Customer Reviews

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

5 star:		(446)
4 star:		(232)
3 star:		(120)
2 star:		(75)
1 star:		(48)

 

 

This book had been languishing on my library shelf for some time and I wanted to get it read before the movie came out, invariably altering its impact. It did not disappoint. It must have been difficult writing a speculative account of the last few days of 6 men's lives, but Junger does makes an admirable attempt. Using what direct quotes he can, the story still comes off as rather detached, which I suppose can't be helped. The novel chronicles the final journey of the fishing vessel Andrea Gail, as it returns home on October 1991 hitting one of the worst storms of the century off the East Coast. The six crewmembers are adequately fleshed out in exposition early on, and their stories will intertwine with those of their searchers and fellow fisherman during their terrifying ordeal. I did find the numerous technical discussions of weather, sea-faring, rescue ops, etc. very interesting. Having just finished Isaac's Storm, another death and destruction by sea/hurricane historical novel I was particularly fascinated and frightened by Junger's clinical and emotionless description of the act of drowning. Considering how that description applied to the crew of the Andrea Gail as well as all those victims in the earlier novel, allowed for moments of morbid personal reflection. The novel really picks up, and is helped by the factual / eyewitness accounts of the other survivors of the Halloween Gale. The latter part of the novel dealing with the various rescues of other foundering ships makes for a quick and intense reading experience. It reads like an adventure story, but it is very sobering to stop and remember that these were real people with families and whose lives were cut so short. I can't imagine the upcoming movie will provide the experience and response the book did, I'm glad I got to it first. Recommended.

I usually don't read this type of book. With that said, let me also say that I picked up this book and didn't put it down until I finished the last word. This is not a fictionalized account of what the last moments on the Andrea Gail were like during that horrible 1991 storm. Don't read this expecting huge dramatic moments, overblown sensationalized heroics or a tragic love story. Granted, heroism, romance and drama are certainly involved in this tragic tale of real people facing real events. But what Junger manages to do is educate those of us who are bound to the land about the rigors, dangers and pleasures of those who work in the fishing industry. He weaves in some history of the industry, the fishing waters and of the crew of the A.G. themselves. He also provides some very detailed meteorological information along with specifics about marine behavior and tidal patterns. While reading this book, I would often close my eyes and try to imagine what it would be like to stand onboard facing a sheer wall of deadly water. Or to make the decision to risk my life to save someone else. The disapperance of the Andrea Gail is the focal point of the novel, but Junger also writes about the various rescue efforts taking place at sea during the worst storm in recorded history. Many people lost their lives, many others barely escaped death. This book brings all that to life. I give this book 5 stars because it is very rare for a true-to-life account to touch me and hold my attention for so long. Knowing the grim outcome of these events did not diminish the book's impact.

I'll admit, I had doubts. I was expecting an exciting, fictionalized version of the actual facts. I was disappointed at first, because the book is written more like a history textbook in present tense. "Billy keeps talking with the other captains, studying surface temperature charts . . . " But after I forced my way past the first couple of chapters, I was hooked. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about fishermen, but that certainly made the crew of the Andrea Gail human to me, and I felt a teeny portion of what those men must have gone through in their last moments. I also have a brand new appreciation for the Coast Guard and the Air Nat'l Guard. My husband is one of those USCG men who spends months on his patrol boat in bad weather to rescue those who find themselves in trouble--whether out of stupidity or bad luck. I now understand his job a little better, and I wouldn't trade places with him for the world. Sebastian Junger does an excellent job leading us into the world of the rescuer, the fishermen, and even the National Weather Service. Some of the bits of historical description can be a bit long-winded and jarring as they shake you out of the story, but they're still interesting. An excellent book that'll make you glad that SOMEONE ELSE is catching your fish and rescuing people. Just don't expect a typical novel-ish style of writing. This is different, but once you get used to it, you might find that the book is hard to put down.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD(if you don't know the outcome of this story-it was well covered by all major news sources-please stop reading. Trust me, this book is so suspenseful, moving, and well written that I would hate to spoil the end for you)

