The Rope Dancer
A tale of mountaineering gone wrong, injury and recovery, and the search for meaning through living dangerously.

Format	Book  (Australian)	Category	Fiction
Title	The Rope Dancer	Pages	219
Author	Rob Leach	RRP	$22.95 AUD
Publisher	Skink Press	Reviews	4
Edition	Paperback	Ave Rating	(4.00 of 5)

User	Comments
Anonymous 11/24/2005	thought the rope dancer was great. loved the climbing. loved the sex. thoguht the people seemed real and teh climbing bits were realistic. anyone know where i can get his first book?
Jimmie 11/25/2005	A fine book. A very fine book.I'll spend a few days ruminating over the parts that rang bells, other parts that resonated in other ways, and parts that I need to nut out more fully before I read it again. I was transported back to the places I'd been, the bush and the mountains. It read easily for me and I wanted to know what came next. A clever plot constuction led to that. Also, knowing a little about Nietzsche, I liked that aspect of the story too.
Anonymous 12/8/2005	The Rope Dancer delivers a great story of cruising around Melbourne and the difficulties of transitioning inot our different phases of life. I could identify with the characters and the difficulties they faced dealing with thier own illness and injuries.
Anonymous 12/29/2005	The Rope Dancer is about a washed-up climber and mountaineer looking for purpose in his life. Against his better judgement, he resurrects his climbing career, to disastrous consequences. I happen to know the author, and like him, so this isn't an unbiased opinion. That said, I still think it's a great book. The descriptions of the Victorian bush so evocative you can smell the eucalypt. There is a lot of sex, some drugs, and heaps of climbing. But the book is really about philosophy, specifically Nietzsche's views on the purpose of life. Apparently the book is structured to mirror Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Tharathustra. Like Animal Farm, it's entirely possible to enjoy it while being oblivious to the underlying meaning. But it's pretty cool that someone's written a book suggesting that mountaineering is the answer to the meaning of life. Aaron Patrick