Rating: 
Summary: Is The Book So Perfect.....?
Review: Well, i saw the movie and i loved it and all. well my friend had the book so i thought it must be interestin too. boy that was a shocker when it wasn't that great. i think you would like this book if you like to have a lot of information on what you are reading about. this gives it. i never did finish the whole book yet. and i don't think i plan on it. i never got even two-thirds of the way throu. i did get about half way throu and as far as i could tell it wasn't gettin any faster. i didn't mind it so much thou. i just wish it had a little more action because thats what you would think right? yes! don't get your hopes to high but i person that has the time would love to read it. i am sure it gets better thou. i have to give the author some credit thou because he went throu a lot of work to find out all the information and i always wonder about some of those things and how he know the answer. i do have to say i did like the movie better thou. it had more action. i think thou for that book he did a really good job even thou i didn't really like it. o well. i think you should give it a try thou. go for it i dare you! i think this would be a great book to take with you and read if you were goin camping or something where you have a lot of quite time to yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: The Perfect Storm = near perfect read
Review: For someone who almost never reads anything but novels, The Perfect Storm is proof that well-crafted nonfiction can be a better 'page-turner' than the best suspense novels. Sebastian Junger does an excellent job is describing the lives of New England fishermen, their families, and the entire saga played out in the North Atlantic when two ferocious storms collided. Folks, especially fishermen and sailors, who are often at sea will really enjoy all the minute tidbits of information re: fishing and fishing vessels. However folks who haven't been on the ocean will probably dislike The Perfect Storm because of this exhaustive information.The Perfect Storm really opened my eyes with regards to the risks fisherman take just to earn some money. I also now have a tremendous appreciation for Coast Guard rescue teams. Of course I didn't learn much at all about the swordfishing boat (Andrea Gail) during its ill-fated voyage, but the author does what he could to surmise what might have happened considering no living person knows what actually happened. My only niggly complaint of The Perfect Storm is Junger's slight tendency to delve into tabloid journalism. Too many weepy comments are extracted from missing (presumed deceased) fishermen's wives just to tug at the heart strings of the reader. I really thought Junger went too far when he relates the dream, as heard from one of these wives, of a lost fisherman's infant son. The author also has a tendency of describing certain folks, especially those ill-fated fishermen, as being "ruggedly handsome". I really wonder how the author's subjective view of these people's appearance has anything to do with .. anything? Quibbles aside, I enjoyed The Perfect Storm very much indeed. As Moby Dick is the definitive piece of maritime fiction, The Perfect Storm holds it for non-fiction.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Storm or the Not so Perfect Storm
Review: The book, The Perfect Storm is a true story about a sword fishing boat that was send out in the sea late in the season, because it's last catch was not good enough. The captain was getting a hard talk from his boss because he was not pulling in as much fish as his other boats. This is where it all turns wrong. Where their normal fishing spot wasn't good enough for the amount of fish they have to catch, so they have to head out further to sea. When out at sea the ship and crew face many problems. Just as they were done and had the catch of their life time they set back home. They never saw the storm coming or shall I saw both storms coming.
Rating: 
Summary: The Perfect Story.
Review: As a Minnesotan, I recall the great Halloween storm of 1991, a full-blown blizzard with gale force winds, sub-zero windchill, and nineteen inches of snow. My kids remember it as "the Halloween that never was." As fate would have it, this massive front blew east and eventually collided in the North Atlantic with two other patterns, one of which was a hurricane coming up from the Caribbean. This clashing triad of weather phenomena resulted in the storm of the century--perhaps the storm of the millennium--what Junger calls The Perfect Storm. While Minnesota's youth lamented the loss of candy (since the weather prevented them from trick-or-treating) a small group of commercial fishermen lost their lives. This is an absolutely gripping tale of true-life adventure, tragedy, heroism, and fate. Crafted with just the right amount of scientific background on the nature of weather and the business of swordfishing, Junger drives the story forward with a mastery of chronology and understatement. I was shocked that rescue efforts would proceed in conditions so horrific that 100-foot waves would rip buoys from their anchor. I was captivated by Junger's rendering of the Coast Guard helicopter crew's plight, and awed by their courage and professionalism. His description of them bailing out into those seas had me holding my breath and bracing for impact. This one deserves its broad appeal. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.
Rating:
Summary: A Storm of Nuclear Proportion.......
Review: I'm from a small New England town just south of Gloucester and this book brought me back to the days when my husband and many of my friends were fishermen. Working on a Swordfish boat was the best money to be had, but the life was demanding when faced by the elements and fourteen to sixteen hour days, it could be feast or famine. Jungar has written an intelligent and scientifically based book that gives us a glimpse at the final days of a crew of men who are swallowed up by nature herself. The competition is stiff, and the demand to produce results is placed on the head of the Captain of the Andrea Gail, which leads him to go out on a fishing trip late in the season. When the catch is not up to standards they move on to an area that is beyond the bounds of comfort, in hopes of fulfilling these expectations. What follows is a storm of nuclear proportion leaving them with little chance of survival. The author's explanation of the end, for this fated crew and ship, was extremely moving as well as technical. He clearly filled me with the terror they must have felt as they realized there was no going back and death was imminent. A memorable book that left me yearning for a clear day, a warm breeze, and calm seas. 12/23/00
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Storm
Review: The book, The Perfect Storm is a true story about a swordfishing boat out at sea late in the season because it's last catch was not good enough. The captain decided that where they normally fishing spot wasn't good enough for the amount of fish they have to catch, so they have to head out further to sea.When out at sea the ship and crew face many problems to say the least, including what is called the "perfect storm". This book was interesting and was high paced. If this sounds like a book that would interest you I highly recommend The Perfect Storm.