It's difficult to explain the wide range of emotions you'll go through while reading this book. There's a building excitement as the men of the Andrea Gail, a small(compared to most other boats of the Gloucester fleet)but sturdy fishing trauler rigged for nearly a month's stay at sea, set out from Gloucester on their season's final trip to the Grand Banks, a rather unpredictable but verile breeding ground for swordfish. The crew, led by Captain Billy Tyne, consists of a likably haphazard group of local Gloucester men who demonstrate an impressive understanding of deep sea fishing and the dangers it presents, especially when the vessel one works aboard is nearly 2000 miles from the nearest North American shore, not to mention the nearest emergency hospital. Unfortunately, as the name of the book implies, things turn bad quickly for the ship and its crew. A series of storm fronts collide almost directly over the Andrea Gail as it makes its way home from a prosperous run, and the ship finds itself beneath the most powerful storm in recorded history. Waves crest at nearly 150 feet and wind speeds reach 100 mph before the crew finally realizes its sad fate. The book doesn't deal exclusively with the Andrea Gail, but also cuts between a few coinciding stories of endangered boats and the rescuers assigned to remove them from harm's way. The author makes sure that each of these individuals is given their due credit and presents them as professional and courageous. As silly as it sounds, I couldn't help but feel connected to the men and women unfortunate enough to weather "the perfect storm." Sebastian Junger does such a thorough job of fleshing each character to its emotional fullest that it's impossible for this naive inlander not to feel an unfounded empathy at their struggle.

I can't encourage you enough to buy this book. It's a fantastic read.

As a published nonfiction author, I'm giving 5 stars to this highly publicized docudrama adventure - an emotional ride through "meteorological hell" on a 72-foot swordfish boat dragging 40 miles of fishing line through 100-foot waves in the "perfect" storm (a nor'easter that "could not possibly have been worse").

This true story delivers the powerful synergy of a combination of elements in perfect balance: high-seas drama that slams your emotions like the rogue wave that explodes windows in the wheelhouse...fresh imagery that draws you in and puts you helplessly amid the crashing waves and hurricane winds on the boat...and fascinating facts about storms, wave dynamics, fishing techniques, and much more.

Author Sebastian Junger, a journalist by trade, combines these various elements in a well-crafted story of lives affected forever by a series of decisions by 6 fishermen in the town of Gloucester, Maine.

"The Perfect Storm," in a nutshell, is the story of a freak conjunction of weather systems that produced the most powerful storm of the 20th century off the coast of northern New England in October, 1991. Caught in this maelstrom is a swordfishing fleet, in particular the Andrea Gail and its 6-man crew. Building up to the frightening climax is the story of a fishing town, its people and culture, and the perils of daily life on board commercial fishing boats (generally acknowledged as the most dangerous profession). Yet it is also a story of how personal assumptions and decisions determine who will live to fish another day.

Unlike the trite, cardboard characters of many a fiction adventure, the real men and women who experienced this almost inconceivable storm come alive through Junger's careful and respectful representation of the facts. We get to know the tightly bonded folks at the Crow's Nest bar, where fishermen sometimes spend thousands of dollars of hard-earned wages in one night buying drinks for their friends. We get inside the lives of fishermen and their families, lives that would soon be forced to change in ways they always dreaded but never thought would happen to them. And we discover the misgivings and premonitions of crew members when the time came to load the Andrea Gail and head for one last run, ominously late in the season - warnings to which some listened, but others didn't.

As the story unfolds, we learn more than we ever thought we wanted to know about meteorology...dynamics of waves traveling across thousands of miles of ocean ("forty-five-foot breaking waves are much more destructive than rolling swells twice that size")...the rare monster rogue wave ("avalanches over the decks and buries the Andrea Gail under tons of water")...hard-learned techniques for finding and catching swordfish (a hook "can whiplash over the rail and snag people in all kinds of horrible ways" and "if it catches some part of the baiter's body or clothing, he goes over the side with it")...the economics of a competitive fishing industry that could force them to dump a month's worth of catch over the side...and open sea rescue procedures even more dangerous to the rescuers than the stranded crew. Perhaps the most fascinating discussion explores the physiological and psychological reactions of a human drowning at sea - when the body's natural reflexes kick in and panic is "mixed with an odd incredulity that this is actually happening...'So this is how my life finally ends.'"

