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Summary: very different from and better than the movie
Review: I went to go see the movie when it first came out and had mixed impressions. I liked the portrayal of fisherman culture and attention to technical detail, but was quickly bored with special effects and felt I that the setup of the characters was to quick to get too emotionally involved to get any adrenaline out of the whole life or death situation.Shortly after that, at a friend's prompting, I read the book and found it to be really cool. Junger gets you really involved in all the detail of the fisherman's trade. He get's you emotionally involved because of facts of what happened, not speculation. It's a great book, whether or not you saw the movie.
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Summary: -
Review: All true stories should be as powerful as fiction. This one surpasses it.
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Summary: A whole chapter on drowning?
Review: A whole chapter on on the agony of drowning? Too technical for me----not enough dialogue. More of a "guy" book.
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Summary: A bumpy ride
Review: I really had mixed feelings about this book. The first half (or more) of the book kept putting me to sleep with boredom. But once the storm really hit and the action began, I couldn't put it down. The biggest problem I faced with this book was Junger's writing style. He skips a lot to the past and accounts of other boats. While this may be interesting, I kept getting confused as to if we were in the past or the present. I often found myself rereading passages to follow with what was taking place. Overall, I would reccomend the book, since Junger really gave a great insight to a true story of mens survival in this terrible storm.
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Summary: Awash in an ocean of tangents...
Review: Man Against Nature is always an interesting topic and Junger certainly covers many aspects of it, but this story is unfocused and poorly edited. The "Andrea Gail" incident is only one of many loose threads covered in the detail-burdened narrative. A major storm is the picture of chaos - a book should not be!
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Summary: Extraordinary, compelling read
Review: I read The Perfect Storm last fall and just saw the movie two weeks ago. A film rarely lives up to the calibur of the original book, and although I think Wolfgang Peterson did a decent job with the film (good special effects), I encourage everyone to read Junger's book. It is an extraordinary, powerful account. Reviewer "john l. hardy iv" shares some insightful comments below. I couldn't say it any better than he does. The Perfect Storm was indeed an intense reading experience for me, and I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Not a beach book, but worth it
Review: A meteorologist in my organization recommended this book and this should have tipped me off that this was not a beach book. This story of a real life event, in which the ship Andrea Gail and other ships get caught in the "storm of the century" is a detailed, serious read. You should not try to read this in snatches, a few pages at a time or you will be lost. It is worth it to read several chapters at a time to learn about the hard life of swordfisherman by stepping into the shoes of the 6 men on the Andrea Gail. I recommend that if you are not interested in all the detail provided by the author, that you at least skim to capture the flavor of this way of life and feel what they must have experienced during that last, fatal cruise.
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Summary: The PERFECT Book
Review: This book not only gives detailed factual information on the Andrea Gail tragedy. It provides excellent, detailed information on rescue procedures, the difficulties of Coast Guards. It also provides information on lots of other boats that got into difficulties during that storm.
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Summary: there's no "there" there
Review: As a sailor I was looking forward to this well publicized book... It was a bitter disappointment. It is not a novel, nor is it novel. It isn't even a story... It is a description of events coupled with the author's best guess musings about what people who died might have done and thought in their last hours. My husband thinks, without bothering to read it yet, that maybe it's a book that would only appeal to men, but I wouldn't even have made it a book; at best, it should have been harshly edited down and published in a specialized magazine for people interested in commercial fishing by rather sad people.
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Summary: I'll Never Trust The Sea As Much As Before!
Review: One word describes my review of "The Perfect Storm", and that is AMAZING. In my life, I have not been a hard-core reader, but now, since I have read this book, I can honestly say that I look and read books at a completely, but yet better perspective. "The Perfect Storm" is an extremely well written book. If you read this book, your understanding of how powerful the ocean can really get will come to life. While I was reading this book, I felt that I was really there, and that I was part of this book. If you do read this book you will never look at the ocean the same way. I am pleading you to purchase this book. If you do, You will not be disappointed. You will not want to put this book down once you start to read it!
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