The Nautical Chart

Rating:
Summary: Detailed but not engaging
Review: I'm traditionally not a big fan of literary-type novels, which always seem to be written as a vehicle for the ego of the author rather than for the enjoyment of the reader. "The Nautical Chart" is a good example of this. The story is based on template plot with a minor twist at the end; there are no real surprises and no real drama. I found I had nothing invested in any of the characters, because there was nothing to sympathize with - they are each irrational and shallow, undeveloped and contradictory. The protagonist, Coy, for example, seems to be able to analyse the minutiae of every subtle gesture or turn of phrase in a conversation, and yet will explode in a fit of rage unexpectedly and for no good reason.

Dialogue is the soul of any good story character, but what little dialogue there is here is uninspired and constantly interrupted by the unrelenting analytical commentary. In addition, Perez-Reverte often deprecates conversation in favour of narrative explaining what is being said, which gets the job done but sadly denies us any further character insights.

I did find that Perez-Reverte's style can be quite poetic in places, if overly verbose, but I felt the words to ideas ratio was poor - a limited selection of observations re-described many different ways. One could describe the story as heavily introspective, focussed intently inward as if the author cares little for the experience of the reader. If you want lit novels with bite, try Jose Saramago; still verbose, but some fresh plot ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Sags in the middle
Review: "We could call him Ishmael, but in truth his name is Coy." So starts Arturo Perez-Reverte's The Nautical Chart, an at times self-concious sea-faring novel involving the hunt for lost treasure off the coast of Spain. Coy has been suspended by the authorities for allowing his ship to go aground. To pass the time he attends auctions in the town where he's staying, and he meets a young woman who buys a 250-year-old chart. Naturally, this leads to a confrontation with a bad guy, and Coy winds up helping the young woman decipher what the chart means, and recover what it leads to.

There are several problems with this. First, the author in previous books has had plot twists and murky happenings. In this volume (as in The Fencing Master, which I read just before this) there are no twists like that, so the author seems to feel he has to replace them with something. As a result, the prose here is, at times, so overwritten and dense you wonder if he intended for anyone to read it. Paragraphs sometimes (I'm not exaggerating) stretch past two pages in length. Plot digressions (where the author stops the narrative to ruminate about something) sometimes last for most of a chapter. The conceit of this is that the book is actually written by a narrator (a minor character from the end of the book) and he is presented as an insufferable pedant. This explains why the character is this way, but not why the author decided to write the book in this fashion.

Those objections aside, The Nautical Chart is a good story, and a decent book. I did enjoy it, and am going to go looking for The Seville Communion, the one in the series I missed.

Rating:
Summary: Good, and Almost Great
Review: A fun story of modern treasure hunters looking for an 18th century ship full of emeralds off the coast of Spain. Perez-Reverte has done his homework and packs in lots of fun nautical and historical details. Lovers of sea stories will enjoy. He's an intelligent writer and doesn't underestimate his reader. On the other hand, the prose tends to be a bit flabby. With long paragraphs in which, quite literally, the same sentence can be rephrased and repeated three or four times. Ideas (particularly about the personalities of the main characters and about the sea) can be repackaged and rewritten a half a dozen times. The author (or translator) has inexplicably fallen in love with the word "chimera", using it over and over. The writing is often self-conscious, and late in the book, the "narrator" suddenly introduces himself and interferes in the plot, though he admits that he knew nothing about the characters and didn't meet them until late in the game -- making a reader wonder how he knew the information he ostensibly narrates early on. The characters, despite the long passages devoted to drawing them out, still come across as a bit thin and undeveloped. The reason is that they aren't exposed to many different situations, so readers can't see how they respond to the range of experiences in a real person's life. Finally, the ending is a bit of a disappointment. Predictable --no twists here-- and over in a flash.

So, this is hardly the perfect novel, but it's fun and engaging and written for the educated reader.

Rating:
Summary: Not Perez-Reverte's Best!
Review: After Perez-Reverte's THE FENCING MASTER, I must admit I was up for a really good read. But this one didn't keep that promise. Well, of course, a batter doesn't get a hit every time he's up and I suppose that is the case even with a skilled writer like Mr. Perez-Reverte.

