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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
He was one of a kind, June 18, 2009
This review is from: Flotsam and Jetsam: The Collected Adventures, Opinions, and Wisdom from a Life Spent Messing About in Boats (Paperback)
If you're already familiar with Robb White, you've probably already ordered your own copy of this book. If not, you've been missing one of the great story tellers, boat builders, and naturalists of the modern era.
I first came across White's writing in the pages of Messing About in Boats, a then-bimonthly journal devoted to small boats and, well, messing about. Almost every issue had one or two essays by a man whom I at first took to be some old opinionated Georgia cracker, but whom I later realized was a very wise and educated man- even as he tried to hide that fact. His essays covered an incredibly wide range of topics- the best woods for boat building, how to cook a turtle, repairing 1930s marine engines, people he'd met, growing up in rural Georgia, the natural history of the woodpecker- Robb was interested in everything he observed, and he went through life with his eyes wide open.
Robb was one of those rare people who spent his entire life doing exactly what he wanted to. He was, at times, a logger (of his own trees), a river towboat mechanic, a middle school teacher, and a grad student in marine biology. Most importantly, he was a builder of small boats his entire life, and built and designed a number of small, lightweight, elegant craft than were responsible for his reputation in the world of wooden boats.
He was opinionated, but behind his opinions were usually solid facts. He hated fiberglass boats- he called it "frozen snot"- plywood, air conditioning, and a thousand other artifacts of the modern world. But he was no Luddite. He was famous for his ability to restore old outboards, and he came up with a novel way to use epoxy to encapsulate wooden boats, using methods contrary to what everyone else believed was the right way to do it.
I have a stack of copies of Messing About In Boats that I've saved all these years largely to keep all those great Robb White essays around. Now, with the publication of this book, I can carry them around with me, too.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sitting With An Old Friend, June 15, 2009
This review is from: Flotsam and Jetsam: The Collected Adventures, Opinions, and Wisdom from a Life Spent Messing About in Boats (Paperback)
This is not so much a book as it is a series of conversations. Robb succeeds in communicating with the reader by eliciting a sense of familiarity and intimacy which is inescapable.
If you have a storyteller in your life, then you have some sense of what it's like to have sat with Robb, or to sit with his words now. If you don't have a resident storyteller, then you must buy this book.
Some folks have said that Robb is irreverent. There are two good responses to that: 1) His reverence for life sets that idea on its ear. 2) To the degree that Robb does not "revere" social status or the acquisition of useless artifacts, then irreverence is a fair description.
This is a fine collection of stories which Robb's family has enjoyed over the past many decades, and for which I'm grateful.
I'm sure that Jane had a purpose in assembling the stories in some order, but my confession is that half the fun of the past six hours of reading has been to flip from back to front to middle, and to find Robb repeating himself when I'd go to a particular story for a second or third time.
Robb lived more in his 64 years than most "modern" folk can imagine. When Bailey tells readers about her first horse, she is telling us about herself, her brother and their long lineage of giving, making and sharing.
Read this book and you will meet unbridled joy.
Share this book and you will give someone else the gift of joy.
It's easy to believe that only the artists and creators among us can live with the exquisite simplicity and precise abandon that lies within these pages. That is not true.
Set the book down. Go outside and do something that is true to who you were before your sophistication misled you. Go inside and throw away at least one idea which holds you back. Get wet. Get dirty. Get up early, or stay up late. Do both.
Break a rule, and take a friend along. Robb brought us this far, and the rest is up to us, isn't it?
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flotsam & Jetsam - Useful bits tossed by the tide., September 14, 2009
This review is from: Flotsam and Jetsam: The Collected Adventures, Opinions, and Wisdom from a Life Spent Messing About in Boats (Paperback)
As people pass through the world they often leave a bit of themselves behind...floating on the waves so to speak. The flotsam & jetsam of Robb White's life can give us a vision of a better home, community, nation, and world. With an unbiased respect for competence and civility and disdain for ignorance (especially self imposed) and rudeness he reveals his veiw of a life well lived. This self deprecating collection of stories will entertain and challenge you to be a better person.
Robb White was an extraordinary man, who lived through extrordinary times in an extrordinary place. We are the recipients of his thoughtfulness and insights. In this book are some marvelous stories, and more. His message transends that of storyteller, at which he is excellent, and gives us a vision of responsible grounded living that is appropriate for our times. Living within our means, using well the resources at our disposal, and reveling in our natural curiosity can lead us to fulfilling lives without the excesses of consumption and waste that are a hallmark of our excessive culture. In short a conservationist in his most basic form. Thanks to him and his family for getting this book published for our entertainment. We are impoverished by his passing.
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