Customer Reviews

The Only Life That Mattered: The Short and Merry Lives of Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Calico Jack Rackam

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There is magic in James Nelson's imagination. In this instance, he has taken the outline of a true story concerning the last days of piracy and brought it to life in a most entertaining and emminently readable novel. I used to think that C.S. Forrester was the best at making the days of sail come alive. Having been a professional square-rig sailor, Nelson and his talent for story telling are at least on a par with Forrester and that is rarified company. The story of Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Calico Jack starts very near the end. They have been captured and are about to be put on trial as pirates. The story then goes back to trace the ladies lives to the point where they end up on the deck of the Pretty Anne captained by Calico Jack Rackam and then moves forward through time to reach their imprisonment and trial. It is a lusty tale, full of life, bawdy, bloody and lived to the full. If you have read no other Nelson tales, this is a great one to start with. I am sure it will whet your appetite for his other books. The man is a master story teller and we are the beneficiaries.

This is an awesome story! James Nelson has made minor historical characters come alive in masterful style!

The main characters are Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Captain John "Calico Jack" Rackam. Anne and Mary had very different backgrounds but circumstances in their early lives drove them to participation in the male-dominated "sweet trade" - piracy. Calico Jack was a pirate early on in his life, choosing to present a dandified appearance due to the colorful clothes he wore, yet commanding respect and fear because he was a very effective captain, keeping his crew happy and drunk with a succession of profitable captures of various ships.

Anne was looking for a change in her life when Calico Jack strode into the Nassau tavern where she was sitting. The two connected at once and within a few weeks were together at sea on the pirate ship, Anne as an able crew member to disguise her gender and attachment to Jack.

One of their prizes was a Dutch ship, on which Mary Read was now an accomplished sailor. As usual, Captain Jack offered the captured crew members the chance to join his pirate crew. Mary considered this proposal and decided to adopt the "short and merry life" of a pirate.

Thus began a three-way friendship that provides the essence of this novel. Nelson's knowledge of his characters, sailing and the sea, and the pirate era is very impressive. The description, dialogue, and detail are so vivid I felt like I was beside Mary, Anne, and Jack all the way - on sea, on land; on top of the world, and in trouble.

I highly recommend this book - it's a unique story, full of adventure, romance, and history.

The Only Life That Mattered is a riveting novel that tells the fictionalized story behind real-life pirate legends Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Calico Jack Rackam. Written by a former professional square-rig sailor, The Only Life That Matters is an enthralling high-seas adventure of the outlaw life, pirate society, and two woman who achieved the impossible - they succeeded in making fellow pirates accept them as equals. Based heavily upon primary sources, this account blends both history and exciting storytelling to paint an unforgettable picture of ruthless yet free life upon the high seas.

One of the more romanticized villains in history is the noble pirate, the seafaring reaver with gleam in his eye and a heart of gold. Nowhere is this more evident than in tales of the sea queens, the rare but all too real women in pirate's clothing. The most famous of these are Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who sailed with Calico Jack Rackam in the Caribbean in the early 1700s.

Based on what historical records exist detailing their lives, James L. Nelson's "The Only Life That Mattered" weaves a credible tale of their adventures. The story is exciting and necessarily quick-paced -- their days of piracy together lasted less than three years -- but it's leisurely enough to sit back and enjoy the progression of events. You'll get to know the three main characters quite well, both their strengths and failings, and you'll get a good feel for life at sea at the dawn of the 18th century. You'll certainly learn enough to realize that life at sea wasn't easy, and pirates certainly weren't romantic or noble.

Nelson has a fine voice for narration, and a keen sense of story. This one unfolds with a few surprises along the way, and leaves you with a conviction that the author knew his subjects in and out before starting to write. He might show occasional aspirations to be a romance writer -- he did initially publish this book under the pen name Elizabeth Garrett -- but those out-of-place scenes are thankfully few and far between. Similarly, the main characters are all a bit too good looking, and the sex is always just a bit too good; I suspect in real life these people stank most of the time and had little time to learn the gentler arts of wooing.

I picked up "The Only Life" because it's a pirate book, and because it features two piratesses who've intrigued me for years. While there are some weaknesses, I read the book eagerly and walked away pleased, quite sated by the experience.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(NET) editor

I felt the dialouge was ordinary and the pace was sluggish in this novel. He uses 3 points of view and I didn't think there was much difference between them yet they should be 3 distinct "voices." I agree with the other review about his book, "The Sweet Trade" written much earlier. Nelson wrote that book under a psuedonym trying to make it sound like it was a written by a woman as he put it under a woman's name. Then he basically took the book, "The Sweet Trade," and repackaged it under his name and this title. The main "voice" definitely sounds like it is written by a man. Anne and Mary's points of view do not convince me that they are women. They "sound" like men trying to relate and talk like women do. So, I don't think the author succeeded with Anne and Mary which was disappointing.

Just a word of warning before you purchase this book. It was published a couple of years ago under the title of "The Sweet Trade" and the author was Elizabeth Garrett. I made the mistake of purchasing it only to discover I had already read it!

I have found every book I have read by James Nelson to be a first rate read and not only very enjoyable but also very interesting. The use of real bursts of history to recreate in fictional form the life and times of the main characters I find to be a most useful way to understand the subject matter and period.

I found the description of the emotional unravelling of Jack Calico to be the most compelling and poignant understanding of the effects depression that I have read lately.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read stand out as the equal to any of the swashbuckling heros that one could ever want.

Great fun -- a real ripping yarn! This novel combines the best features of a gripping page-turner with solid historical research and imaginative yet realistic characterizations. It conveys both the romance of 18th C. piracy and its harshness. I hadn't imagined that women could have led such astonishingly colorful lives in those days! I recommend this book unreservedly.

Note: Letter grades are given at the end of my reviews ranging for A (highest) to F (lowest).

Most authors who write novels based on the merry lives on Anne Bonny and Mary Read make the focus almost entirely on sex (see the unfortunate Sisters of the Sea: Anne Bonny & Mary Read, Pirates of the Caribbean). But The Only Life that Mattered (James L. Nelson, 416 pages), does well for itself by mixing this in with gruesomely poignant action scenes and actual emotional trauma. This is a book that actually paints an unsettling picture of the reality of the pirate life.

Nelson depicts Anne Bonny as a largely innocent teenager who falls for the handsomely deceptive Jack Rackham, a pirate who makes himself look tough on the outside but is actually an insecure coward at heart. Also interesting is Mary Read, another woman pirate who serves as the book's conscience. Anne and Read go to sea disguised as men and serve in Jack's crew. (In a disarmingly clever touch, the cover of the book could arguably be any of the three of them).

The characters are so emotionally fleshed out that even when they do something so immoral that it makes you cringe, you still care about them. Rackham, in particular, has an eerily familiar position as the man in charge who refuses to admit he has no idea what he's doing and eventually (SPOILER ALERT!) leads the crew to their deaths. The book remains rigidly true to the history of the real people the novel is based on, and I wouldn't be surprised if their written counterparts are just like them.

The grit and gore, meanwhile, may make your stomach turn, but it's necessary to depict the reality of the outlaw life. Nelson deserves praise for putting the historical facts back in Anne, Mary, and Jack's story. He reminds us that the "sweet trade" was anything but. A-

This is the way it should be done everytime.

Mr. Nelson combines the facts with details of the period to make a book that is both riveting and a very quick read.

If this were a movie, I would buy tickets for the first night.

If your seeking out a novel about the legend of Calico Jack, Anne Bonney and Mary Read, this book would give you all you need and more.