This tale starts with Manuel Coy, merchant seaman and pilot fallen on hard times, having been banned from the sea for two years, standing and clutching a bloody wound as the narrator introduces him and his story. But the narrator, himself, remains invisible to us until the last quarter of the book . . . and doesn't count for very much, when he finally does appear. In fact he barely plays any role in the tale at all, so it's not entirely clear why Perez-Reverte thought he needed such a distracting device.

Worse, the story the narrator is ostensibly telling us contains so many private incidents, which he could not possibly have been privy to, that his role as a recounter of these events strikes one as terminally odd. Either he's a liar or a spinner of fantasies, though when we finally meet him, there is no reason to think he is either. If he had not faded thankfully from view once more at the end, his presence surely would have ruined the entire wrap-up. But, in fact, at the end, our barely visible narrator is nowhere to be seen, gratefully forgotten by the author . . . just as he had been for the bulk of the tale.

Still, despite the fact that this story is often very slow going with a great deal of digression and seemingly irrelevant information thrown our way, an overly long slog to find the object of the search, and a singularly dull protagonist (Coy is forever attacking the other side in bloody dust-ups when they get together for various "peaceful" confabs . . . in fact he does it so often you have to wonder how dumb these clever, professional treasure hunters can possibly be, given their persistent failure to anticipate Coy's predictable attacks) . . . despite all of this, I have to say that the story still kept my attention, though I did tend to pick it up and put it down quite a bit more than I usually do when reading a good book.

The fact that Coy lusts after Tanger seems to be the only thing driving him and this, combined with his brutal conferencing methods, makes one wonder why she even keeps him around. Even he wonders about this himself, almost incessantly actually, though it doesn't seem to deter him or make him any more aware of his situation. In fact, Tanger's almost complete indifference to him, even after they seem to have hit it off, has to make you wonder just how dumb Coy can be. True, he's portrayed as a simple sailor, uneducated in all but the ways of the sea, but he seems abnormally dull, even for that. Even El Piloto, his old mate, seems to be sharper than he is.

The final denouement picks up the story's pace again, though the outcome is not particularly satisfying. It brings us back to Coy clutching at his bloody wound, having shown us how he got to that point . . . but it leaves us with no real sense that anything has really happened besides the landlocked sailor's brief excursion into the mysteries of other human beings which continue, at the end, to confound him. What Coy takes away from it all seems to be little more than the wound in his side, the blood running down his legs, and continued confusion.

And yet, despite the sometimes overly detailed facts about sea life, and the novel's faltering about midway though, it recovers at the end as we learn the secret in the story of the "knights and knaves." I won't tell you what that's about . . . but the book will if you want to try one of Perez-Reverte's less successful efforts. It is readable if you've the patience for it.

SWM

Rating:
Summary: Is the Treasure Worth the Risk?
Review: Coy was the first mate on a ship that went down and though it wasn't his fault, he's had his seaman's license suspended for two years, so he's adrift on the land when he wanders into a maritime auction in Barcelona where he sees Tanger Soto, a beautiful woman, outbid the furious, pony-tailed Nino Palermo, the proprietor of a maritime salvage operation and a man to be reckoned with, for a two-hundred-year-old nautical chart.

Tanger is a curator at Madrid's Naval Museum and has just acquired the chart used by the Jesuits on their ship the Del Gloria, which was sunk by pirates off the Spanish coast in 1767. There was treasure aboard, or so she tells Coy, who throws in with her against Palermo and his diminutive, shadowy Argentinian henchman Kiskoros in the search to find it.

However finding the sunken ship is not an easy task, Coy and Tanger have to decipher documents that are over two centuries old, estimate where the ship went down, figure out how to get down to her and did I mention that it's against the law in Spain to make off with sunken treasure, so they have the authorities to worry about as well, along with Palermo and Kiskoros. This all combines to make an excellent read and to top it off Perez-Reverte has thrown in enough historical detail to authenticate his tale, a tale told in such a way that you find yourself tasting the salty air the hunters seek the Del Gloria.

Rating:
Summary: Good but Flawed
Review: Good read. The characters are a bit thin and predictable, but it's fun.