Junger did a fine job of research and intelligent writing, skills gained from years of writing articles for such publications as Outside Magazine, American Heritage, and Men's Journal. His prose style is clean, highly readable, fresh, and full of vivid imagery:

"There's a certain amount of denial in swordfishing. The boats claw through a lot of bad weather, and the crews generally just batten down the hatches, turn on the VCR, and put their faith in the tensile strength of steel. Still, every man on a sword boat knows there are waves out there that can crack them open like a coconut."

Junger is faithful to the facts and avoids the usual writer's conceit of embellishing a story with assumptions about what characters said and did. Instead, he wanted to "step back and let the story speak for itself." As a result, we learn the facts Junger was able to gather through interviews and research, as well as how other fishermen described their similar near-death experiences, and our imagination takes over.

Even with so much detail - or perhaps because of it - we discover our emotions and fears swelling in proportion to the worsening storm, ever more gigantic waves, and gale-force winds. By the end, we have made and lost friends, vicariously gained a heightened fear and respect for the immense power of the ocean, and retained the indelible imprint on our psyche of this amazing drama. Readers of "The Perfect Storm" will discover a personal impact that establishes a new watermark for high seas drama and adventure.

Read the book. Experience the movie on a big screen when it comes out at the end of June. Then listen to your own premonitions to avoid being on any boat....in any storm....far out in the ocean...with nothing to do but wait helplessly for the next rogue wave to overtake you.

- - - - - - - - -

Roy D. Varner, of The Woodlands, Texas, is a professional writer and author of "A Matter of Risk," the true story of the CIA's Hughes Glomar Explorer covert mission to raise a sunken Russian nuclear submarine.

The strength for me of this book is that for once the sea isn't disguised as a person with human-like "emotions." This is not "The Cruel Sea". Junger sets his story in the impacable worlds of physics and economics. Want to know HOW the sea can rise to heights no vessel can endure? Junger will tell you. Want to know WHY men and women risk the graveyard shoals of the Grand Banks - Junger will explain the economics of fish. It gives an inexorable inevitability to the tragedy that follows.

Junger has been described as writing like "a poet who went to meteorology school." He is not a poet. His style, for the most part, is workmanlike. But he tells his tale without undue dramatics, letting the events speak for themselves - while the main character, the sea, sits massively at the outer limit of our human comprehension.

Start this book and it is like running downhill at the edge of control; you know the ending is not going to be pretty, but it isn't that easy to stop.

I'm not, first of all, commenting on the story itself, but on the way it's been set down.

This work may be between two hard covers, but it's essentially a very, very long magazine article. The author has the modern man's magazine style down pat, and his writing has all the typical strengths of the genre: fast pacing, immediacy, verisimilitude.

Unfortunately, the book also has all the weaknesses: there are too many jumps from subject to subject: in one chapter, there might be a dozen (maybe two) changes of scene, person, chronology. All the action sequences (as opposed to background, historical, and scientific information) are in the present tense. And sometimes the author puts his characters' words in quotes, sometimes italics, sometimes in neither, just a "he said" or a "she thought" tagged on at the end.

These methods, which are just fine for shorter works, become very wearing after a couple of chapters have gone by. Towards the end of the book especially, I found myself skipping back and forth all over, restarting the sentence every time the author slipped from past into present tense again, jumping automatically ahead to the parts in italics, and trying to remember characters I had lost track of that were now being reintroduced. Abrupt changes in narrative need to be signalled carefully by a writer, or else the reader is in danger of getting lost. I have to say I was lost a lot of the time, and frustrated.

And the book just bristles with jargon - much, much more is thrown in than is necessary. Jargon certainly makes a story more immediate and believeable, but these advantages comes at the price of clarity. I kept wondering if I was simply stupid not to know all these terms and acronyms, or if I had missed their definitions earlier in the book. But finally, on page 200, I read what the author must have jotted down verbatim out of a survivor's medical records: "Eyes pearled, abdomen and chest tenderness, pain to quadricep. Fractured wrist, possibly ribs, suspect internal injury. Taking Tylenol-3 and seasick patch." Now, I don't know sailing terms, but I do know medical ones, and there's absolutely no reason for all this to be included in the book, especially when the author has already described the survivor's injuries earlier - he had mentioned them several times, in fact. And the "pearled" reference stands for "pupils equal, reactive, responsive to light" - which is not explained here and is in fact not necessary for the reader to know - it just means there's no head injury, which we already knew, since he was up and talking.

