Customer Reviews

Every Boat Turns South

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Every Boat Turns South
J. P. White
Review- Dave Danielson

A poet writes a first novel. That may be newsworthy but it ought not to be. A teacher once said, "No one should attempt a novel until they have written poetry." J.P. White has learned to turn a phrase as well as tack into the wind in a Bermuda '40 "any sailor's wet dream." It's first rate entertainment, a good enough reason for reading.

That is not to say that it is not literary which is another reason for reading like eating lima beans, `because they're good for you.' It's not altogether impossible, as White has shown, to create a book that is both literary and entertaining, but it is a delicate balance.

Writing is above all a dialogue, because words are essentially worthless. They are merely symbols representing reality; they are not themselves reality. If words are not vehicles of conveyance between writer (speaker) and reader (hearer) they are no more than blowing in the wind. Words are used to excite an image in a reader's brain. If there is no image in the brain even remotely related to the word trigger, nothing happens except maybe inducing sleep.

That's what many poets do to me. They know things I don't know, and if they're really exceptionally literary they know things that maybe almost no one knows. That proves how genuinely literary they are. It also is proof of the reader's gross ignorance which is a good reason not to read highly literary works, prose as well as poetry. It sometimes takes a wounded ego a long time to recover from the attempt.

It seems there's a continuum between expression and communication. A retired newspaper editor has sent me a few of his novels. He knows how to communicate, sell newspapers. He learned well the code: who, what, where, and when. I read his novels for the raw facts, but they're not much fun. He might describe a woman's dress as "red," whereas the poet would describe the dress as "a red like the sun moments before dipping beneath the desert landscape." Both trigger images in the brain, but the last one is replete with overtones that send the mind circling on a vaster voyage. If someone has never seen a desert sunset the phrase is lost in the wind. White is somewhere on that continuum but leaning very definitely toward the expressive end.

White's novel depends on a knowledge of the sea, some familiarity with island people, and at least a perfunctory knowledge of trimming the sheets. If you think that has to do with hemming the material you sleep upon at night you might be better off not reading his book. I suspect White might include a phrase that is a personal delight even if no reader can really interpret it, but he does so frugally. He even manages to teach a few things about sailing a trimaran through hostile trade winds, and expanding one's data base is worth the effort too.

I especially appreciated White's efforts to write to the last page. So many recent novels hook a reader at the start, keep them churning along through most of the book, and then appear to give up at the last. It's as though they are hearing some publisher say, "Get it done already. We're already advertising the book." Maybe they just don't know how to bring it all to a conclusive ending that makes some sense; they don't even try.

So, read Every Boat Turns South, cash in your IRAs, abandon the suburbs, kiss the kids goodbye, and look for your Tabula Rasa* with or without a Rosario.

* Tabula Rasa --- A great name for a boat embarking upon which even us octogenarians may yet learn a thing or two.

I really enjoyed this book, it's evidently White's first novel and I was impressed. I am normally a person who reads typical spy/espionage/terrorist/crime type of fiction but this one was recommended to me and I must say, it captured my interest from start to finish. It actually had some sort of deep seeded tie to my own life in a lot of ways. Good writer, look forward to more from him.

I am not usually attracted to noir fiction or "action" novels in the traditional sense and yet this beautiful first novel by JP White is both of those things and still manages to be rich in language, sensuous scenery and intriguing characters. His portrait of a man in search of redemption is rooted in much of the great literature of the past and yet he paints a modern, rum blurred, lusty, capricious hero that conjures both pirate, poet and child. Just like Matt Younger, you won't be able to resist the pull of the tides, the sultry islands that whisper fortune (both good and bad) and the curvaceous Rosario, siren in a green dress. Read this book! You will feel like you have taken a vacation to hell and back between the covers of a book, with the wind at your back.

I couldn't help but get caught up in this book. Not because I'm a guy who has sailed the Caribbean, but because of the drama, adventure and unexpected twists and turns in the story. The fact that the author is a poet explains the abundance of unusual similes and metaphors. This is an engaging novel set in a romantic place. It's more than a sailing adventure in the Caribbean. It's about family, loss, fortune, misfortune, amends and attempts at redemption. Best of all, it's a compelling story. I recommend it.

Every Boat Turns South is an outstanding work, remarkable for a first-time novelist. JP White is masterful in weaving together three different stories all in the same work: his father's terminal illness, the past mystery of losing his brother and of course, the main thread dealing with the protagonist's infamous sailing and island exploits.

The sailing will be familiar to any sailor and the island flavor reminiscent to anyone who has been to the Caribbean. This book however, stands on its own even if the reader can't tell a tack from a jibe or has never had toes in the warm sand.

The characters are more than believable with ruthless men, manipulating women and parents lost in their own personal reflections in the Decembers of their own days.

Every Boat Turns South will never be a made-for-Disney flick, although it would make a terrific movie. It's raucous and racy, just like a good page-turner should be. Thumbs up!