Rating:
Summary: What can I say? I liked it.
Review: I almost feel guily for the fact that I very much enjoyed this book. As I was reading it, I had a nagging sense pulling at me that it simply was not up to the author's standards, and I knew that if I thought hard about it, I would figure out why. But I kept turning the pages and kept eating it up.

On reflection, there's a lot not to like about this book. The protaganist is not particularly likeable. I wanted to like him, but he kept doing stuff that made it hard for me. Why, for example, did he seem to want to keep beating people up? It didn't seem consistent with his character. And why should I care about him at all when the other human who seems to motivate virtually all of his behavior, which I don't care for in the first place, is basically reprehensible and actually doesn't even sound nearly as physically attractive as he seems to find her? Enough with her stinking freckles already. And what's up with the odd sadistic little dwarf? Was it necessary to make him so odd to drive the plot? And why does the circumstances of the death of a dog seem to motivate so much activity in the novel, and if it does, shouldn't he have been developed a little more? One minute he's sitting on a guy's lap licking his hand and then poof he's dead, and then our unlikeable hero is losing his mind because of that fact, and then later, loses his mind again when he learns a little secret about the timing of the dog's death. And what on earth am I to make of the whole back story of the shipwreck that led to the events in the novel? The details, while mildly interesting, don't seem to have very much to do with what's going on in the present day in the novel, but I'm treated to about 100 pages about how the whole thing went down. Why? And what's with all the Moby Dick references? Coy is not Ishmael, nobody seems particularly Ahab-like, there's no analog for the big white whale, and that which eveyone is searching for is eventually found. So why all the Moby references? The author's obsession to convince us that he had spent many months researching things nautical comes off as contrived and not natural; like a guy who has just learned some French and so goes out of his way to speak it in your presence where it's not necessary. (I get it, I get it, Arturo, there are no ropes on a boat. Lines, dang it, lines!) And how is it that our narrator, a bit player who wasn't involved in 97 percent of the events described in the novel, has such a vivid understanding of all the grisly details, down to the exact nature and character of the fluids that mark the lovemaking that dominates the second half of the novel.

So, as you can see, these are real problems. And not negligible ones.

But, dang it if I still didn't really really like this book. Not sure I can explain why. I liked the places it took me. I ultimately liked the theme of the guy who was competent and secure at sea but was a complete mess on land. I got into the detective aspect of the search and the nautical calculations -- and this is plainly the area where this author is at his finest. The most likeable character -- the Pilot -- was very refreshing, albeit in a I-won't-develop-this-guy-very-much-because-heaven-forbid-you-should-actually-like-someone-in-this-novel kind of way.

The Nautical Chart for me was almost the exact opposite of The Club Dumas. With that book, as I was reading it, I was in the back of my mind simply amazed at the skill of the author, his complete control, the mastery of the subject and backstory and the weaving of a complicated, multi-track tale. But, at the end of the day, I didn't really care for the Club Dumas and was unsatisfied at the end (uh oh, now I'm going to get some "unhelpfuls" for sure). With this book, I was constantly aware of its problems as I was reading, but read the final page with a big smile on my face.

What can I say? There it is.

Rating:
Summary: Good story for sea-lovers
Review: I have always loved stories related to the sea, and so this book appealed to me from the start. The premise is good: a grounded sailor develops a quick crush on a mysterious blonde he encounters at a maritime objects auction in Barcelona. He goes after her in Madrid and discovers she is looking for a sunken XVIII century ship, which should be buried under the sea outside the Mediterranean Spanish coast. And, she happens to be in need of someone with time and deep knowledge of the seas. Coy, the sailor, signs for the deal, not least because by now he is madly in love with her, Tangier. But it happens that there is someone else in search for the enigmatic ship, this time a professional treasure-hunter from Gibraltar, a man who has a very dangerous sidekick, an Argentinian ex-torturer. Coy recruits his old buddy, the Pilot, to take them in his boat and go looking for the ship. Why this ship attracts so many attention I will not spoil for you, but it is an interesting and exciting tale. Some reviewers complain about the long discussions on things maritime, but I tended to like them.

