The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (P.S.) | Sebastian Junger

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (P.S.) | Sebastian Junger | Breath-taking

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The Perfect Storm:...

	The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (P.S.) Sebastian Junger Harper Perennial, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 897 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

October 1991. It was "the perfect storm"?a tempest that may happen only once in a century?a nor'easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed toward the storm's hellish center.

Hurricane Gloria

This book is amazing. Sebastian Junger went to a great deal of effort to write this book. It is historically accurate and all people and places are real. The only piece I have trouble with is after Andrea Gail is no longer heard from. Anything regarding what happened on the boat after that is guessing even if it is fairly accurate. The actual name of the storm was Hurricane Gloria and to those of us who lived through it it makes more sense to think of it that way.

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Breath-taking

Junger recounts the relentless ferocity of the Storm of the Century that hit North America's eastern seaboard during 1991. This is a breath-taking, riveting tale of human courage in the face of the most devastating forces of nature.

The Perfect Storm

This book is very vivid in its descriptions of the storm and the activities leading up to it. The author has done an excellent job of making the reader feel that he/she is involved in the action. Very exciting and emotional read.

Unsentimental Inexorable Factual

The book ably reconstructs the terrifying facts, feelings and tragedy of the fishing boat Andrea Gail and her six-man crew, which disappeared during a killing storm of mythic proportions. Tragically, the bodies were never found, so nobody survived to tell the story. The book weaves a compelling patchwork around the sinking itself--the ship's colourful crew, their manic drives, lives and backgrounds. There are fascinating details of meterology, navigation and commercial fishing. We peer into the physics of rogue waves, the horrifying physiology of drowning, the agonies of search and rescue. We feel the adrenal charge of risk-fishing, the frailty of humans pitted against Nature, the lash of wind, the brine, the towering waves, the violent pitch and toss of the sea, told with the crackling force and energy of a first novel. The writing is tight, plain, elegant and restrained. Junger is ever the journalist, always tethered to his materials, never sensational, never indulging himself, or setting free the novelist. Perhaps his stern, disciplined self-control is his greatest triumph. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would gladly read it again.

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The Storm Of The Century and the people caught up in it. An education

I watched the movie of this book before I read the book itself, and I have to say that the movie has taken some liberties with the story and the book is still better than the movie despite its great storm special effects. Nobody can say exactly what happened to the swordboat Andrea Gail but this book does a credible job of describing what probably happened based on knowledge of swordfish fishermen, the fishing industry, the ocean, storm behaviour and the rescue services involved.

Having read this book I now feel I know a lot more about swordfish and the fishing industry than I ever believed I would. I also feel I've been given a reasonable education in storm and wave behaviour around the Grand Banks and northern fishing waters. You have to have some patience with this book as the Storm of the title doesn't really start to play a part in its story till half way through the book. Up till then everything is mostly background material about the fishing industry. However, even if you know nothing about the sea, this book covers so many topics in so much depth that it keeps you moving along till the tragedies and triumphs of the storm and its human costs are played out. A recommended read if you like your stories factually based but not debased to the point of being "based on a true story".

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