Breakers: A Novel about the Commercial Fishermen of Alaska [Hardcover]

William McCloskey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

In this novel, Fisherman Hank Crawford must fight to keep his business and family intact in this thrilling sequel to the cult classic Highliners.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Riding the wave of recent marine adventure bestsellers, A Perfect Storm and The Hungry Ocean, McClosky offers an accomplished sequel 20 years after his highly praised 1979 title, Highliners, again portraying the world of an Alaskan sea fisherman. Protagonist Hank Crawford has become a full-fledged fisherman, skipper of his own boat, and has expanded his horizons considerably since the first book, with a new house, and a third child for him and his wife, Jody. His luck turns sour, however, when the boat gets grounded in a winter storm and the fishing hits the skids. Falling behind on his payments, Crawford succumbs to the lure of a lucrative fishing venture for the Japanese, but the trip to Japan to negotiate the terms results in an ill-fated affair that almost costs him his marriage. The thrill of the new business venture founders when Crawford realizes that he's embroiled in an ongoing battle between Japanese and American fishermen, and that he is expected to exert his influence on the Americans to favor the Japanese fish market. In addition, his own local fishing community views him as a traitor for working with the rival enterprise. Crawford battles successfully to put his marriage back together, but the uphill fight to make ends meet continues, until his perspective is changed by a devastating storm that forces him to undertake a dangerous rescue mission to save a former fishing friend. McCloskey's tale captures the bitter realities and joyful rewards of a fisherman's life, offering winning, gritty portrayals of gruff Crawford, practical Jody and other local characters that make life on the sea so colorful. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

For fans of the Maryland writer's novel Highliners, it's about time: that novel was published a generation ago (1979, to be exact). Now Alaska fisherman Hank Crawford returns, no longer a young greenhorn. Hank's third child is on the way, he's about to buy a new boat and a new house, and he seems poised for financial security at last--until a spectacularly dismal season forces him to choose between failure and a deal with his bitterest enemies. McCloskey, a former merchant seaman and commercial fisherman, apparently knows the business inside out. Although it's about one man's story, this extremely well written novel tells a larger tale, too: the saga of Alaska's commercial fishing business, fighting for survival in a business increasingly dominated by foreign interlopers. In McCloskey's hands, it becomes the stuff of great drama, a cut-throat business in which ethics are as malleable as the softest putty and where, as Hank Crawford discovers, the line between success and failure is as thin as a knife's edge. An excellent novel about a fascinating business. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585740845
• ISBN-13: 978-1585740840
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,576,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alaskan adventure, March 8, 2001

By 

Sharon Knutson "chinamomma" (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakers: A Novel about the Commercial Fishermen of Alaska (Hardcover)

Hank McCloskey is a man torn between his love of the sea and fishing with the love of his family. His wife Jody fished the seas with him until they started their family. Three children later, Hank feels a distance growing between them and his desire to be at sea. Trouble comes in patches, Hank over extends their finances by buying a new boat and building a new house. Suddenly their baby boy becomes ill on the heels of a devasting season of crabbing. Faced with mounting debts and pressures, Hank must decide whether to join forces with the Japanese knowing this will strain friendships with other skippers or facing the possible loss of his boat. He is put to the test business wise and personal wise. This book did a great job of getting you to feel and experience the love of the sea fisherman have. I liked the depth and exploration into Hank and Jody's relationship. I'm a land locked Midwesterner who fell in love with this book. Enjoy!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ishmael of the Alaska fisheries, November 23, 2000

By 

Tom Casey (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakers: A Novel about the Commercial Fishermen of Alaska (Hardcover)

I just finished BREAKERS and while driving to Thanksgiving dinner, I realized why Hank Crawford and his exploits are so compelling to me. He's Ishmael and Billy Budd thrown together (like Conrad's Secret Sharers) and flung head-long into the chaos, carnage and maelstrom of Alaska's greatest offshore boom-and-bust.

McCloskey puts you in the skin of these high seas cowboys, addicted to the thrill of the chase across storm-swept seas and the endless tug-of-between themselves and their buyers, clever, Oriental and Occidental businessmen who always seem to stay one, strategic step ahead of the fishermen.

You want to feel the anxiety, joy, despair, fear, panic, disappointment, loneliness and determination that Alaska's offshore fishermen lived with twenty years ago? Pick-up BREAKERS and give McCloskey your imagination, curiosity and taste for adventure for just a few hours. He'll take care of the rest.

I know it's 100-years too late to prove it. But I think Herman Melville, himself, would give you the same advice after he reviewed BREAKERS. So see for yourself if Hank Crawford has become the re-incarnation of Ishmael and Budd in modern, American literature...and, at the same time, buckle yourself in for one hell of a Nantucket sleigh ride.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read highliners first, October 19, 2003

By 

T. A Kelley "kelleyt" (pueblo, colorado United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakers: A Novel about the Commercial Fishermen of Alaska (Hardcover)

This is a continuation from the book highliners and the life of hank crawford.This continues to follow hank as his family grows and he takes on further progress by purchasing a bigger and better boat but along with this comes more bills to pay and eventually some tough decision which may be good for business and to make bills it is tough on old friendships.

The author does a terrific job in both these books while they are fiction they seem to be very acurate with fishing descriptions both this book and the first (highliners) are excellent reads