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The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Seaby Sebastian Junger
Synopses & ReviewsFrom Powells.com:After its release in 1997, The Perfect Storm was an immediate hit, rocketing in a matter of days to the top of bestsellers lists across the country. But once there, The Perfect Storm found itself locked in a Mark MacGuire vs. Sammy Sosa style battle for the top slot with another powerhouse, Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. And just as the dramatic race between MacGuire and Sosa breathed new life into baseball, these two books, each brilliantly recounting a dramatic story of people facing epic disaster, together inspired the current national obsession for adventure literature. Where Krakauer's book, about the fatal 1996 expedition to the top of Mt. Everest spawned a shelf full of books about mountain climbing, Sebasian Junger's The Perfect Storm has inspired renewed interest in the power of the sea.
As implied in its title, the protagonist of The Perfect Storm is a storm, possibly the most powerful and elegant in recorded history. But, of course, what makes the story of this storm so compelling is the human drama that plays out in its shadow. In October, 1991, a crew of six headed out from Gloucester, Massachusetts in a small commercial fishing vessel, the Andrea Gail. Fatefully, the ship was heading straight toward the 120 mph winds and 100 foot waves of the "storm of the century." They never came back. Junger, a journalist by training, recounts the story of the doomed crew and the storm they encountered in meticulous detail. But he also brings to the story a thriller writer's talent for creating driving narrative. This is undoubtedly why The Perfect Storm found such a wide audience. It is not only a fascinating lesson in meteorology and a detailed ethnography of modern fishermen, it is also one of the most compelling portraits in recent years of an ancient preoccupation: human vulnerability in the face of nature's overwhelming power. Martin, Powells.com Publisher Comments:October, 1991. It was "the perfect storm" — a tempest that may happen only once 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 towards the storm's hellish center. Review:"Junger's fine dramatic style is complemented by a wealth of details that flesh out the story: wave physics and water thermoclines; what it means if you see whitewater outside your porthole; where the terms mayday, ill-wind, and down East came from. Reading this gripping book is likely to make the would-be sailor feel both awed and a little frightened by nature's remorseless power." Kirkus Reviews Review:"As with any true-adventure story, you wonder if you ought to be getting such a bang out of real people's real suffering. But in The Perfect Storm, we're sharers, not voyeurs. The book is a humanizing reminder that we, too, could – probably will – be called on to bear more than we could possibly imagine." Newsweek Review:"Impeccable research...supports this solid account. Junger expertly braids together the individual histories of the six-member crew of the doomed Andrea Gail with those of the economically depressed fishing town of Gloucester, Mass., and various New England fisheries. In lesser hands this amount of detail could sink a narrative. But here it comes together as a seamless chronicle in which weather itself emerges as the protagonist. Junger relates facts on everything from the physics of waves to the science of hurricanes....Despite all of its detail, however, what ultimately makes this a unique and admirable book is its portrayal of individual lives." Judith Bolton-Fasman, The Christian Science Monitor Review:"Rich, compassionate characterization, as well as taut, suspensful prose. A tale that doesn't skimp on facts yet keeps you turning pages from beginning to end." Seattle Times Review:"Powerful....Gripping." New York Times Review:"A harrowing tale of tragedy and struggle, of great heroics, and of circumstances and situations beyond the ocntrol of any of the players." Sailing Review:"The book builds as the storm builds, full of wonderful detailed and to-the-point information, always powered by a stern suspense." Newsday Review:"The pages of this book crunch with salt....Good reading." Boating Review:"There is nothing imaginary about Junger's book; it is all terrifyingly, awesomely real." Los Angeles Times Synopsis:In October 1991, three weather systems collided off the coast of Nova Scotia to create a storm of singular fury--the perfect storm. This nationally bestselling account of some victims of that storm, the doomed crew of the "Andrea Gail", is now a specially priced hardcover with movie-art bellyband. The new summer-release film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Diane Lane. Synopsis:Sebastian Junger's thrilling narrative account of a 1991 storm in the North Atlantic and the plight of the crew on the Andrea Gail was a huge bestseller. Junger tells of the lives of the fishermen and of the town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and includes much lore about fishing, the fishing industry, and the science of sea and weather. He also charts the daring attempts by members of various rescue agencies who braved intense weather conditions to find and rescue those lost at sea. Synopsis: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 towards its hellish center. About the AuthorSebastian Junger is the author of Fireand the international bestseller The Perfect Storm. He has been awarded a National Magazine Award and a SAIS-Novartis Prize for journalism. He lives in New York City. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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