My main point is, this is the sort of mistake you expect a nervous new author to make; it is also the sort of thing that any seasoned editor worth his paycheck should be weeding out and throwing away. Same for the structural problems in the book: the too many scene changes, the too many tenses and quotation styles, the mixed-up, dizzying chronology: where was the wise old geezer with the blue pencil here? The Georges Bank, for another example, is mentioned a dozen times before, on page 93, the author finally defines what they are - why didn't the editor tell the author that this info needed to be fit into the first few references to the Bank? It's a shame. The author writes well in many ways; he obviously spent hundreds of hours researching this story; the concept behind the book is good, but it is still and all a difficult and trying read. It may make a lot of money; it may be made into a movie, but it will never be a well-written book.

There are also nowhere near the number of reference lists and maps you would need to follow the story intelligently. Included is, simply, a list of the men on board the Andrea Gail and one map. There should have been lists of the many, many other main characters, their ships or affiliations; a glossary of terminology and acronyms; and, above all, an index. This is the only non-fiction book I can remember reading that didn't have an index in the back. Once again, where was the editor?

One word. Unbelievable. The one thing I have always hated about books becoming soo popular and over publicized is the many people who jump on the bandwagon as it moves along. Unfortunately i didn't get to read it before it became so popular so, like most of America, i jumped aboard the wagon. I was hesitant at first about buying, just for that reason. But,after some hesitation in the store, and the result of finding nothing else to get instead...i bought it. I never read a more compelling book than the Perfect Storm. I did not have any previous knowledge of the storm growing up ( i was only 11) so i was even more overwhelemed during the book. I enjoy in which Sebastian Junger wrote the book. He would start explaining the situation or a predicament someone was in and would stop and change the course of the moment by going back in time by telling the reader about the person and the past experiences he or she has gone through. By the time your finished reading the history of the person, youv'e totally forgotten about what the predicament the person was in. Then once again your'e thrown back into the horrific storm, almost feeling the person's pain and stuggle. Perfect Storm is truly an unbelievable tale of the destructive forces of nature.

I read The Perfect Storm in every spare moment that I had. It is a wrenching story that grabs your interest immediately. Like watching the Titanic, all the while knowing the ship goes down, my heart ached for those men and their families as the book unfolds to its tragic end. Junger paints a vivid picture of Gloucester and its people. These fishermen are brave beyond belief. It must be in their blood, as no amount of money could entice the average person to face the dangers that they face.

Granted, I did not understand all of the technical information included in this book and would have appreciated a diagram of the boat to help me out, but I found what I did understand to be completely fascinating. I learned things I never knew about fish, fishermen, the ocean, boats and the destructive forces of nature. I felt like I was out there on the sea with those men, and I was terrified. What more can you ask from a book than to learn something and be entertained completely? I will persuade everyone I can to read this book. I can't wait to read Linda Greenlaw's The Hungry Ocean, which I was given as a companion book to The Perfect Storm.

I have to give a lot of credit to Sebastian Junger for his honesty in telling this story. Although we cannot know for sure what exactly happened to the crew of the boat Junger focuses upon in this book, he points out that he can explain what likely happened to them in the face of nature's fury.

What elevates this book above the level of a nonfiction adventure story is his attention to the important details we as readers need to know before we can understand in a tangible manner what such a storm system can do. By the time we get to the story of the storm itself, roughly halfway through the book, we've already read through anecdotes and explanations that illuminate subjects such as the logistics of deep-sea fishing, basic oceanography, the politics that govern the fishing industry, how weather patterns form, and the sociological landscape of municipalities that rely on the fishing trade, among other topics.

Reading this book is an education, but as told by Junger, it is neither pedantic in its exposition nor overly dramatic in its storytelling. It is a sound example of journalistic storytelling.