Evan L. BalkanCritiques

From page one, I was drawn into the story of 15-year-old Lilly and older, out-of-towner Lee on their doomed road trip across the Great Plains in the summer of 1976. By a third of the way through, the slow boil tension was almost unbearable. I also found the dynamic between two generations of mothers and daughters equally compelling and quietly agonizing. It would have been easy to draw conclusions about these characters but they themselves didn't allow it — which is my favorite thing about a good book.

Where are they

The author covers eight 20th Century people who disappeared generally doing what they loved -- scowing down the Grand Canyon, going after Pancho Villa, circumnavigating the globe. Perhaps unavoidably considering the topic, there are a lot of unanswered questions and I found myself wanting more. More information, more stories, just...more.

The writing style is very conversational, with digressions here and there that add to the story. I would recommend it, but I would have liked to see it expanded as well as see photographs that the author describes in the text but are not published in the book.

As an aside, the body of one of the lost explorers, Everett Ruess, was identified a few weeks ago and his death explained, so I suppose he is no longer Lost.

I enjoyed this book - more than I expected to. It gave a personable, yet thoughtful and objective account of the circumstances under which several famous (or less so) explorers and travelers disappeared, leaving mysteries and personal loss in their wake. Balkan devotes a fair amount of time discussing the current state of knowledge (academic, scientific, and otherwise) regarding their disappearance, search efforts, and likely scenarios leading up to their last days. Some of the theories surrounding the missing range from the lurid to the absurd, but Balkan's treatment of both the missing and of the theories is considerate of personalities, the times they lived in, and other important context that seems to have been overlooked in other accounts. Throughout, his prose reads smoothly, interspersed with anecdotes and observations about the times in which the missing traveler made their way. Balkan's perspective as a well-traveled mountaineer informs his recounting and examination of these people's last days.

I wanted to like this book. But I didn't.

It held out a lot of promise, offering up seven chapters, each focused on a different adventurer that vanished. The book started with Ambrose Pierce, the Civil War writer that disappeared fighting in the Mexican War. Each chapter focused on a person lost in the wild.

Unfortunately, the author never made us care about any of the people or the reasons they were lost. There was some narrative about the person and what they were doing. Then he collects some of the stories about the disappearance trying to pull the pieces together to explain the disappearance. It just never got convincing or interesting.

Vanished! by Evan L. Balkan is one of those books that inspires me to learn more about the historical figures within its pages. A somewhat slim volume, each chapter is a quickly digested story about the personalities of the missing explorers and the events that led to their disappearances. The writing is easy-going and conversational, and we are led through a forensic exploration as to which is the most likely fate of the adventurers. However, we are reminded that many questions remain unanswered.½

The problem with writing about people who vanish is that the story comes to an end just as its getting good. With no third act to work with speculation and invention are required if not welcome.

Vanished!: Explorers Forever Lost covers a handlful of adventurers, some well known and some fairly obscure. In all cases the stories are told in an entertaining, readable fashion. Evan Balkan throws three dimensions into each of the individuals and the times they lived in as he relates the run up to the event that ultimately puts them in the book. As for reporting what happened after the vanishing act occurs, that depends on your taste. The book does a good job of presenting the various conjectures (some of which are a little out there) about what happened to each person, giving each line of thinking the space it deserves.

Even so, each story ended with a feeling that I wanted to know more. However, since there's not more to know... well, like i said, that's the problem with books about people who vanish!

Vanished: Explorers Forever Lost is a book to be finished in a single day.

Outside of Percy Fawcett, a reader may find it difficult to view the six other missing persons presented within this book as "explorers"-lost during the process of exploration.

The book is a collection of missing persons stories. I find it difficult to regard the disappearances of the author Ambrose Bierce and the war time aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery as lost "explorers".

VANISHED! EXPLORERS FOREVER LOST by Evan Balkan is good. Really, REALLY good. Suspenseful, concise portraits of 9 adventurers, some famous and others more obscure, include:

Amelia Earhart
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Ambrose Bierce
Glen & Bessie Hyde
Percy Fawcett
Everett Ruess
Michael Rockefeller
Johnny Waterman

It is easy to either lionize or denigrate out-sized personalities, but Balkan is clear-eyed and compassionate. Adventurers are placed into context: how the person fit into their own era, and the impact of their disappearance on society and their families. A book revolving around tragedy might easily be dark and depressing. VANISHED! is not: Balkan leavens the subject matter with a wry turn of phrase at just the right time. He also discusses the meaning of adventure and risk, and its importance to even the most sedentary “armchair explorer”.

Exhaustive research seems to have gone into this book. As a climber of 20+ years and an extensive collector of mountaineering literature, I have long been familiar with Johnny Waterman’s sad saga. Balkan delineated Waterman’s familial background concisely, setting into context Johnny’s epic climb of Mt. Hunter in a way the non-climber could understand and appreciate. Yet, VANISHED! included details new to me. Kudos to Balkan’s well-done homework, utilizing essential citations such as Glenn Randall’s little-known book, THE BREAKING POINT, THE AMERICAN ALPINE JOURNAL, and personal communications.

My only “complaint” is that VANISHED! was too short. The book is a good value, but Balkan is a gifted author and I would have enjoyed reading more. One is hoping that his next book will have “covers that are a long way apart.”

Armchair adventurers will enjoy this short but entertaining book. The author has a nice writing style that's very approachable. My only issue with this book is that I wish it were longer. Then again, maybe that's not an issue - it's a compliment. For those who enjoy stories of people who answered the call of wanderlust - whether for fortune, or fame, or the glory of empire - this book makes for a nice evening on a dark night.

This book is from the June batch on Early Reviewers. True life stories of survival or in this case disappearance is one of my favorite subjects. Vanished!: Explorers Forever Lost is a collection of stories about real life adventurers who, as the title suggests, never returned from their adventure. Each story leaves you wanting to know more. This was a quick read with easy writing and fairly short in pages. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys true life accounts.