The Hero's Apprentice

by Laurence Gonzales

[Laurence Gonzales's] writing is not so much about a subject; it comes from within the subject. He steps out on the wire, or onto the scaffolding of a skyscraper, and grapples with the essence of the human act. Whether he is on a Coast Guard cutter hunting drug dealers off the Cuban coast, upside down in a stunt plane at three thousand feet, on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, or landing on a heaving aircraft carrier deck in the middle of the ocean, he always becomes one with worlds that are hidden from ordinary life. And the reader becomes one with the vigorous, astonishing, and masterful prose. These essays beat with a life all their own.

235 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

Laurence Gonzales is the author of Surviving Survival and the bestseller Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why. He has won two National Magazine Awards. His essays are collected in the book House of Pain.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laurence Gonzales is an accomplished writer of both fiction and non-fiction and a contributor to many magazines where he writes about his experiences as a firefighter, stunt pilot, oil rig worker and attendant to his wife during her bout of breast cancer. What is most important is what he learns about himself while experiencing the daily lives of others. In each essay Gonzales shares his awareness and beautiful writing.