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Summary: A thrill in writing!
Review: This book was exelent and never failed to exite you. The book is so descriptive you could feal the ocean and smell the air just as if you were actually there. The bone chilling story will amase even the most unexitable reader. A thrill in writing.
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Summary: A very good book & educational for non-sailors
Review: I loved this book - I was totally engrossed by it from the moment I started reading it. I'm no book critic but I think Junger did an excellent job writing this book. This book gave me respect for the ocean, weather, and the people who have to deal with both in order to make a living. This book whet my apetite for more in it's genre which I found in Caroline Alexander's book "The Endurance : Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" which is the best book I've ever read.
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Summary: New Englanders will love it!
Review: As a fly fisherman and previous ocean-beach lifegaurd. I have always been fascinated by the power of the ocean. I have yet to read a book that describes the pure power of nature and blue water combined. The tragedy of that day and the unpredictability of the storms lets you know that we are not in control of our environment, no matter how many heaters or air conditioners you own. This author puts you in the middle of that storm on a 100 foot crest falling into an ocean hole under the crushing weight of a beam-to sea. If you like real world adventure and a spot of mystery you will love reading this.
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Summary: I give it five stars, and gladly
Review: Once I stood on the bridge of a supertanker in port and -- looking way, way down at the sea below -- commented to the captain that we must be above any possible waves up here. "I've seen this bridge awash," he said. "There's not a ship afloat that the sea can't destroy.""The Perfect Storm" brought that captain's words back to life. Junger did a craftsmanlike job of tying together a string of disasters laid at the feet of that storm, the Andrea Gail being only one of them. There's no question she was destroyed, and Junger certainly had the license to theorize how it might have happened. The account of the rescue helicopter's last flight was gripping, from takeoff through the long, futile attempt to refuel to the decision to ditch while they still had power -- a ditching under power being preferred to trying to autorotate into an unseeable sea. The graphically described ditching itself, the tenacious and courageous rescue efforts of the captain and crew of the merchant ship that saved several of the helicopter's crew. People routinely engage in horifically hazardous activities, shrug their shoulders and call them jobs -- that's the way they make their living. Several examples were graphically brought out in "The Perfect Storm." When I read about ordinary people killed when everything goes to hell while they're "just doing their jobs," they get some thoughtful sympathy from me. I really think about them and my thoughts return to them from time to time. Junger gave me a number of decent, ordinary people whose last minutes I could try to imagine, people I could really appreciate. Flying is second only to trains as the safest form of travel. But I've sat at the controls of an Aero Commander in turbulence so severe it seemed unlikely the ship could stay together. I got glimpses of the little wrinkly corrugations that occur in the skin when the wings flex more than they ought to, watched the prop spinners slamming around with shocking force in the cowlings, wondering how much the engine mounts could take, or the wings for that matter, wings that the heavy engines were torqueing so severely. I watched holes appear where rivets once were -- you knew the the airframe was weaker with the loss of every one. I was luckier than some of Junger's subjects. Nine Eleven Charlie held together, even though she suffered some awful structural damage. I think I can come close to appreciating some of the more gripping moments in "The Perfect Storm". Only close, though. I considered the book an excellent account of a complex, many faceted drama in real life, for the most part a drama of people doing their jobs, by God, right up to the bitter end. And so I think about them.
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Summary: hypothetical v.actual depiction
Review: I commend the author for his story-telling ability. However, the main aspect of the story -- the tragedy at sea -- was written in a way in which the shipwreck "probably happened". The fact that there was a horrible accident -- with no evidence except a floating empty gas can -- no one disputes, but its impossible to determine what actually occured to those men on the Andrea Gail. I got a fascinating history lesson of making a life off of the sea but not much else.
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Summary: A Fascinating Account Of Fishing And The Sea
Review: Sebastian Junger gives us much more than a good story with The Perfect Storm. He also provides us with an education on the life of a fisherman and the dangerous weather conditions of the North Atlantic. Junger shatters the romantic image of a fisherman by explaining in exquisite detail all the endless (and dangerous) tasks that must be performed on a ship. The account of setting out a swordfish "mainline" (a forty-mile fishing line containing up to 5,000 hooks and countless "nightsticks" and bobbers) makes me glad I have a desk job! The only problem I have with the book is that much of the technical jargon is not explained very well, leaving you the choice of either stopping the book to do some research or plodding on regardless. (I chose to plod on.) Had a few diagrams and a short glossary been provided, I would have gotten much more out of the book. For example, I still don't know exactly what a "whaleback" is or a "wheelhouse." The publisher would do well to include a few pages of diagrams and explanations of marine terms in subsequent editions of this book.
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Summary: A Waste of a Good Storm
Review: Sadly, this reads as a well-researched but poorly visualised piece of journalism. Something that Rolling Stone might have commissioned then had second thoughts about. Despite the wealth of detail, there's just too little feel for what a storm at sea is like, and the he-man bits about the helicopter rescuers is like something out of Tom Clancy (I mean that as an insult).
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Summary: Dreadful Bathtub Literature
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely but actually panicked in the jacuzzi while reading about the clinical aspects of drowning and wave dynamics. Read it only when warm and dry!
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Summary: a must read
Review: as an avid reader i found this book to be extremely interesting and gratifying. hooked me from the very beginning. however my husband is not as crazy about reading as i am. he started to read this book on my recomendation and never put it down until he had finished, and then lent it out to his friends with the stipulation it must be returned. we highly recommend it, we both truly enjoyed it. hailing from new bedford only enhanced it
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Summary: A re-constructed account of a tragedy at sea
Review: This is an account of the tragedy of the "Andrea Gail", a shipping vessel that was lost (together with all of its six crew members) during a freak North Atlantic storm in 1991 which reportedly whipped up winds of hurricane force and mountainous seas with waves of 100 feet in height. As none who undertook that fateful voyage survived, the author has to rely on published accounts, interviews, and experiences of other people who have survived similar storms to piece together the story. Given that there exists little concrete information as to what exactly happened that tragic night on board the "Andrea Gail", some guesswork has to be involved in order to fill in certain gaps. Indeed, the author has to digress (which he does from time to time throughout the book) and discuss about the physiological response of drowning at the point when "Andrea Gail" should meet its doom. This, no doubt, has blunted the climax of the story. Nevertheless, the author also touches upon the plight of other vessels nearby and his description of some of the action-packed rescue operations does make a thrilling read. At the end, what cast the deepest impression in my mind is the difficult and often perilous life led by some North Atlantic fishermen (described by the author in great detail) as well as the heroism of those admirable rescue personnels. These certainly have helped to bolster the contents of an account which, because of its nature, is, to a large extent, a re-construction of events based on hearsay and secondary evidence.
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