Courage [Hardcover]

Alan Littell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 2008

The Year is 1950.  In the North Atlantic west of Ireland the destinies of two ships fuse.  One, an English tramp, breaks apart in a winter storm.  Five survivors cling to the wreckage.  Chance puts the novel's central character--an officer of a nearby liner--at the helm of a boat that must battle its way through the mountainous waves in a desperate attempt to reach the castaways.  In this evocation of the life of the sea, author Alan Littell has created a world of isolation, frailty and endurance whose overarching theme is the test of courage. 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An authentic-feeling ocean adventure, this slim novel is as much about the craft and lifestyle of seafaring as it is of the sea itself. The story involves a cargo ship in distress during a storm 150 miles off the coast of Ireland in the winter of 1950, and a second ship that sends part of its crew on a rescue mission. The protagonist, John Driscoll, overcomes a childhood fear of the water to follow the path of a life at sea. Throughout the book, Driscoll, who is dispatched to save the shipwrecked crew, comes to symbolize an attraction to the sea felt by many of the salty characters. Littell's affection for the lifestyle is palpable, and he's especially adept at turning mariner jargon into sharp-edged if strangely musical prose. Readers lacking at least a nodding acquaintance with the seagoing life will want to take a pass, but those with saltwater in their veins will not want to pass this up. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

Originally published in the UK in 1962, this stirring story of heroism at sea might finally get the wide audience it deserves. In the kind of story that Nicholas Monsarrat (The Cruel Sea, 1951) easily could have written, Littell tells the tale of five survivors of an English tramp steamer that founders in the North Atlantic and the man who risks everything to save them. Driscoll, a career mariner who has wandered from job to job (right now he’s fourth mate on an ocean liner), sees in the plight of the five tramp survivors a chance to test himself. Littell’s bare prose, in which every word is chosen for maximum effect, is perfectly suited to the material, and his vivid descriptions of his characters and their surroundings make us feel as though we, too, were clinging to the wreckage. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (November 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031238436X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312384364
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,054,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Haunting Mariner's Tale Without a Hero, January 31, 2009

By 

David Island "Excalibur" (San Rafael, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Courage (Hardcover)

This tidy little 150-page story is interesting, at times compelling, and eerily philosophic. While reading, you think about concepts such as courage, fear, isolation and decisions you have made that took you away from people you loved or put you in harm's way. While 4th mate Driscoll is the main character, there's no hero here, only ordinary men (and some shore-bound women), but author Littell avoids all stereotypes. Just people wondering what their life is all about, especially when it might very well be too late (in the face of life-threatening danger) to change anything. No one in the story is very lovable or very unlikeable. Just people like your cousins, your uncles and maybe you.

The plot is hard to follow at times, forcing the reader to flip back a page or two to see where your mind wandered off, only to find that it was the author who wandered. But that is a small complaint. The author makes you work a little to fill in all the blanks.

Anyone who likes a well-crafted story will appreciate the author's skill. I estimate that about 40% - 50% of the story is NOT on board a ship, and so to call this a seafaring tale is somewhat of a stretch. But the story is very good, and its high tension and climax occur during a ferocious Atlantic storm. The characters are all interesting, and the author shows the brisk terseness of style that characterizes Ernest Hemmingway or Alan Furst. There are no extraneous words. And, at the very end, one must use one's imagination to bring a satisfying completion to the story.

You'll increase your vocabulary a bit with the likes of "scabrous," "chimerical," and "fidley."

It's a good 2-evening read, and you'll think about it for a long time after. When you finish the book, re-read the two little quotes from Joseph Conrad and Philip Larkin on one of the front pages, before the story begins.

4.0 out of 5 stars A short, simple, and good seafaring story, January 26, 2009

By 

Robert F. Jakubowicz (Pittsfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Courage (Hardcover)

This is a story about a merchant seaman. It remindes me of Richard Woodmen's seafaring book entitled "Endangered Species." It is a book about simple seamen doing their routine jobs at sea. The protagonist is not one of those super heroes who now appear in sea adventure novels. His name is Driscoll and he is a merchant marine officer who quit his seafaring life for a short period and decides to go back to sea. And on his return to the bridge of a ship, his captain receives a distress signal from a floundering ship with a small crew hanging on for their lives in a stormy Atlantic sea. Driscoll is no ,longer certain he can help in the rescue, but nevertheless he finds himself in charge of the rescue effort and finds his courage to pull it off.
This book is for a reader who likes seafaring stories, but is looking for a respite from the likes of the sea stories in Clive Cussler's fantasy-like novels. This book offers a dimple, easy to read and realistic seafaring adventure.