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Summary: Bravo! He got it right.
Review: Having lived in Massachusetts for most of my life, and specifically in Gloucester for thirteen years, I was enthralled by the authentic ATMOSPHERE of the place captured in this book. I was there during the year of this particular storm and I know these people, contrastingly shy and rowdy.I read the comments by reviewers and some say it's boring. Hardly. However, they may be referring to the inscrutable quality of the picture Junger paints both of the players and the place. Cape Ann, Massachusetts has a mysterious "veil" over it at times, not unlike the shades of sleet grey, bracken and bottle green that envelope it during its terrible, killing seasons: the fall hurricane months, the nor'east winters, the early, false springs. Actually, for those of us who can afford to stay in our snug homes and watch the spectacles, it can be gorgeous, but for men who must risk their lives to earn their livings, it's treacherous. A masterpiece by Junger.
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Summary: detailed story of people who go to sea in a monster storm.
Review: The author reveals every detail leading up to and including a monster storm.Life in the sea town is described in a style which reminds me of the stories of Jerry Bledsoe.
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Summary: Most awesome book I have ever read & I've read alot of books
Review: This book by Junger is truly awesome! I read it non-stop and have recommended it to many people who have read it and said the same thing. Before reviewing an "excerpt" as boring, maybe one should read the entire book. Judging a book from an excerpt is akin to judging a book by its cover.
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Summary: Educational...Interesting...Surprising
Review: Those looking for full character development with a sound ending need not apply. The book is highly informative and technical. Very good.
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Summary: Writing is like portraiture.
Review: When something is missing you can't quite put your finger on what it is. All the features are depicted correctly, but it just doesn't catch the essence of the subject. In Young Men and Fire, Norm Mcclean describes what happens to the body when it is burned to death. He also goes further and tries to imagine what must have been in the young men's minds at the last minute. Junger attempts to do the same with drowning. I found Young Men and Fire poignent and moving. This book reminded me of one of those cable shows that mascarades as a documentary, but actually relies on sensationalism and graphic pictures of death scenes. It was exciting,I'll admit,and I did have difficulty putting it down, but it was more like a need to gape at a car wreck, than being drawn into people's lives. I also think that Junger might have narrowed his focus a bit. This book could have been about the destruction caused by one storm, the men who died on one boat, men who make their living from the sea, or boating in general. Narrowing it down would have allowed for a little more depth. Unfortunately, he tried to cover all these topics, and lost something in the process.
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Summary: Gripping true story
Review: The very beginning of this book shows you the lives of the average middle class fisherman. Throughout the book Sebastian uses fishing terms that don't take long to learn. If you take the time to read this book thourghouly, you will understand the technical terms. The book is gripping if you understand what the people are going through.
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Summary: Compelling, Well Worth Reading
Review: How can anyone find this book boring? It's exactly the opposite, nonstop excitement from one end to the other. In contrast to several other reviewers, I found the "technical" discussions of fishing, weather and waves totally absorbing, a perfect introduction for a landlubber (and Midwesterner) like me. Junger even manages to bring the difficult economics of commercial fishing -- for both the individual fisherman and the industry as a whole -- to life in a way that volumes of statistics and government reports could never do. It's true that many other good books about ships and the sea have been written, but how many of them have been read and enjoyed by this many people? I rank "The Perfect Storm" high on my list of great adventure books. I hope that this book's popularity doesn't cause people to think it isn't worth reading.
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Summary: Boring!
Review: I read a excerpt of this story in my IB english class.(Freshman)I found it to be extremely boring as did many of my peers. Although it is a nonfiction, I think that it could have been better written to make it a more interesting story. Something else I would like to bring up is that not many people know alot about baots the frequent usage of boating terms was useless for describing the story because I did not understand a word of it
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Summary: Page-turning true story juxtaposing human drama vs. nature
Review: Gripping glimpse of the rigours of life on the sea mapping the story of a voyage gone wrong by an unexpected storm changing the lives of the people on board and folks trying to save them. Brilliantly juxtaposes a modern day sailors slice of life with history, meterology and oceanography told in a fresh, first person account.
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Summary: A terrific can't-put-it-down account of men and death....
Review: I must admit to some prejudice, as someone who's spent half his life in fishing towns,and lived through a winter of grief when a scallop boat from Provincetown, Mass went down with all hands in the winter of 1977-78. I truly could not put this book down. Perhaps my familiararity with subjects like ocean currents and fish behavior made the "technical" side of "The Perfect Storm" easier for me to digest; and I understand why this material might have seemed dry to other readers. Still, the insight into the men and women who make up this tale easily transcend that. The author is also due praise for the diligence and sensitivity employed in the research. Anyone who read the first addition, MUST pick up the paperback version to read the addition "aferword" by Junger. Finally, I found it amazing that other reviewers here at Amazon disagreed so wildly in their opinions. Readers either gave "Storm" horrible or grand reviews, with virtually none in the middle. Wonder why...?
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