Customer Reviews

The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island

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This book is an interesting chronicle of a life about which I previously knew nothing. Five years ago, Linda Greenlaw gave up her 17-year career as a swordboat captain and returned home to her tiny island off the coast of Maine to fish for lobsters. Quite a change from her previous life on the high seas! She now "captains" a small boat with her only crew member being her father, a far cry from the excitement of swordfish fishing.

Greenlaw's unadorned, reportorial descriptions of the trials, tribulations, and sometimes- joys of the life she has chosen made for good reading. She gives us the technical and nautical details in ways that seem almost uncomplicated. I had no idea what lobster fishing involved and think she presented it in a great way. Her love of and respect for the ocean is apparent throughout the book.

I especially liked the vignettes of some of the islanders. Most entertaining. The book is really a lovely commentary on life, rather than a "how to" book on lobster fishing.

In her second book, Linda Greenlaw has returned from the sea (17 years as a longline swordfishing captain, the subject of The Hungry Ocean) and returned to her roots on The Isle Au Haut, one of the islands 47 year round residents.

Her "fishing" is now done from a 35' lobster boat; her Dad is her sternman and her Mother is becoming her best friend. As she uses them, her stories about lobstering are metaphors about life and she interweaves stories of how one "fishes" for the wily crustaceans with stories of the many crusty characters that share her "High Island."

She has an ear for conversations and an interesting way of telling the little stories that make life on a rock something that some hold near and dear. I believe the stories will reach people who do not live Down East, whether we be fortunate enough to live in one of the highest taxed states in the nation with the best views or not, for in the end they are all about the human condition. Undoubtedly, her older sister still consdiers her literary efforts to be a book long personals ad, as there is plenty in The Lobster Chronicles about trying to find a husband as well.

Hopefully, the subject of actually landing one will be
the topic for a third book. This is very entertaining and worthwhile writing by an author who is only improving as she continues to find her way.

Firstly, I use the word person for the author does not like to be labeled with some feminine or neuter version of fisherman, and secondly because anyone who has a list of accomplishments that Linda Greenlaw has is remarkable, period. She excelled as an athlete, a student, eventually completing her studies at Colby College, and then becoming the captain of a swordboat, a captain that equaled her male peers, and by many who would know, exceeded them all. Her 17-year career as a fisherman had all the hardships that anyone choosing the life would encounter, compounded by the fact she was a woman. Trouble actually started the day she told her mother that she was off to the sea after she had earned her diploma. Her mother proceeded to take out her anger on the contents of the kitchen cabinets, and very little that was breakable remained whole.

Throughout her career as an offshore captain she not only brought home the swordfish that were unfortunate enough to cross her path, she brought home her boat and her men. She did this year after year in the most dangerous career there is, commercial fishing. The movie from the book of the same title, "The Perfect Storm", introduced millions to the loss of the Andrea Gale, her crew, and also the boat captained by Linda Greenlaw. She wrote a book about what life was like at sea for a month or more at a time hunting her prey. The book was called, "The Hungry Ocean", and it made Linda Greenlaw in to a best selling author. Her work remained for 6 months on the NYT Bestseller List. Not bad for a first time author.

"The Lobster Chronicles", will likely follow her first success, for it is as interesting, and it shows just how well this, lady, (excuse me captain), can write. She is candid, very funny, self-deprecating, and has the oh so elusive perceptive eye of a true writer. The end of the book hints that another shift in her career may take place. I hope that it does not preclude her from pursuing the novel she has talked of writing.

The only plan she has yet to accomplish is that of becoming a wife and mother that she speaks of with such candor and yearning. She is also humorously practical when she shares that of the 47 full-time residents that live on the island she calls home, there are only 3 single men. One man is her cousin and the two others are gay. Not exactly a target rich environment for her family planning goals. Her sister called her first book, "a novel length personal ad". The author talks of small town Maine family trees as, "being painted in the abstract", and that her family's tree has been referred to as, "more of a wreath".

She lives on the island she grew up on, a 6 mile by 3 mile rock 7 miles off the coast of Maine. She explains that if any readers think they may become enamored of island life that they try a list of islands she suggests, for they have all that tourists need, her island, "has nothing". Forget a bank, there is no ATM.

