Last Breath: cautionary tales of human endurance.

Peter Stark. 2001. Read by the author. Selected essays. 4 tapes, 6 hrs. Random House Audio. 0-553-52881-5. $25.95. Cardboard, plastic; content notes. SA

To prepare for the writing of these seven short, informative stories, Stark researched carefully to learn the physiological processes that accompany death. He also interviewed persons who had come near death in order to understand their sensations and their thoughts. To elucidate each experience, Stark creates a scenario involving persons who tend not to be naive about the dangers involved in risky sports but get into trouble nonetheless. Hypothermia overtakes a skier. A man drowns while kayaking roiling falls in China. Women climb high altitudes. A bicycle racer, victory in her grasp, becomes a victim of sunstroke. A back-country avalanche blindsides snowboarding young people. A man with an excess of hubris falls while mountain climbing alone. A starfish stings a woman who swims in an isolated lagoon off Australia. Some stories end in death; some in fortuitous rescue. They are often philosophical, sometimes spiritual; the latter primarily in reference to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Stark frequently cuts from the immediate episode to related anecdotes.

The author's reading style has an appealing intimacy because he involves himself so intensely with his characters and their experiences. Not a macabre book and not intended to titillate, but definitely, as the title warns, cautionary. Edna M. Boardman, Minot, ND