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Hardcover
Publisher: SOLD
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Novel or Textbook? |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger tells the tale of a crew of men from the small town of Gloucester that are left with the one and only job of commercial fishing. They wave good bye to their loved ones as they board the Andrea Gail not knowing that as they depart, it would be their last memory of their family, friends, and land.
The novel begins with a flashback scene from the Falcon's ship, foreshadowing the end of the Andrea Gail's last voyage. With one quick flip of the page, your mind shifts to the viewpoint of a local fisherman. Junger captures all the interesting (and not so interesting) details of Gloucester, a run down town filled with working Americans barely making ends meet. Junger's profound strength is his clearly drawn out characters. Each fisherman is given a unique personality, style, and unusual charm.
About thirty pages in, the novel starts to reveal it's true identity -- a textbook. Filled with fact after redundant fact, fishing school would be the appropriate experience. Vocabulary words were being thrown from sentence to sentence regarding the equipment on the boat that seem to be of no use when the story started to unravel, and it did so at an unusually slow pace. He uses sentences that stretch for miles at a time that only lead to another dreadfully long phrase -- the climax moved slower than the Adrea Gail sailed.
After a couple of hundred pages of slow reading and scarce white space on the page, the action commences. Embarking on a journey through the wild waters; the carefully described storm stirs up in the waves.
But, with a shameful lack of dramatic scenes, the read was almost slothful. Hoping this story will build up to some sort of "hoorah" with magical verbs moving me along from phrase to phrase, and adventurous statements to keep my attention -- I was let down. To what seemed should have had some excitement, the climax felt empty and lost within facts and lengthy sentences. I was truly disappointed as I was patiently waiting for some sort of movement.
Ending with a predictable calamity, my interest had faded away. Despite the beginning, I was never engrossed in the vivid story that could have been easily portrayed. The Perfect Storm, killed my perception of fishing. It made me sea sick.
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| Batten down the hatches! ~ |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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When the sea comes a callin' she'll be takin' her crew and nary a soul shall hear an apology ~
The Perfect Storm is one of those pitch perfect timeless stories that rises from the depths and lodges permanently in the innermost compartment of the brain; the hippocampus of the memory; the hypotenuse of the soul. One cannot imagine the fathomless loss the family members of the Andrea Gail and Rick Smith have braced and whom no doubt still today must continue to weather.
Mr. Junger has written not only an undulating bird's eye view into the fisherman's lives, but also a tale of bravery and daily dosage of courage carried out by the Coast Guard, the National Guard and the Navy.
Though there are many detours, these are quite scenic and I found myself a more than willing traveler.
The first part of the book largely focuses on the lives of those in a fisherman's town; as well as the leading steps that took the crew to their last sea voyage; the love story of Chris and Bobby is particularly touching. There are passages devoted to explaining the ocean's topography and the way a storm builds at sea and how she breaks upon the sea shelves with no remorse. There is a detailed homage paid to the industry of Sword fishing and it's evolution; types of boats used throughout the early years, brave sea men who would go out in tiny wooden schooners with harpoons, and also there is mention of the over fishing of the marine life and how that affects a fisherman and the ocean. I found the geography and the mapping of the Andrea Gail as well as the storms rotation to be quite vivid and felt as if I were starboard a mighty trawler that might be making its way back from witnessing the carnage.
As a novice of the sea, I was quite thankful for the detailed tutorial letting the reader in on the specific gargantuan scale of the stealthy advance, the almost mythological spell of weather; impenetrable walls of wind and rain; sideways snow, houses picked up and strolled away by the sea; helicopters forced to pitch into the sea; pick your fear of being lost at sea, they are all there, drowning, broken bones, lost at sea, rescued but losing your boat; the AG, the Satori, and other vessels all of them engaging in a fight of their lives through this The Perfect Storm.
The pace of the writing is purposeful yet clips along at a steady pace; pausing every so often to thrust the reader hand over rail to the foaming edge of a thirty footer then screaming down into the cold slap of her shallow cement shell - - - ouch!
Tidbits revolve around how much fuel remains in the rescue helicopter (not much!) as PJ's struggle to put together a survival kit before the Heli is a) driven face first into the unforgiving shoulder of a monstrous wave or b) they get tossed out of the mouth of her cave like sardines released from a can.
So many events converging in one place seem to pile atop the reader and there is a real sense of holding onto a wet rail while bracing for gales on deck and trying to see through the dark into the stormy waters. In case anyone can't tell, I loved reading this book.
The author has done the crew of the AG an honorable and admirable service by telling their story and also setting up a foundation for the continuation of learning for the children of the crew.
The Perfect Storm is not a book; its an experience. One that I hope every reader embarks upon. I have read some adventure writing and no doubt will read more, this may be an oldie, but it is still relevant and still an impenetrable piece of writing; much like the Perfect Storm it so wickedly describes; this book sets its course beyond the norm and mightily surpasses the test.
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| John A. McPhee of the sea. |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Just as John A. McPhee outlines the history of oranges, Sebastian Junger outlines "Men Against the Sea."
In the very beginning of the book, Sebastian Junger tells you that this is not a novel or a fictionalization of the events of the last moments of the Andrea Gail. He believes if you read any fiction that, you would doubt the parts that are real facts. To this end He has includes many pieces of information about men against the sea; He describes the sea, equipment needed to deal with the sea and the lifestyle of the men who deal with the sea.
Now some people may find his writing style has a feeling of tedium, tedium, and t-e-d-i-u-m. I find it just being through enough to not leave out any piece of information to tie this all together. However, you may have to make an effort to continue through it.
Also like John McPhee, Sebastian Junger actually was writing about different dangerous jobs and magazine articles when he sold this book before it was put together. He struggled to balance this between a sort of documentary and thrill of the story. I think he did a good job.
Oranges by John McPhee
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| Excellent story |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I read this book because I read Linda Greenlaw's autobiography in which she mentions this book quite a bit. Except for the overuse of the word "and," it was a well-written account. It really made those involved come to life for me. I'd have liked to see more definitions of various things about the ships, boats, sea, etc. I would not have known what some of them were had I not read The Hungry Ocean first. For someone who'd never published a book, this is a tremendous first effort. Good job, Mr. Junger.
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| Great story could have been told better. |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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In the last couple years I've read two other maritime disaster books: In the Heart of the Sea by Nethaniel Philbrick and In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton, and although this book was a fast read and engaging, I didn't find myself as involved with the characters as in the other books.
Perhaps it was simply aptly titled. It was, to me, indeed a book primarily about a storm, more than it was a book about the people in it. Though they figured prominently in the telling of the story, the other two were stories of survival and death. . .this book read like it was just a story of a sinking.
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