Outerbridge Reach (Paperback)

by Robert Stone (Author) "THAT WINTER was the warmest in a hundred years..." (more)
Key Phrases: stock boat, mast step, missionary station, New York, Harry Thorne, Buzz Ward (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Stone's incisive, haunting story of a copywriter who enters an around-the-world solo boat race, a nine-week PW bestseller in cloth, is a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
In this stern but not unhopeful cautionary tale, Stone ( Dog Soldiers , LJ 12/15/74; Children of Light , LJ 3/1/86) depicts Owen Browne and his circle, the powerful American upper-middle class. By coupling this portrait with innovative treatment of the journey motif, Stone bids fair to capture the public imagination. Browne seemingly embodies privilege and success. Yet, avid for honor and glory, he enters a highly publicized, round-the-world, singlehanded sailboat race. As the loneliness and exertion of his voyage test Browne, so the attention of a shallow filmmaker test Anne, Browne's wife. Both learn truths about themselves and one another which destroy one spouse but which compel the other to further trials of strength and will. Superb foreshadowing and some glorious phrasing make even occasionally puzzling devices (e.g., major decisions are almost always reported rather than depicted) seem acceptable facets of Stone's felicitous style. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/91.
- Jane S. Bakerman, Indiana State Univ., Terre Haute
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395938945
• ISBN-13: 978-0395938942
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #817,119 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth and Consequences, June 19, 2003

By	D Stevenson (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Owen Browne is a decent man. Husband (to the beautiful and complicated Anne), father of one, Annapolis grad, Vietnam veteran. A patriot. A solid, privileged, upper middle class lapsed protestant who writes bland copy to sell mediocre sailboats. A man of rectitutde who believes in the power and beauty of Truth with a capital "T". Good citizen Browne. A square. When the young dilettante owner of Browne's parent company absconds with the corporate treasury, Browne volunteers to take his place in a much-hyped round the world sailboat race. Solo. Documentary filmmaker cum artiste Strickland is hired on to tell the story of the race, Browne to film the ocean shots himself, and immediately sets about trying to artistically undermine Browne and the entire venture. Strickland fancies himself as a sufferer, one whose vision is so clear and accurate, so "truthful", that the world punishes him for destroying illusions. In reality, he's an annoying gnat of a man who will lie, cheat and steal in the name of his "art". Strickland and Anne Brown fall in love and some of Stone's best writing concerns the psychological and philosophical interplay between the two. Meanwhile, out in the middle of the ocean, neither Browne nor his vessel is up to the task. Browne descends into a solipsistic nightmare that ends in a tragedy that changes all involved.

"Outerbridge Reach" is not a classic man vs. the sea tale although there are many vivid action scenes. The plot is so nuanced and the characters, particularly Anne Browne, so finely drawn that the narrative is seamless, real and true. Compelling intellectual fodder wrapped in a good story; an unbeatable combination from a master craftsman.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of American literature., May 4, 2004

By	Robert G. Serafini (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've read this novel four or five times and consider it one of the best works of fiction by an American writer. The prose is simply perfect - not a false note or glob of fat. The characters have positive and negative qualities that make them believably human - but Stone finds a mote of corruption that he spins into consequence. Owen Browne's flaw is a penchant for glib surfaces - he is a PR man - and he is undone by a boat that is PR perfect but deeply flawed; his tragedy unfolds slowly while he is isolated at sea and the ship reveals itself. Strickland is a brilliant documentary filmmaker with an unfailing instinct for "the lie" and insufficient wariness of the perils of his clear-eyed objectivity. The novel confronts American situations - the Vietnam War, American capitalism, American documentary news. And so on - to the chagrin of readers on this board who were unprepared for Stone's realism. If you don't like realism of the Balzac variety, you won't like this book. But I consider it, along with A Flag for Sunrise, to be a masterpiece of the very highest order. And Stone's other books partake of all his virtues as a writer - less impressive only because they lack the felicitous focus of these two books. Stone writes a book every five years, so his oeuvre is modest: you can pile them on your nightstand and work your way through them over a winter. But begin with Outerbridge Reach. It reaches through surfaces to the corruption underlying ideals - personal and national - as surely as A Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart of Darkness, February 16, 1998

By	Philly Kristin "MusicMeistress" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outerbridge Reach (Library Binding)

This is a very engaging and readable book. One watches the slow unravelling of a very neat, secure, defined and tidy married lifestyle, into doubt, instability and eventual madness. Even though believability becomes a problem at some point, the characters are arresting enough to garner all of the reader's commitment and attention! It reminded me very much of Joyce Carol Oates's American Appetites, with the same disintegration into chaos of a safe, predictable lifestyle.