Dip your toes into the first pages of J.P. White's tale of the sea and -- Wham! -- you are sucked in by the riptide of White's powerful, poetic prose. Out to sea you go on a crafty, incredibly detailed Caribbean adventure filled with unexpected twist and turns, love and violence among intricately drawn characters, and a deep passion for the sea and all it represents in the human experience. By the time the voyage is complete, and the final boat turns south, you are deposited back on shore to regain your land legs and contemplate so much about your own life, your fears, your relationships, your responsibilities to family and self. I am always on the lookout for first novels and this is the best I've read in many years, maybe the best ever.

Every Boat turns south is a good story. The characters are original and they help to enhance the story. It's kind of hard to have a favorite when they all supported the story so well. I felt really comfortable reading this book because it was set in the Caribbean (which is where I am from) so I found that many of the references the author made was easy for me to identify with. His plethora of references also made me realize that White spent some time doing his research.

It is also very clear that White is a great writer. He is vivid and imaginative and he uses his words cleverly to evoke just the right emotion for the readers. I enjoyed his writing because he makes you almost want to read on in anticipation of the conclusion. Every Boat Turns South is fashioned on some great contemporary works and succeeds to some extend which is admirable for a debut novelist. A prime example of this was in some of the themes raised. For example, the prodigal son Matt is racing against time to return to his father's death bed so that he can explain what really happened to his brother. The whole act was one that symbolized a sort of cleansing for Matt; after living in the shadow of his brother while he was alive and even in death, this release meant that he could finally begin to live his own life. This theme is also present in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.

Having said that all of that, there were times when the book was really slow and a bit boring. In addition there was a little too much sailing jargon that just flew over my head and admittedly did not allow me to experience the novel to its fullest.

While I liked the story, I am not entirely sure that I would read it a second time. I stand to be corrected though.

This book is an enigma. It is a cross between Ordinary People, Prodigal Son, Crime and Punishment, Miama Vice, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Frost. Matt Younger is the son of a sailor that he calls Skip. Matt's been M.I.A. for the last three years but comes home in time for a cleansing of his soul as he confesses all at his father's deathbed.

Always playing second fiddle to his older brother, the Golden Child, Matt was the last person to see his brother, Hale, alive. In their teens, they boarded a boat and only one returned. Obviously, not the one for whom the sun rose and set. The parents and brother distraught, they drifted apart and dealt with the loss differently. Both parents blamed Matt for Hale's death. Matt carried Hale's secrets and kept them from his parents and the world.


Matt drops out of high school and uses his sailing skills to make money. He ends up being hired to sail a boat to St. Thomas so Sam Wells, a faceless victim (in the beginning) could bring his wife to cavort. The winds blowing just so and Matt still pretty full of stupid, he ends up retrieving a whole mess of cocaine, picking up a crew he probably shouldn't have, and getting stranded on Dominican Republic running into all kinds of trouble there.

The story is complex and metaphorical. J.P. White is a prolific poet who can describe the beauty of the Carribean, the islands, women, men, sailboats, and trade winds in explicit detail. Although enjoyable mental images, I found myself re-reading passages to discern whether I was to interpret something metaphorically or literally. I think some of that vagueness (maybe all?) was a planned part of the author's experience.

The author contrasts the beauty of the Carribean with the violence, poverty, and world of crime on the same islands. Prostitution, drug running, murder, bribery, blackmail are in strong contrast to the paradisaical setting. Woven into the story is the human experiences of love, loss, death and dying. The author explores the act of dying, the slow, laborious process, denial, acceptance, and love.

It is poetry.

Every Boat Turns South is an extended poem, and in this case that's not a good thing. Finishing this book was seriously difficult for me, mostly because of the writer's style. I was reminded of the The New Yorker's feature, 'Block That Metaphor' (or simile). On just the first three pages, we see the following awkward constructions.

1) 'A low grade fever wanders my body like a torched and rolling penny.' 2) 'The wind off the Atlantic tells me I smell worse than day-old fish bait.' 3) 'At fifty-five, he's thin and strong as the edge-nailed cedar he used to build his boats.' 4) '...it's as if I've returned to a home fled during the last hurricane that never came, but the owners have not yet straggled back.'

The third paragraph of the first chapter reads like this: 'I park my trash bags and stare at their front door. My wrist bones search for any handhold. My body trembles from the taut indecision of what to do next. I lean forward and touch my forehead to the door thinking the termite wood will tell me what to do. It doesn't.'

I repeat these excerpts not to mock White, but because it's the only way to convey the writing style. Although the story is good enough, my verdict is that Mr. White should go back to working on his poetry. Sorry.

I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher.

It is not often that a story line reminds me of a TV show but this one did. Boats,drugs, booze, sex and death kind of like a episode of CSI Miami or the old Miami Vice show. So you would think that a plot like that would make this book a light summer beach read, but the book is so much more than that. The story line is compelling and riveting and the characters are intriguing But what really makes this book is the writing Mr White is a poet and it shows the book was good from the beginning and just as good at the very end.
Great first novel and look forward to reading more from the author.