Customer Reviews

Outbound: Finding a Man, Sailing an Ocean (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies, Joan Larkin and David Bergman, Series Editors)

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"Outbound" is a wonderful book, among the best I've read recently in either the gay or sailing genres, but transcending each. I've lived in Vermont, with my lover, since 1976, but sail mostly in Maine waters on my gaff-rigged coastal schooner. So, while the book hooked me with its literary quality, my own experience mirrors -- to a some degree -- the author's. And I tell you: It rings true, with a beautiful, clean tone.

This is an interesting and fascinating memoir of one man's life who happens to love sailing and who is also a gay man living in a caring and loving relationship. You don't have to have a knowledge of sailing to enjoy this book. Although I have gone sailing a few times, I wasn't familiar with a lot of the sailing terms, but the author explains them very well. The author writes with dry wit, a questioning self-analysis, and deep passion. It was a pleasure to read his story, and it was never boring. This is a true-life story that will have broad appeal to many people.

Storandt tells in vivid detail the story of his transatlantic sailing adventure from Saybrook, Connecticut to Ireland, then on to Scotland aboard his 33-foot cutter named Clarity. He made this journey with his longtime partner Brian, and their friend Bob. It's an adventure that turns out to be exciting, unpredictable, and even life-threatening. They certainly get to test their sailing skills through rough seas, gale force winds, and a fierce storm. It's not "The Perfect Storm", but it's close. Interwoven throughout his sailing adventure we learn all about Storandt's earlier life; his marriage, being a freelance musician, living in the Vermont woods in a geodesic dome, leaving his marriage, coming out, and meeting his soon to be life partner, Brian, a Scottish doctor.

So whether you're hooked on sailing or just want to read a well-written passionate coming out story, this book is for you. I was disappointed when this adventure ended. As good a writer as he is a sailor, Storandt tells a wonderful story I couldn't put down till finished.

William Storandt wanted to sail across the Atlantic. And he was afraid he wanted to love a man. In this sometimes harrowing story of the ocean and the heart, Storandt tells us how he finally managed both.

His journeys take him from Julliard to a hippie dome in the Vermont woods to a 30-foot sloop in a life-threatening gale off the coast of Ireland. His parallel course leads him from a youthful marriage to a live-in girlfriend to his first gay bar. And then to Brian Forsyth, a Scottish-born pediatrian at Yale.

Storandt's clean prose and eye for fine Homeric detail make for an exciting yarn about an unusual life. You won't have to be gay or nautical to enjoy it.

This book, in its less than 200 pages, kinda sneaks up on the reader. It starts out with the writer/narrator filled with self-doubts, both about the voyage he has embarked on and his life for his first thirty years or so. Stay with it and you will be richly rewarded. By page 80 or so I was totally enchanted, first by what slowly unfolds to be a beautiful love story. A love story told with such restraint that it wasn't until halfway through the book that I realized that Bill and Brian were actually a couple, and had been so for more than half a decade. He writes about his partner with such understated ardor that I was sure that the story would end in tragedy, or that merely the two parted company. Neither is true.

Oh yeah, and Overboard was also a rip-roaring sailing yarn. And what would have been a rather pathetic coming out story (what took him so long?) until I realized how old he was. Denying oneself and getting married was a more reasonable survival strategy before Stonewall.

I bought this book because I was blown away by Storandt's first fictional novel, "The Summer They Came." However, as a straight male who does not know the first thing about sailing, I did not know what to expect from this work. My enjoyment of Storandt's effort is all the more impressive, given my lack of knowledge about the subject matter. Like all master story tellers, Storandt lets the reader enter his world by describing the situation in detail, with references to more familiar subject matter. For instance, when explaining why he cannot get out of bed during a severe storm, Storandt says that he can no more get out of bed than a potato worm can unfold in your hand ... brilliant! Storandt has 2 running stories in this book. In the foreground is his gripping account of his sailing adventure to Scotland (the homeplace of his life partner) across the Atlantic. In the background, is a discussion of his and his life partner's lives up until the time of the trip, with particular focus on how they came to realize they were gay. I highly recommend this book to even the most staunchly conservative "straights," and to the landlubbers most prone to sea-sickness!

Sometimes a friend will surprise you. You know there's a memoir in the works, that it is to be published. Good for him. You'll have to read it. Reading it, you are impressed, knocked out, amazed. This is what happened to me with Bill Storandt's book, Outbound. The two stories, interwoven in alternating chapters, will satisfy both those seeking the taste of wind-driven mid-Atlantic salt spray and those who seek to better understand a gay man and witness his success in finding a life partner. There are wonderful side trips to Julliard, the Vermont woods, the Caribbean, the Scottish coast, and married life.
The book also satisfies a larger audience, however, and it does so with the simplest and most difficult device: honesty. Bill gracefully and without pretense shares his difficulties and successes, both maritime and personal. It is no accident that his boat is named Clarity. Because he has taken the risk to be so honest with us, an unusual bond develops between author and reader. The authenticity of his voice causes us to care about his perception of the world and to examine how it compares with our own. This happens rarely and it is a privilege and an adventure. We are in good hands with Bill, whose gentle and persistent humor, thoughtful consideration, and respect for all parties make the voyages we take with him away from and back to safe harbors both illuminating and very enjoyable.

I literally couldn't put the book down.

Crossing thresholds, living dreams, staying steady and listening within! He did it! He writes it as only a person who has felt it all deeply and directly can do-it's not an "about" something book! So glad he wrote it for all of us-couldn't put thebook down!!!! Spellbound by all the possibilities it opens for each of us!

I am a straight woman and not a sailor, and I give this book high marks because it drew me into the action--an Atlantic crossing and a gay awakening. Storandt did a beautiful job of expressing the terror and joy he experienced in pursuit of his passions. The storm descriptions actually scared me. I recommend it to anyone in search of an intelligent, honest account of a real-life adventure.