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Summary: What do we think we know?
Review: That's the question to ask when reading a book like this or A Night to Remember. Science makes us certain until it proves us wrong. Tragedy on a grand scale. You won't be able to forget some of the images. Picture a wall of debris that plows over a city. Good retelling of a story many of us had never been aware of before.
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Summary: Gripping real-life disaster
Review: The Galveston Storm of 1900 was the worst natural disaster in the history of the U.S. Best estimates place the death toll at 6000. This book details the naivete, pride, and ignorance which was prevalent in the Weather Bureau at this time and which resulted in a city which was totally unprepared for such an emergency. The best weather minds of the time wrote learned papers which detailed why such a thing could never happen in Galveston. The US Weather Bureau, in an attempt to establish its own credibility, refused to use or acknowledge information which was available from Cuban weather forecasters. The book describes the small amount of knowledge which was part of forecasting in those days and describes in detail the actual causes of a storm such as the cataclysmic one described in the book. Isaac Cline, the head of the Galveston Weather Bureau at the time, is described as a proud man who mirrored his employers' opinion that hurricanes would never hit Galveston with the fury of the Storm of 1900. He failed to warn the city in time for escape of its inhabitants partly from pride and partly from lack of knowledge. The best part of the book is the actual description of the storm and the hours before it hit, as the narrative follows the everyday activities of several inhabitants and then the terrible struggle to survive. This is a well-researched and documented book and is a good resource for anyone interested in this subject.
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Summary: Absolutely Boring
Review: Geez, I could even get through two chapters. It's like reading a poem. ah, it's awful.
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Summary: Terrible time -- Wonderful words
Review: The best of the post Moby Dick books of 1999-2000. Larson tells a terrifying story of general and specific hubris of 1900 Galveston in the best style of any of the recent sea stories. As another century turns, may we learn a lesson from this well-crafted tale.
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Summary: Old hurricane is not just that much hot air. A great story.
Review: Isaac's Storm is a book about a storm that fills itself out with a wide array of information, and fill is necessary as the storm, as dramatic as it was, is a short story and the book is a novel. The fill is not irrelevant, or tedious but lends itself to the story, especially as this is as much a story of an emerging Weather Service, as that of Isaac Cline, and the hurricane of 1900. Various reviewers, here, have mentioned the Titanic disaster and the reference is apt, for it is the arrogance, and conceit of such men as Isaac Cline, as well as Mr. Ismay of the White Star Line (God himself could not sink this ship) that made these disasters possible. But, as Mr. Larson strives to make clear, it wasn't one man's world. Mr. Cline (and Ismay) were products of an era of human achievement in iron, steam and in the engineering that made it so, that led to the belief then held that we were growing to a position above nature. That Nature was increasingly avoidable, or at least, manageable. All of this would be just a National Geographic essay if Mr. Larson didn't weave the facts and artifacts into a story that begs reading. He describes the color of the sky, the size of the breakers rolling ashore, and the absurd (from our vantage point)reaction they stir among the Galvestonites. Then, of course, the darkness of the storm, and the horror that a wall of water can create when it weaves together all the bits and pieces of life that, in a different semblance, would be called civilization, and uses it to destroy that civilization. That the arriving ships would see the corpses floating in the water only furthers the comparison with the Titanic disaster and its aftermath. It's too bad that Galveston raised itself by 15 feet. I'd have liked to have gone there to investigate, to see what survived from that period. But, like the 1906 earthquake,& the fire that followed that wiped all that was off the map,Galveston of today is an entirely different place. This was a very good read, entertaining and informative. I'd like to see the movie, but I don't think that Hollywood is up to it.
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Summary: What a wonderful book! I couldn't put it down!!
Review: This was a wonderful and informative book. Once I began reading it, I could not put it down. I am making my husband read it now so that I will have someone to discuss it with. My husband and I went to Galveston for our vacation earlier this year. While reading the story, I was able to picture exactly where the story was taking place and what the character might have seen on the day of the deadliest hurricane. I did not realize until I read the book how the Weather Bureau played such an important role in this hurricane. If you visit Galveston, you can see a short film about this hurricane but it does not really touch on the Weather Bureau and their role in Issac's storm. I think that the scariest part of the book for me was when Galveston residents see that the water in the town has risen 4 feet in about 4 seconds. I am only 5'3" and once I began to imagine how far the water would come up to on me, it really gave me perspective into how scared the residents must have been. If you read any book at all this year, make it this one! Not only is the book educational but it is also a well written story.
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Summary: Gulf Coast's Island Titanic
Review: Larson provides a great mix of biography, history, politics, science and human interest. The book is full of thoroughly-researched and interesting detail, though it may bog down a bit in some of the very detailed personal accounts. Overall a great read.The story of Galveston near the turn of the century -- before the Storm -- is intriguing: but for the Storm, Galveston would be bigger than Houston. The theme of the book is that the hubris of the era led to an assumption of invincibility. So the high-living decadence that was Galveston continued even as disaster would have loomed large to anyone willing to look. No one headed for higher ground 'til it was too late, because the folks in charge (including Isaac)had determined that they could forecast any storm and that, in any event, no hurricane could damage Galveston. I found the parallels to the Titanic story striking, though never discussed in the book.
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Summary: Nail-Biting, Non-Ficition Drama
Review: Issac's Storm meets all of the qualifications of a great work of fiction with rich characters, an engrossing setting, tremendous drama, and a lesson for us all. What is so satisfying about Erik Larson's story about the 1900 Galveston, Texas hurricane is that it is all true. Although Mr. Larsen supports his work with extensive research, his storytelling is superb. Issac's Storm is informative and emotional. The reader knows more about science, but also a great deal about human behavior. The tragedy is clear from the beginning, but the tension is gripping throughout. Fact is often stranger than fiction, but rarely as enjoyable as Issac's Storm.
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Summary: the perfect storm meets turn of the century Texas
Review: I too am a storm junkie -- not that I want to live through any natural disaster, but I sure do like reading about them. For others who share this passion for armchair extreme adventures, this book is for you. The opening chapters about the weather service are a little dry, but once the storm begins, it becomes a real page turner. The author does a fantastic job of using letters, photographs and journals to create a minute by minute recreation of the tensest moments of this tremendous storm. As one incredible surge brings the tide up FOUR feet in one minute, you will find yourself looking around your own house for safe harbor. You also get an interesting look at Galveston in 1900 and America in general. History buffs will find it fascinating reading -- kind of like a disaster oriented Time and Again (Jack Finney). Also interesting is the sub plot and human drama that frames the whole book -- Isaac and his brother Joseph have a major falling out that ends with them never speaking again. No coincidence that they were both rivals as weather predictors. I think I've hit just about ever disaster books, and along with The Godforsaken Sea, this is one of the best written and most gripping.
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Summary: Just to inform...
Review: Just felt like telling everybody that the 1900 storm was NOT the deadliest hurricane in history. Well, it's the deadliest hurricane in American history, but many more people have died from other storms, like a storm that killed 160,000 people. The 1900 storm killed 6,000 people. Just thought I'd tell people. I didn't read the book though, but one of my teachers was lecturing us about this so...
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