Windfall: The End of the Affair

Rating:
Summary: Reflections at Sea
Review: Legend has it, writes the author, that a person upon retirement must have some activity immediately following to look forward to, for the sake of his own well being. For Buckley, that activity was his fourth transatlantic crossing.

When this book came out in 1991, Buckley had retired as editor-in-chief from National Review, the magazine he founded over thirty years before. He was also celebrating the 40th anniversary of his marriage and his graduation from Yale. These landmarks likely account for the book's occasionally wistful tone. But although Windfall has as its backdrop the sweeping Atlantic Ocean, the focus more often is on the community in which he has traveled -- what the original conservative, Edmund Burke, called our "little platoons."

Buckley and his crew set sail on a 4400 mile voyage from Lisbon to Barbados, via the trade winds and southwesterly course that Columbus followed some 500 years ago. Given his landmark year, and that this probably be his last transatlantic crossing, it is significant that Buckley chose to navigate the route to the New World. At a church in San Sebastian, he prays for a safe passage, marvelling at the genuine faith Columbus had in an uncertain future.

In the introduction Buckley writes that the 30 days ahead would contain "moments of boredom, of frustration, of irritation, of near-despair" but that "these are inevitable to long ocean passages as pain is learning, despondency to writing, loneliness to love."

Buckley outlines the importance of choosing the proper crew. Much of pleasure of the book comes from how that crew interacts. They keep watch and steer according to a regimented schedule. They drink, play chess, tell jokes, and listen to music. At times they bicker, but they always pull together. Out in the unpredictable sea, left to their own devices, their dependence on each other is so obvious that it is unspoken. Excerpts from the crew's logbooks provide glimpses into their thoughts and feelings.

There are occasional digressions to Buckley's retirement speech, to a botched harpsichord performance with the Phoenix Symphony, and to days at Yale. But perhaps they are not really digressions, since the purpose of the voyage, when time and weather permit, was to reflect on what came before and to give thanks for a multitude of blessings.