Customer Reviews

Atlantic High: A Celebration

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Buckley relishes living. His life is one of multi-tasking. While experiencing transAtlantic adventures, he manages his time in such a way that he responds to letters from readers on an individual basis. He even describes his method of being able to give such personal responses to such a large number of writers. As a communicator/traveler/adventurer, Buckley has something to teach us all. "Passive" is about the only word not found in his vocabulary.

Visually the photography of Christopher Little shows you what Buckley describes with words. A two member TV crew was putting together a documentary on the trip, but I don't know if that project was finalized. Buckley has some things to say about video ethics in his discussion of that project, specifically about a balance between what staging is acceptable and what goes over the line.

Most of the book is captivating, in that, "you're there" with Buckley and his crew members on the journey. However, a couple of chapters are filler. Not even Buckley with his talented gift of communication could conceal that fact. He gets tedious in describing certain maritime procedures (yawn). Otherwise, the time spent with this book is pretty well invested. On that note, he has a small section taking about people asking him as an editor to read their books, wherein he mentions that it takes anywhere from 6-16 hours to complete a book, depending on one's reading speed and the length of the work.

William F. Buckley's "Atlantic High" is an entertaining chronicle of Buckley's second trans-Atlantic sail with a group of his good friends. (The first journey is recounted in "Airborne: A Sentimental Journey.") Their journey stretched from the Virgin Islands to Bermuda to the Azores to Spain, and is recorded in excellent photographs that fill the book.

Buckley's writing shines and is the strength of this book. He also draws heavily from journals that he required all of the crew to keep, so that he could also record their feelings and observations about their sail. But this isn't an adventure sail (their 72-foot ketch included a cook, a captain, a well-stocked wine cabinet, and the biggest emergency they faced was running out of ice), but is instead a genteel story about nice cruise across the Atlantic.

Although the book is a bit dated and not as good as WFB's "Airborne," it's a charming and delightful read for anyone who enjoys sailing or is a fan William F. Buckley's writing.

The story is great, but I really missed the pictures. The Kindle edition only has the picture titles, but no photos (which should be easy to see on the Kindle 2).

As an earlier reviewer noted, the story is great but lacking the photos. That is really too bad because part of the story is about the photographer. The worst part, though, is the formatting on the Kindle. It is a disaster. It is left justified, and badly at that. There is not any indentation for paragraphs and no separation between paragraphs. The result is that each page looks like a messy column of words. I found it very hard to read.
Story = 4 stars
Kindle version = 0 stars

Great book...as are all Buckley books. Vivid imagery. It makes you want to go sailing again....