The Perfect Storm
Sebastian Junger
Harper
Nonfiction, History/True Stories
Themes: Seafaring Tales
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Description
The sea is an addiction to those who work it. Fishers and sailors know that the longer they gamble the odds, the more likely the ocean will claim them, by rogue wave or hell storm. In October 1991, the East Coast of America was pounded by a storm so bad it broke all records, born from a number of meteorological events colliding in a way one observer described as “perfect” to produce an unprecedented monster. Into the middle of this, unknowingly, sailed a number of vessels, including the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing vessel bound out from Gloucester. For them, the odds are about to catch up...
Review
The story of Nature at its worst and death on the open waves is a frightening one, indeed, but not the way Junger tells it. He fills the reader in on the entire 300-odd-year history of fishing on the East Coast, including colonies (failed and successful), people, places, and things of minimal overall concern to the story. I can appreciate that, as a journalist, he was doing everything possible to explain the background and tell the tale without hype or sensationalism, but I wasn’t sure all of the extra material was necessary. Had he trimmed some of the fat, the story would’ve moved faster. As it is, the writing tends to drag and wander around the focuses of interest like the winds circling the low-pressure center in a hurricane, whipping around it once or twice before reaching the point.