Lobsters are familiar to those of us who have grown up in New England, but like many familiarities knowledge does not always appear to the same degree. Lobster fishing is much more demanding, and lethal than I ever imagined, and if you think the high prices paid for this member of the family that includes spiders makes these people wealthy, the facts will open your eyes. The history of lobster has not always been the table delicacy of today. Serving it in prisons more than twice a week was once outlawed. The present state of lobstering and its future are also discussed, and again there is a great deal that was of more interest than I expected.

The book is much more than a tale of lobsters and her search for a husband. As tiny as her island home is, 47 people still provide all the drama, and every human behavior you will find in a population 100 times its size. It seems that almost all of the permanent residents are at least interesting, and range to colorful and eccentric. After you gain a bit of familiarity with the island you will see that it would be the choice of a select groups of folks. Climate, the lack of almost everything, and the other aspects she shares require a certain personality.

The books closes on a troubling note for a person very dear to her is about to learn whether months of misery will allow her to become a survivor of an all too familiar disease. And we also learn her best friend is building a brand new swordboat. Intended or not we are left hanging.

This is a great book by a very talented individual who has set and accomplished pretty much all she has set out to do. The husband issue is still unfinished, but with appearances on national talk shows, and a book-signing tour, I am sure there will be more than one man willing to try and keep up with this remarkable woman.

Good luck with all you do, and no matter what, keep writing!

You may remember Linda Greenlaw as a supporting character (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) in George Clooney's THE PERFECT STORM. Following that film, the real-life Greenlaw described her experience as the captain of a North Atlantic swordfishing boat in the riveting best seller, THE HUNGRY OCEAN. Now, in THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES, Linda has returned to her home island, Isle au Haut, Maine, to run a lobster boat.

Fishing for lobster isn't as potentially dangerous or dramatic as chasing swordfish. And it's more of a 9 to 5 job where you get to sleep at night under a roof in your own bed. So, while Greenlaw shares enough knowledge about lobstering for the reader to get a feel for it, the bulk of the book is about related (or unrelated) people and events: the effort by a town committee to acquire the local lighthouse from the government, the state of emergency medicine on the isolated Isle au Haut, the prospect of a turf war with mainland lobstermen, her mother's battle with cancer, friends lost at sea, her father (who serves as sternman on her lobster boat), the scarcity of eligible bachelors, her culinary ineptitude, and her dislike of dogs.

THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES is a pleasant but lesser sequel to THE HUNGRY OCEAN. Linda's self-effacing humor is perhaps the volume's major strong point, as well as the book's charm as a description of contemporary Americana. Some of Linda's prose is striking, as her description of the waves parading north as seen from the window of her home:

"Some of the officers on horseback nodded shocks of white hair while masses of lower-rank sailors kept eyes forward and sternly marched in the most rehearsed fashion to the wind ... The trees lining the shore waved like spectators ..."

By the book's end, I was saddened by Linda's undertone of unhappiness. She doesn't seem to like lobstering much. And she's fretful of the fact that, at 40, she remains unmarried and without children. Her loneliness is uncomfortably evident. ("I have spent much time waiting for Mr. Right, who does not appear to be looking for me.")

Sail on Linda, and persevere. I wish you well.

Linda Greenlaw made a name for herself as a successful swordfish boat captain based out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Sebastian Junger wrote about her in "The Perfect Storm" and she subsequently wrote about herself in "The Hungry Ocean". (I haven't read either of those so no comments there.) Ready for a change, she returned to the small Maine island where she had grown up, Isle Au Haut. The island has only a few dozen residents, and many of them are her relatives. Like most locals, she set herself up as a lobster fisherman, with her father as her assistant. This book describes her life on the island and one lobster season.

She does tell some interesting stories about what it is like to live on an island, dealing with winter isolation, summer tourists and year-round local politics. However there were way too many passages like this one..."All traps are equipped with hard plastic escape vents that have oval openings large enough to allow 'short' or undersized lobsters to exit a trap at will. Each of my traps has two vents, one in the door and one in the parlor end. Maine State Law requires that one vent be secured with biodegradable hog rings, while the other may be set with stainless steel, requiring little or no maintenance. The idea behind the mandatory biodegradable vent is to ensure the liberty of all lobsters within a trap that may be lost or neglected. 'Ghost gear,' or lost traps, are not a threat to lobsters' lives because the biodegradable hog rings deteriorate within a season, allowing the plastic vent to flop open, leaving a large exit. All biodegradable rings or remains of rings must be replaced when overhauling traps if a fisherman expects to catch anything. Otherwise, lobsters will find open vents, and fishermen will haul up empty traps. I was clumsy with the hog-ring pliers at first, but found more ease and comfort as the morning progressed."...and on it goes, pages and pages of this stuff.