The book's strong points: the link to an ancient adventure and the historical background. Perez Reverte does his homework and is very good at surrounding his tales with historical roots. That gives the present-day adventure an epic aura. The political intrigue surrounding the historical event is another thing Perez Reverte likes to do and is good at. One further strong point that should be remarked, since it gives the book much of its appeal, is the author's ability to vividly depict places. Of course he has the advantage of locating his story in beautiful towns of Southern Spain, which hardly need any embellishment, and especially in Cartagena, where Perez Reverte himself was born and obviously knows very well. Plus, the story is ingenious.

Unfortunately, the book has one weak point, but one that is crucial in distinguishing a good novel from a great work of art. In fact, it is the cornerstone of great literature: the characters. The best-crafted character is the main one, Coy, a likable loser and basically a good and brave man. It is obvious, and the author makes no secret of it, that this character was inspired by Conrad's Lord Jim, but without the tragic, Shakespearean overtones. But most of his expressions are cliches. Nevertheless, I think every reader will root for Coy. The woman, on the other hand, is totally unlikeable. She's not even sexy. Another reviewer here was right when he thought of her as a spoiled little brat. I didn't want her to win. As a character, she's flat as flat can be. The Pilot is commonplace tough-but-good-guy, a wise old man. And the bad guys seem to jump right out of a Disney movie. The boss would be a wolf and the Argentinian a bad rat. They are the weakest point of the book.

Anyway, it's a good entertainment but don't look here for the great literary achievement.

Rating:
Summary: tedious
Review: On average, I read 2-3 books a week, but I've been trying to get through this mess for a month now and am only half finished. I normally like Perez-Reverte...especially Club Dumas and the Flanders Panel, and I was looking for another such literary romp. I don't know if the new translator is inept or if the original material is really this hopeless, but it isn't doing anything to brighten the darkest days of winter. I find that I could not possibly care less if the protagonists find the sunken ship or any meaning to their self-centered lives. I almost always finish the books I start, but I'll be making an exception for this drivel.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging, but not Amazing
Review: Perez-Reverte's literary mysteries, as wonderful and entertaining as they tend to be, all follow a somewhat similar template, one that is faithfully reproduced here. It all starts with a somewhat highbrow subject-chess and painting restoration in The Flanders Panel, antiquarian books in The Club Dumas, the Vatican and Catholicism in The Seville Communion, fencing in the Fencing Master-which is represented here by cartography and sailing. Then he adds a hero who is an expert in the subject, and somewhat of a loner, removed from the mundane world around him or her. The expert/hero is activated by powerful persons whose interest in the hero's area of expertise is ultimately revealed to be linked to some murky historical episode which proves vital to the story. And finally there is a ending that is often surprising or ambiguous. That this template works over and over is a testament both to the skill with which Pérez-Reverte weaves his plots, and to his ability to carry the reader deep into the details of whatever subject happens to be the focus of that book.

In this book, Pérez-Reverte presents a fairly compelling hero, Coy, a born to the ocean, jazz loving sailor at loose ends. He's quickly embroiled in a treasure hunt led by the beautiful and always in control Tanger, who's in a race with a slimy Gibralterian professional treasure hunter and his sadistic Argentine dwarf enforcer. Simpler than any of his previous books, the story both directly and indirectly references the Dashed Hammett classic, The Maltese Falcon. As in that tale, most of the suspense is created by lack of information, which is slowly released to Coy in dribs and drabs, as well as the question of who's double-crossing who. This makes the main characters conversations a shade too melodramatic at times to be realistic, but this is balanced by his naunced capturing of Coy's total attraction to Tanger and her manipulation of it.

As so much of the book involves Coy and Tanger crouched over old maps, or discussing them, one wishes the publisher would have included some reproductions to help the reader out. Similarly, it would have helped a great deal to have an illustration of the two maint ships being hunted for, as there are pages upon pages describing their duel. This is rather frustrating, as without some basic knowledge of sailing and its terms, the reader is unlikely to be able to follow chunks of the writing. The book takes a bit too long to get going, although when it does, it is quite suspenseful, although the clues are a little more visible than usual in Pérez-Reverte's work. Unfortunately the ending doesn't live up to its buildup, and one suspects this eminently filmable thriller will have its climax tweaked for the big screen. All in all, it's not among his best, but still entertaining and highly readable.