added to the story. Crazy for the Storm was a sad, interesting, worthwhile read. (  ) TooBusyReading | Jan 4, 2010 | When he was 11 years old, Norman Ollestad had become a true California jock-- he was a fantastic surfer, he'd shredded his skin skateboarding, had just won a state skiing championship, and was gearing up for a hockey team tournament. In between the ski championship and hockey practice, his father chartered a plane to get them from one place to the next-- but the plane crashed in the clouds of a California mountain. The pilot and Ollestad's father were killed, his dad's girlfriend survived just a short time longer. The memoir tells the story of not only the crash but the childhood pressures and adventures he faced, all of which led up to the crash. Ollested's father was driven to make his son the best, and adults (Ollestad is now nearing his mid-40s now) and teens alike will likely be surprised at the things the elder Ollested forced upon his son. The story is well written, alternating between flashbacks of his younger childhood and surviving the crash, and will appeal to anyone with interest in outdoor survival stories. The high school at which I am currently a librarian has Into the Wild in the curriculum, and this is certainly a book I'll recommend for anyone who liked that story. It certainly has appeal to high school and middle school students, although some more conservative individuals might balk at some of the drug references. (  ) TigerLMS | Jan 4, 2010 | Little Norman Ollestad was raised on the beach in California, where his attorney dad spent every free minute surfing. Of course, Dad wants Norman learn to surf, too--and to ski! He doesn't seem to care that Norman is a timid little kid, who really doesn't want to be pushed into these activities. But push, he does. Perhaps it's a good thing, because when Norman is eleven, he is a passenger in a small plane that crashes into a California mountain. The skills he has learned from the grueling training his dad has put him through help keep him alive as he scales down the steep ice and snow covered incline during a fierce blizzard. Amazingly he walks out, although hope had died that there were any survivors of the plane crash. The story is told in alternating chapters of Norman's life with his dad, and his perilous trek down the mountain. At first this felt awkward, but as we drew closer to the end, it seemed to work better, and the reader can understand why the author (little Norman himself) chose to tell his story in this manner. ( ) alexann | Nov 12, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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