This book would be essential reading for any aspiring lobster fisherman. Not falling into that category myself, I found the level of detail excessive and there simply weren't enough good anecdotes to make up for it. I wish that her editor had been more aggressive. By the end I was glad to wave farewell to both Greenlaw and the island.

I must preface this review with the fact that I won this book on Rebecca Reads Website (Thanks Rebecca) so I was not out any money. I was looking forward to reading this Best Selling Authors work but the book left me wanting more.

The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island started out well enough with some background into Linda and how she found herself on her home island after a career on the open sea. Her character development and pace are fine but she never delves deeper into this eclectic group of characters she has at her disposal.

Her look into the impending "Gear War" never reaches any fruition, oh it is brought up a number of times but the group never undertakes the task of keeping their "turf". While I realize this is based on her real experences, I never felt the urgency that could have been displayed, when an industry that so many people depend on was "floundering". I never felt that if her foray into lobster fishing failed, that she would really suffer, being a best selling author and all. Perhaps if a long time lobster fisher person wrote this book, they could better convey the hardship and perseverance it takes to eke out a living by fishing for "bugs".

My overall feeling was, when I reached the last page,I did gain some insight into Linda's life and the life of her community but I wanted more. I feel that this book could have offered that "more" but Linda was content in offering a shallow glimse into her life and the life of her community. Some may feel her look at cancer was not shallow and I would agree but my feeling stands.

If you want a rambling read about a single woman looking to find a man on a small island and by the way she is starting out lobster fishing, then by all means buy the book.

If you want more then that then I would recommend looking elsewhere.

This erstwhile swordboat captain offers her quirky insights about returning home to live with her parents; of island life with dogs, tourists & feuds.

Against her better judgement, she becomes a lighthouse restoration committee member & offers us a microcosmic view of people, with good intentions, coming together only to be pulled apart by temptation & apathy.

Ever since THE HUNGRY OCEAN, I have been a Linda Greenlaw fan. I like the way she looks at life & I enjoy her lusty vocabulary. In THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES, she takes us to sea only in the waters surrounding her island home. There she describes in rich detail, the life & times, & memories of lobster fishermen.

Follow this author into her world of fogs & salt water; of handsome sternmen & klutzy handymen; of political fuses & social apathy; of befriending her father in his retirement & coaching her mother through her cancer.

All the while, Linda Greenlaw ponders on the history of her clan & the rock on which they thrive; on what she will do with her life, & where she will live.

THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES is a surprisingly engaging memoir of a life lived on a path less traveled.

The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw is just the sort of work that completely captivates me. For the most part, I find my life quite interesting, do find my life quite interesting and have been fortunate enough to do a lot of the things I wanted to do, and it is turning into a relatively long run, when all is said and done. One of the pleasures I get out of life is learning of other people, their experiences; both exciting, earth shaking, and yes, mundane. Hey, I know about me; I want to know about others. Ms. Greenlaw, by any standard is an interesting person! Her accomplishments are really a bit breath taking as told in the story of her time spent as professional fisherman in her work, The Hungry Ocean.

It this autobiographical work we see a more calm, less dangerous (well, sort of) aspect of here life as she introduces us to her native island, a small hunk of rock off the coast of Maine. She has stopped being a Captain of a commercial fishing boat and has taken up lobster trapping, usually with a crew of one, her father. We get a very nice insight to island life; the closeness, harshness, realities of a very hard way of making a living. We also get a close up view of a way of life that may not be with us much longer. Chronicles such as this are a wonderful way to preserve a history of life in these far reaches of our country. This is something that should not be lost to future generations, even if they can only read about them.

As far as I was concerned, this work was very well written. Granted, it does not have the polish of a "professional" writer, and granted, you may find a few flaws in grammar and syntax here and there, but who really cares? Her story is told in her own words, much as you would hear it if you sat and talked with her for a bit. I find this much more pleasing to the eye, ear and mind than many of the professionally written "autobiographies as told to." Her small village is absolutely infested with interesting characters, she is quite good at descriptive writing and you get a true feel of what it is like at the place and time of which she writes. I take this work to be an oral history, if nothing more, but a wonderful history and quite well done. I cannot imagine anyone with an ounce of imagination, of curiosity of how others live, or wanting to know of things they have not done themselves, being bored with this work. I actually read it in one setting, and I am a pretty slow reader. I simply could not put the thing down.

