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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Okay adventure, but not overly exciting., October 23, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
As this book is presented as an "adventure" book, that is the way I will judge it.
Anyone who has the courage to row across the Atlantic Ocean, the physical ability to carry it off, and the intelligence to plan the trip in such a manner that they are actually able to complete the trip has my admiration in their feat.
Many people have died in this attempt. In fact, during the particular race the author writes about, nearly a fourth of the competing boats sank and those rowers needed rescued. Fortunately, fatalities were prevented because of both luck and the support provided by the race organizers. This is an extreme "sport" that few would attempt and even fewer are able to accomplish. True, the author had several years of rowing experience, but nothing that really prepared her for the tremendous physical and emotional distances she had to deal with in rowing the Atlantic.
This is an engaging, well-written book (up to a point). However, as an adventure book, it does have its faults. For one, rowing the Atlantic Ocean alone has been done many times before, both by men and by women, so it has lost its "firstness" factor. For example, nearly everyone remembers who was the first to fly the Atlantic alone, but few would remember the second or the third or the sixth to do so. Most people would even remember the words spoken by the first man to set foot on the moon, but does anyone remember what the second man said? In "Rowing the Atlantic", there is simply no suspense in whether rowing across the Atlantic Ocean alone can be done. We know it can be done; it has been done. We just don't know whether or not author will be able to do it.
Secondly, the trip isn't terribly eventful. Yes, the author's cook stove quits working so she has only cold food, she has problems with her oars, but she is never left without working oars, and she loses her telephone service near the end of the trip. Also, the weather was bad at times and she is physically drained, but there is nothing here that really made this particular trip any more adventuresome than many others that have gone on before--or that have been written about before. Obviously, these troublesome situations are much more eventful to the person on the boat; but to the reader, unless they are new to adventure books, this is not really a suspenseful trip. In fact, I thought the part of the book that dealt with the author quitting her job, training for the trip and getting her boat ready was the bigger adventure of the book.
Also, while I salute the author for changing her life and "finding herself," I found it ridiculous that she blames her infidelity to her husband (and later her divorce) to her desire to find out who she really was. Imagine a man saying, "Yes, I cheated on my wife because I was trying to find myself." By the way, the author made a point of bringing this up in the book; I am just stating my opinion on it. So when the author speaks of an "unraveling marriage," it certainly appears that a great deal of the unraveling was of her own undoing. Also, at the end of the book when her now ex-husband shows up to support her, she claims that she still loves him but she has moved on. Imagine, again, a man saying this about his wife, "I love her, but I have moved on." The author should realize that how you treat people on your quest to find yourself is just as important, if not more so, than actually finding out whom "you really are" (whatever that means).
In the end, I would rate the first half of this book as a four. It is well-written, it moves along quickly, it was interesting to learn what lead the author to change her life around, and it was engaging to see whether she was going to be able to carry off her adventure. But by about half-way through, I felt the book to be losing its momentum, because the adventure seemed to be over and all that was left was to reach land. while this is a reasonably decent book, it is not anywhere near the adventure that books such as "The Long Walk", "Adrift", "Carrying the Fire", "Endurance", "Travels in West Africa", "Alone", "Alive", "Man Eaters", "Running the Amazon" or similar books rate. It is these books that rate as four or five star books to me, so I can not rate "Rowing the Atlantic" as a five star book.
Overall all then, I give the book a three star rating because it is just an average adventure book. It is a well-written book and it is enjoyable to read, but it is just average. Anyone who quits their job and rows a boat across the Atlantic Ocean deserves a five star rating for having the spunk to attempt the feat, but that doesn't make the book a great book. What I am saying with my comparisons to other adventure books is that while this is an entertaining book to read, it will never make the list of the top 50 adventure books of all time. And since it is advertised as an adventure book, that is the way I am going to rate it.
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18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"We hug.", October 11, 2009
It wasn't until I read the simple paragraph above at the end of chapter 21 describing the embrace shared between you and your wonderful mum at the end of the race that I could breathe normally again. Even though I knew the ending, my heart was in my throat for the duration of the incredible journey you took me on. Along the way I had many doubts that "we" would ever make it. I say "we" because your book has that rare capacity to put the reader right in the cramped boat with you, almost experiencing your despair, hopelessness, sense of danger, exultation, the discomfort: aching shoulders, blisters on hands, boil on your poor bum, even the sting of the salty spray of the of the wind on your face. You lay bare your heart (among other body parts) and your honesty comes through every sentence. Thank goodness you gave your readers the luxury of that lovely massage at the end. We needed that!
Your former life on your commute and at the office: "flourescent-lit, gray blandness of it all depressed my spirit, but I wanted the money and prestige, so I pushed my doubt aside and got on with it. Everyone else seemed to find it quite normal, (me: lol) and I hoped eventually I would too." Luckily for us you never did find that life normal so you were able to take us on a grand adventure, that definitely would not have been as much fun if we had to stay in the office with you.
It was amazing to watch you evolve from being so materialistic (how many people know this about themselves, much less admit it?) and then to express so beautifully your new philosophy of life of which I have no room here to comment on, other than to say you could write a whole separate book on just that, and I would proudly display it on my (read often) bookshelf alongside Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and Tolle's "A New Earth." (Also any books by Patrick McDonnell creator of "Mutts" comic strip).
Btw, when I finished reading "Rowing the Atlantic" late last night, I then read a bit of Teddy Kennedy's "True Compass". A wonderful book as well, but in the bit I read, he was sailing in his luxury yacht... just wasn't the same.
Roz Savage is dedicated to wonderful causes: to bring awareness to Climate Change, plastics in our oceans, etc. Can one 5'4" beautiful English woman make a difference in how we treat our beautiful planet? Well, for me, as I sit writing this review at my favorite Starbucks armed with a journal (a la Roz), I made sure to order my coffee in a "for here" cup so it wouldn't end up in a landfill.
I plan to tweet Oprah about Roz and encourage others to do so if you enjoy this book: it would not only make a fabulous selection for her book club, but with the Oprah sticker on the front of the book, just imagine how fast the Roz message might get spread to the far corners of our oceans and earth. It can't be fast enough!
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20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A winner by any standard, October 6, 2009
This is the story of a young woman who realised that being ordinary just wasn't enough and set out to discover who she really was.
She did this by entering the Atlantic Rowing Race in 2005; rowing a 23' boat 3,000 miles alone across the Atlantic Ocean. She had no experience and her expectations were based entirely on optimism and the determination to at last do something entirely on her own.
Roz Savage switches smoothly between the story of her voyage and the events in her life that led to it, and the two lines intersect perfectly. She describes her thoughts and fears as she deals with a series of disasters, all overcome by ingenuity or sheer persistence or by ignoring them. She includes some very personal revelations and her self-deprecating style is quite moving. I had to pause every so often just to absorb what I had just read.
Roz demonstrates by often painful examples that getting outside one's comfort-zone is extremely uncomfortable. She reveals her innermost thoughts and weaknesses, but leaves us to observe her strengths.
It is very well written and both exciting and intimate, so I could almost hear Roz's voice narrating as I read.
Unusually for me, I read the book straight through at one sitting. Rowing the Atlantic is entertaining and inspirational at many levels and I cannot recommend it too highly as a good read for anyone of any age or background. It's a keeper--a book to re-read every year or so and ideal as a gift for `teens and adults alike.
My wife and I have had the good fortune to meet Roz Savage and were very impressed by her, but until reading this book we had not realised just how special she is.
Clearly by not seeking to rely on friends, Roz has made many of them.
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by Colin Angus