Rating:
Summary: Movie Was Better
Review: Although I regret not reading the book before seeing the movie, Sebastian Junger's work has no sense of continuity. Junger keeps interupting events with a boorish amount of details which although helpful to know - detract from the force of the story. Junger should have kept minor relevant details such as training for air - sea rescue and ships' technical peripheral or simply used very little of it at all. Junger tries to tell the full stories of several ships involved in the storm at the same time. This is very difficult because it also adds to the problem of smooth reading. The book appears written as a docudrama but fails terribly. Several times I found myself at one point engrossed in the drama being played out at sea, and then suddenly side tracked as if watching a t v show and interuppted by a senseless, almost unrelated commercial. Junger would have been better off if he had written a fictional work based on the history of "the Perfect Storm". I could not help comparing this book to Herman Meliville's Moby Dick, where again the movie is much better than a book laden down with details. The book is easy enough to read but one looses any sense of sympathy for the victims in learning as in Meliville's Moby Dick, the crew is not exactly America's finest. Rather, as in Moby Dick, they are a hapless lot just getting by from one day to the next, so desperate for a quick fix they risk life and limb - rather than settle down like city or country folk tethered to a 40 to 50 hour work weeks with wife, kids, cars, and mortgage. Even so, the crews of ships like the Andrea Gail and the Hannah Boden live a life which I - a factory worker - wish I had the guts to try. Yes, there's injury and death at sea, but it beats getting hurt or killed by some reckless driver in a car or being robbed at gun point!
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Storm
Review: Everyone says that you should always read the book before you see the movie and with this book it absolutely true. I'm not saying that it was a bad book, I thought that it was great, but i just had different expectations of it. In watching the movie first I got all of the action and then reading the book I got the background and all of the techincal stuff that would have just made the movie drag on. Even though no one really knows what happened to the men on the Andrea Gail, the heartbreaking stories told by the family members and the horrifying tales fisherman and boaters that lived through the nightmare of the storm told, you can just imagine what they went through. 1000 foot tankers not being able to be controlled in 100 mph winds and 40-60 foot seas. The Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa trying to rescue a down helecopter crew in waves that could flip the 200 foot boat over at anytime are just a couple of the horrifying accounts that are explained in this book. At times the book did drag a little through all of the technical terms, but i think that it was necessary to explain the true severity of the storm. I did not want to put this book down and at the end, with tears in my eyes I was wishing that there was more.
Rating: 
Summary: Tepid, directionless, and unmoving writing
Review: I have read books before about men fighting for survival, challenging their odds in times of peril, and so on, which I have, for the most part, enjoyed thoroughly. The Perfect Storm, however, has left me with an unforgetable change of emotion toward these books, which taught me the lesson that, Yes, Non-fiction survival/action books can be boring too! It was unmoving and painfully boring at most times. The plot-less Perfect Storm barely even left the ground; it's text-book factual and unemotional style, conveyed throughout most of the novel, left me fighting for consciousness. As the "action" began, Junger continued to slip into lenghthy, monotonous lapses of desperately poor suspense and incoherent sea-jargon. The story did, however, slip into mild aberrations of quality suspense at times. When Shatford was thrown into the ocean, I'll admit I was caught into the action for a moment, and when the "perfect storm" was initially introduced, I was a little interested to see what would happen--not that I sort of already knew! Some of the historical background provided in the first couple of chapters was, infact, mildly interesting despite it's consistent written nature of rambling. Junger's portrayal of the fishermen's life--whether conveyed truthfully or satirised and exaggerated--was entertaining. Never-the-less, I still stand firmly by my initial stance of disapproval toward the Perfect Storm. I wouldn't recommend this book to survival/action novel fan's. Or, then again, maybe I would; maybe it would tell you the same thing, that Yes, Non-fiction survival/action books can be boring too!
Rating:
Summary: Maybe it's a guy thing...
Review: ...but every man I know who read this book loved it, and every woman I know hated it! Sexist opening aside, "The Perfect Storm" started fairly strong and then lost me about half-way through. I pressed on, hoping for the payoff other readers had promised. I was disappointed. The writing is passable but not stellar. The character development is folksy and familiar (having lived on Cape Ann) at the start. Then the story gets bogged down in technical, nautical details about storms, drowning and the rescue. I found it frustrating and strangely boring, as I did watching "Titanic." In this case, everybody drowns. FYI: The movie version of "Storm" is even worse than the book.
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