Rating: 
Summary: Much better than I had expected
Review: I didn't think that I would like this book. I had heard that Junger had posed with his shirt off for People magazine and I thought that he must be some lightweight puff. But the book is very well written and well researched. For those of us who sit behind desks all day there is a certain romanticism in this type of life. But when you read what these guys go through on a typical fishing run the fantasy is quickly dispelled.Once you are through with this read Linda Greenlaw's The Hungry Ocean. Not as compelling a story as Junger's but very good.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read for all boaters
Review: This rivetting book is hard to put down. As a recreational boater in the Northeast, it gave me added respect for what mother nature can do and what brave men and their boats can and cannot endure. The technical information on marine engineering and meteorology was educational and helped disperse some of the inherent tension in reading about a doomed this voyage. On the negative side, I think it portrayed commercial fishermen and their families in an alarmingly bad light. I expected a politically correct whitewash of brave, strong men and their supportive families. Instead we read of high risk, alcoholic men bent on spending money as fast as they can make it, seemingly in an industry weighted heavily towards preset destinies. Their families stand by their side knowing that this job can kill them and accept it as fate. The fishermen appear to be outright losers in this cycle of high-risk month long work broken up by a few days of binge drinking and spending. In the end they are again broke, battered and destined to repeat it all again, if they survive.
Rating:
Summary: Frightful and tragic.
Review: I was prepared for a book about weather, wind, and waves. It was all of that, but mostly it was about the people caught up in a tragic natural phenomenon. The author's research was thorough and results in a multidimensional description of the persona and the events of this true story. As a side effect of experiencing this gripping tale, the reader learns a lot about the details of long lining for swordfish a thousand miles from home port. There's the stuff for many nightmares in this book, but it's well worth the risk to enjoy the account.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Story!
Review: I read The Perfect Storm in every spare moment that I had. It is a wrenching story that grabs your interest immediately. Like watching the Titanic, all the while knowing the ship goes down, my heart ached for those men and their families as the book unfolds to its tragic end. Junger paints a vivid picture of Gloucester and its people. These fishermen are brave beyond belief. It must be in their blood, as no amount of money could entice the average person to face the dangers that they face. Granted, I did not understand all of the technical information included in this book and would have appreciated a diagram of the boat to help me out, but I found what I did understand to be completely fascinating. I learned things I never knew about fish, fishermen, the ocean, boats and the destructive forces of nature. I felt like I was out there on the sea with those men, and I was terrified. What more can you ask from a book than to learn something and be entertained completely? I will persuade everyone I can to read this book. I can't wait to read Linda Greenlaw's The Hungry Ocean, which I was given as a companion book to The Perfect Storm.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book that doesn't pretend to know everything
Review: We'll never know exactly what happened during the last hours aboard The Andrea Gail swordfish boat but, after reading this book, I'm not sure that matters. All I know for sure is that, upon finishing the story, I felt a kinship with people I've never met, empathy for the sorrow their loved ones now feel, and admiration for those who risk their lives everyday--either to bring in the fish, or to save those who do. I'd recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in the sea--however alien it may be from their own experience.
Rating:
Summary: Guts and Endurance...the Glouchester fisherman's gear
Review: The more you read the more you are drawn into the the power and destruction of the storm that surrounds Glouchester - the families, crew members and rescue teams. Just when you think you've survived the worst of the storm (because by then you are right in there with the rest of the town) you find yourself hanging on another gut-wrenching scene. A saga that brings together technical sea faring knowledge, the incredible lives of these fisherman, and some amazing human courage.
Rating:
Summary: Unique and Authentic.
Review: I am a deck hand on an off-shore crab boat. This book is one of the very, very few that gets what its like to be out there. Most books, articles and experts about fishing are, in my experience, failures in their capturing of the `experience' of fishing. In fact, most writing (99%) on fishing and the fishery is given from `outsiders' who haven't experienced something of what Junger describes, and most fishermen find their theorizing patronizing (if not insulting). Fishing, like freemasonry, is an insiders experience. Outsiders are still very much outside. But a `Perfect Storm' bridges this gap. I gave a copy to my father (fisherman) and brother-in-law (fisherman), and this book has captured their imagination like none I can remember because, unlike 99% of expert drivle, it rings true to the people involved. This is an amazing achievement and a bouquet given to those who for centuries were and are seen as disposable good-for-nothings from the point of view of many landsmen. Fishers of the World Unite.
Rating: 
Summary: Info-tainment...a real dud
Review: Nice idea but not well developed..
Rating: 
Summary: not a gripping read
Review: Too many technical details about boats, swordfish, fishing bogged down this book for me. However, the writing is good and anyone more interested in such topics would enjoy this book more than I did.
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING!
Review: A great story. All the more captivating because it is true (except for Junger's recreation of the ship's foundering and crew's drowning -- necessary since none survived). This book has several great elements. A depressed community tied to a commodity industry (fishing). A historic and proud way of economic life. The adventure of the open sea. And, lastly, the indomitable ability of nature to remind man that all of our prideful accomplishments pale before her brute force. The story of the fishing industry is wonderfully rich, both in its historic development and present day practice. The book captures the gritty and raw feel for a very tough way of life. But Junger's success comes with his discription of the terrible Nor'easter that carried away the Andrea Gail, a modern fishing vessel trapped 500 miles from shore during what has been called the storm of the century. His writing is so immediate that the reader actually fears what water, wind and weather can do when unleashed in a perfect storm. You won't be able to put this down.
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