Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free

Few people in the world can forget the infamous Chile mine incident back in 2010. Thirty- three men were trapped in the depths of the earth and remained there for nearly ten weeks until they were each plucked from the mine, one by one, the culmination of an extensive rescue effort that took weeks to complete. Their story is told in this book, Deep Down Dark.This book tells the story of the mine collapse from the beginning to the end, when the men were finally rescued thanks to a multi- national effort. It introduces each of the men and includes background on their personal lives, children, wives, etc. It also details what they did after the fact and how the situation has impacted them as they attempt to return to normal living. The book details the struggles the men faced, their interactions with each other, and their ultimate return to civilization.The story of humans trapped in a mine and the fact that all survived is certain a story worth sharing. Deep Down Dark, however, doesn’t really present the story in the most compelling way. Starting with the first few chapters, I was thrown off a little by the use of present tense to tell the story. I assume this was to make the reader feel like they are right there, in the moment, but it doesn’t work for me. But probably my greatest issue with this book is its lack of suspense. We know the men survive in the end, but a story told the right way can still keep readers on the edge of their seat. I can think of several other nonfiction books like this. Deep Down Dark isn’t one of them. It isn’t the page- turner I was hoping for.Another addition that could have helped this book is more illustrations, like a quick diagram of the mine so that readers would have a visual representation of the different levels and the various places that the miners convened, slept, etc. The book does have small photos of each of the thirty- three men, which is good, but it doesn’t have anything else. Pics of the actual mine, the surrounding areas, the family members that get lots of mention, these all would have helped make the book better and more interesting.Still, this is not a book to dismiss outright. It still has its moments, and it does get you thinking about what it would be like if something like this happened to you. Some of the tensions felt between the men as they struggled to survive might seem a little bizarre when you read about them. But I refrain from passing judgement because, unless and until I have been through something similar, I cannot really comment. I might act equally odd or irrational. There is no way to know, and I hope I never find out.Being trapped underground in a working mine would certainly be a scary experience. The lack of food, the total uncertainty about your own life and chances for survival, the rescue effort, the worry that the mine could collapse further at any moment- these things and other factors would be enough to put a person over the edge and it would lead to behavior one would never expect. Deep Down Dark attempts to tell the story, but it has its share of hits and misses. I’m going to give it a middle rating and partial recommendation, because it does have some value, but it does frustrate me that the story wasn’t told in a more engaging and suspenseful way.

With just a few hours to go before their long-awaited deliverance, a few of the miners look back in wonder on their nine-week imprisonment in the bowels of the collapsed mine, the San Jose, in the mountains of Chile. Together, they'd feared certain death, spent weeks preparing to die, then watched what scant food they had slowly disappear.Soon, amazingly, it would actually be over.One of them looks around at the would-be tomb and feels a generous kind of wonder, a near reverence that transforms the dark pit of death into sacred ground. He actually writes a letter to leave behind, and signs it: "'Mario Sepulveda lived here from August 5 to October 13," then, with the note, adds some pictures he's recently given through the portal created when a giant drill finally bore its way down to them and opened up what seemed miraculous communication. Mario Sepulveda is awed by what he's been through. He's on his knees in reverence.Raul Bustos will have none of that. Bustos gathers rocks and flings them, one after another, into the abyss as if striking a beast now clumsily sauntering away into the darkness. He scribbles obscenities on the walls in permanent markers, blaming the mine owners for the misery he's gone through. "I wanted it all to go away," Bustos told Hector Tobar, who chronicled the entire story in Deep, Down Dark. With every bit of his being, Bustos wants the mine to disappear from his consciousness and the world's: "I didn't want anyone else to see it, to come and say later, 'See, look, this is where Raul Bustos slept.' It was all very private, and it was mine.""The earth is giving birth to its 33 children after having them inside her for two months and eight days." Victor Segovia, at the very same moment, looks back at what he and the others had gone through and sees something else altogether. Segovia had been the main chronicler of the miners' experiences, his memories and insights the only day-to-day written record of what exactly happened to 33 men trapped in the heat and night of a collapsed mine all of them believed would be a graveyard.Finally, Victor draws a heart inside his diary and writes "I LOVE SAN JOSE," because, Hector Tobar says, "the mine is like him: flawed and neglected but worthy of respect and love."How three men react to the very same awful experience--just over two months of near starvation in the dark neighborhood of death--is a marvel because we are, all of us, somehow perfectly unique. There are no clones. One of the men makes the tomb a cathedral, another a veritable hell, yet another casts the darkness as a lover. All three men are thoughtful; all three men are deadly serious. All three men have undergone an experience unlike anything anyone else in the entire world has, and now all three are about to be delivered into life up on the surface of the earth, into light, and love.But when they look back, what they see couldn't be more different."What a piece of work is man," says Hamlet. He doesn't mean it as a question, but a utterance of sheer awe at the seeming incongruities we embody as human beings.In Psalm 8, the poet says humans look so immensely feeble against a backdrop of the glorifying heavens: "What are we that you care about us?" the psalmist says, "that you have crowned us with glory and honor?" But he has.Amazing. Just amazing.What those many days beneath the earth did is little more than compress life in a way that every one of those 33 men understood, even though as it ended they regarded what had happened to them with night-and-day differences. They'd gone a long ways down the road toward death. And then returned.As amazing at it sounds, their story, as told by Hector Tobar in Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle that Set Them Free, as amazing and truly unique as it was, is our story too.No one reading these words spent all that time buried in the earth, fighting for life, looking for meaning. Yet, strange as it sounds, all of us do. What makes Hector Tobar's book so moving and memorable is that somehow we are there in the mine with them, all of us.

Exceptional second-hand value; good condition and delivered undamaged and on time. As regards the story, it was an informative read, although due to the foreign names, I did find it difficult at times to recall which trapped miner's emotions the author was describing as he covered their evolvement chronologically as a group, rather than individually. I would have preferred each person's story from start to finish. That said. I would certainly recommend it to anyone having an interest in the human psyche and how a life changing experience can affect people in different ways. It was interesting that for some, the sudden influence of celebrity and wealth was just as, if not more disturbing than, the fear of dying underground.

A slow starter but once it gets going this book is really interesting and you just want to read on to find out what happens. Really enjoyed reading it.

A very detailed engrossing account of ordinary humans overcoming a major disaster and through adversity getting through it and it's effects on them and their families. A well told epic journey I would recommend to anyone

Amusing and well written.

loved it!