The Perfect Storm : A True Story of Men Against the Sea

Rating:
Summary: Wow! Now Here's a Book Worth Reading
Review: The LA Times had a favorable review of this book recently, so I decided to scope it out. Am I ever glad. The book is meticulously researched with detailed accounts of sword-fishing (not sword-fighting), boats, storms, and seas. However, for all the details it is fast-paced excitement. I knew how it was going to turn out, but the adventure was in the journey as I got to know the crew of the ill-fated A.G.. The National Guard participation in rescues at sea was especially interesting

Rating:
Summary: Riveting. Great Beach Book.
Review: If you have ever spent anytime offshore in a small boat, and you would like to again, don't read this book. I could not put it down. The last 100 pages are absolutely, terrifyingly brilliant. The writing is superb and Junger puts you where no man wants to go: In the middle of the "storm of the century" where people and boats are coming apart at the seams

Rating:
Summary: If you've ever been in great storm at sea, you 'LOVE it.
Review: A true story of the huge hurricane of 1991. All about the Gloucester swordfish fleet and how they fared out 1200 miles at sea in this storm that had 100 foot waves. Start reading it on a weekend because you won't put it down.

Rating:
Summary: A heart-rending account of fishermen lost at sea.
Review: An informative account of the fishing industry, and a harrowing account of what it's like to be caught in a hurricane at sea. The description of the drowning process as well as the ill-fated rescue attempt kept me reading far into the night

Rating:
Summary: Reading A Perfect Storm is like reading a modern Moby Dick.
Review: As Moby Dick tells one so much about whaling that one could practically sign on as a whaling crewman, A Perfect Storm tells so much about swordfishing one could sign on a long-line boat as a sword fisherman. Moby Dick starts with a gloomy description of the Spouter Inn in New Bedford; A Perfect Storm starts with the modern equivalent of the Crow's Nest in Glouchester. Next are wonderful, detailed chapters about the psychology of the men, and their women, the fishing boats, the storms and currents, the waves, the machinery, the rescue infrastructure and even drowning --gradually filling in the details of the Andrea Gail's doomed cruise. The prose is clear and simple, reminding me of the adventure stories in outdoor magazines (for which the author has written), or even the "true adventure" type stories of Readers' Digest. Especially if you like the ocean, this may be one of the most exciting books you will ever read, even if it does qualify as literature.

Rating:
Summary: Heart-stopping and thrilling, you'll learn about a new world
Review: The Perfect Storm is absolutely thrilling, heart-stopping look at the lives, and deaths, of Gloucester swordfishermen and their compatriots on the seas 200 miles out. How 6 fishermen lost their lives at sea 6 years ago in the "Halloween Gale", the "perfect storm" of the title, is described as fully as possible. Amazing work considering there were no survivors, and that the author had to do his research elsewhere. Before you've finished reading this book, you'll have an incredible feeling for and knowledge of the lives of these swordfishermen, and you'll virtually know what it feels like to die by drowning. Junger describes the textures of the lives of these men so well that you feel you are there.

Rating:
Summary: EVER BEEN THERE?
Review: 9 OF 10 ADVENTURE STORIES (INC. WAR STORIES)i find lacking & Mr. Junger & His perfect storm qualifies.Perhaps as a novel it would have worked but unfortunetly it isn't that! While the best combat stories are NOT always written by those who've been there(and the same holds true for sea stories etc.-)the old journalism device of "joining the brotherhood" so as to "understand & qualify" generally doesn't work here.!Had Mr Junger been a commercial fisherman some years before writing his "storm " perhaps I could be less subjective.Conrad was a seaman not because He wanted a license to write! A working Class hero is still something to be (as Mr. Lennon said so well.)---"R.V.N. COMBAT INFANTRY 68-69,TAYLOR DIVING & SALVAGE North Sea -78-79 Ocean Sailor- Force 12experience-ongoing sailor.

Rating:
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.

Rating:
Summary: Tight, quick, dramatic read
Review:
The author does a nice job and telling the story of the men who battled this storm on their fishing boat. A nice job, especially considering the author had no one to interview about the critical moments.

His detailed reporting nicely layout the setting and take us just enough into the lives of these men to make us care about the outcome.

Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Storm is The Perfect Drama
Review: "Ferociously dramatic and vividly written"
"An indelible experience"
"One powerful piece of journalism"
"Harrowing, relentless"
"Terrifyingly, awesomely real"
"Frightened by nature's remorseless power."