All in all it was well done. We all have a tale to tell, each of us. Thank goodness there are individuals like Ms. Greenlaw who has the ability to tell theirs. Hope to hear more from this author in the future.

D. Blankenship
The Ozarks

There are certain elements in life that define us as human beings; the basic wants, needs and emotions that place us all within the Community of Man. And beyond the story she tells so well here, that is precisely what author Linda Greenlaw conveys in "The Lobster Chronicles," an exploration of the human condition that is rich with humor, poignancy, and above all, a joy for life and living. Long before you reach the last page you'll think of her as an old friend who has generously taken you into her confidence, and it makes you realize that a lobster fisherman in Maine isn't so different from a farmer in Kansas or a postal worker in Oregon, all doing what has to be done everyday to live, thrive and survive.

After seventeen years at sea as a swordfish boat captain, Greenlaw returned home to Isle Au Haut, a small island seven miles off the coast of Maine in Penobscot Bay, the "Lobster capitol of the world," where she proceeded to outfit and launch a lobster boat, the "Mattie Belle," to begin a new career as a lobster fisherman. This story is an account of the fourth season of her endeavors at seeking out the often elusive crustaceans of the title, but it is more than that; much more. Simply put, it's a book about "life." And the pages between the covers are filled with insights and anecdotes that are both captivating and endearing, as Greenlaw puts her heart on her sleeve and openly shares her inner most thoughts and emotions, all of which paint a stunning portrait of what it's like to live on a small island with a year round population of seventy (thirty of whom are her relatives).

With her thoroughly engaging style and way with words, you become more than just a "reader" of her book; you're a guest in Linda's home, where she introduces you to her parents, as well as the colorful, eclectic group who make up the year round and seasonal population of the island. Folks like the invasive Rita and her ex-husband, Frank; Suzanne, the quintessential bike chick known as the "Alabama Slammer," endowed with a rather unique peccadillo; the sternman she dubs "Stern-Fabio," and with good reason; and George and Tommy of "Island Boys Repair Service-- If we can't fix it, it ain't broke," guys with a penchant for making easy tasks hard and for leaving hard tasks unfinished.

At her best, Greenlaw's prose have a rhythm and flow that are nothing less than poetic, and certain chapters call to mind Ray Bradbury's "Green Town" stories, especially the one entitled "The Foghorn," which taken within a context of it's own is a transporting short story written with a Bradburyesque flair that is entirely mesmerizing. She follows this with a brief chapter, "The Little Lobsterman," which evokes James Joyce's "Dubliners." Not bad company for a lobster fisherman from Maine to be keeping.

By the epilogue, it's clear that what Linda Greenlaw wants and expects from life is what we all hope for and pursue in our own ways: Love, security and happiness, for herself as well as those she holds dear to her heart. And we should thank her for sharing her thoughts and desires with us in "The Lobster Chronicles," because as we read, it gives us a chance to pause and reflect upon what is truly important in our own lives, too. In it's own way, this book is every bit as profound as Dostoevsky at his best.

I read The Lobster Chronicles before The Hungry Ocean, and enjoyed this second tale from Linda Greenlaw. I know many people who read them in chroniclogical order and were disappointed that this followup story of Ms. Greenlaw's new life and profession couldn't measure up to her first book. I disagree. The Lobster Chronicles describes a place, and a passion for that place, on the part of the author.

Anyone who has been to a Maine island will recognize the different patterns and nuances of life offshore. Ms. Greenlaw brings out the colorful character of a very small and isolated community, and some of the many challenges and benefits it enjoys. An aging population, quirky citizens, unavailable healthcare, unlocked doors, lack of social life, beautiful vistas, abundant freedom, small town politics...the author provides a vivid illustration of life on Isle au Haut, Maine. Her passion for the island and its community comes with her bloodlines. She frequently returns to writing about her family members, and indeed, spends most of the summer running a lobster boat with her father as crew. With good humor, she parallels her failure to catch lobster with her inability, thus far, to catch a mate. Ms. Greenlaw writes gracefully and with great nobility about her family's encounter with devastating illness.

Warning: Unfailingly, lobster fans will need to devour a buttery tail or two after finishing this page turner. A terrific summer read!