Those are just a few excerpts from overwhelmingly positive reviews of this docudrama adventure - an emotional ride through "meteorological hell" on a 72-foot swordfish boat dragging 40 miles of fishing line through 100-foot waves in the "perfect" storm (a nor'easter that "could not possibly have been worse").

This true story delivers the powerful synergy of a combination of elements in perfect balance: high-seas drama that slams your emotions like the rogue wave that explodes windows in the wheelhouse...fresh imagery that draws you in and puts you helplessly amid the crashing waves and hurricane winds on the boat...and fascinating facts about storms, wave dynamics, fishing techniques, and much more.

Author Sebastian Junger, a journalist by trade, combines these various elements in a well-crafted story of lives affected forever by a series of decisions by six fishermen in the town of Gloucester, Maine.

The Perfect Storm, in a nutshell, is the story of a freak conjunction of weather systems that produced the most powerful storm of the 20th century off the coast of northern New England in October 1991. Caught in this maelstrom is a swordfishing fleet, in particular the Andrea Gail and its six-man crew. Building up to the frightening climax is the story of a fishing town, its people and culture, and the perils of daily life on board commercial fishing boats (generally acknowledged as the most dangerous profession). Yet it is also a story of how personal assumptions and decisions determine who will live to fish another day.

Unlike the trite, cardboard characters of many a fiction adventure, the real men and women who experienced this almost inconceivable storm come alive through Junger's careful and respectful representation of the facts. We get to know the tightly bonded folks at the Crow's Nest bar, where fishermen sometimes spend thousands of dollars of hard-earned wages in one night buying drinks for their friends. We get inside the lives of fishermen and their families, lives that would soon be forced to change in ways they always dreaded but never thought would happen to them. And we discover the misgivings and premonitions of crew members when the time came to load the Andrea Gail and head for one last run, ominously late in the season - warnings to which some listened, but others didn't.

As the story unfolds, we learn more than we ever thought we wanted to know about meteorology...dynamics of waves traveling across thousands of miles of ocean ("forty-five-foot breaking waves are much more destructive than rolling swells twice that size")...the rare monster rogue wave ("avalanches over the decks and buries the Andrea Gail under tons of water")...hard-learned techniques for finding and catching swordfish (a hook "can whiplash over the rail and snag people in all kinds of horrible ways" and "if it catches some part of the baiter's body or clothing, he goes over the side with it")...the economics of a competitive fishing industry that could force them to dump a month's worth of catch over the side...and open sea rescue procedures even more dangerous to the rescuers than the stranded crew. Perhaps the most fascinating discussion explores the physiological and psychological reactions of a human drowning at sea - when the body's natural reflexes kick in and panic is "mixed with an odd incredulity that this is actually happening...'So this is how my life finally ends.'"

Junger did a fine job of research and intelligent writing, skills gained from years of writing articles for such publications as Outside Magazine, American Heritage, and Men's Journal. His prose style is clean, highly readable, fresh, and full of vivid imagery:

"There's a certain amount of denial in swordfishing. The boats claw through a lot of bad weather, and the crews generally just batten down the hatches, turn on the VCR, and put their faith in the tensile strength of steel. Still, every man on a sword boat knows there are waves out there that can crack them open like a coconut."

Junger is faithful to the facts and avoids the usual writer's conceit of embellishing a story with assumptions about what characters said and did. Instead, he wanted to "step back and let the story speak for itself." As a result, we learn the facts Junger was able to gather through interviews and research, as well as how other fishermen described their similar near-death experiences, and our imagination takes over.

Even with so much detail - or perhaps because of it - we discover our emotions and fears swelling in proportion to the worsening storm, ever more gigantic waves, and gale-force winds. By the end, we have made and lost friends, vicariously gained a heightened fear and respect for the immense power of the ocean, and retained the indelible imprint on our psyche of this amazing drama. Readers of The Perfect Storm will discover a personal impact that establishes a new watermark for high seas drama and adventure.

Read the book. Experience the movie on a big screen when it comes out at the end of June. Then listen to your own premonitions to avoid being on any boat...in any storm...far out in the ocean...with nothing to do but wait helplessly for the next rogue wave to overtake you.

--

Roy Davis Varner, of Tampa, FL, is a professional writer and author of "A Matter of Risk, the true story of the CIA's Hughes Glomar Explorer covert mission to raise a sunken Russian nuclear submarine (available on Amazon).