From 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
Synopses & Reviews
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
"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 Author
Sebastian Junger grew up in suburban Massachusetts, not far from the town of Gloucester, the fishing port depicted in The Perfect Storm that was home to the Andrea Gail and its crew. He graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in cultural anthropology in 1984 and has been a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in such magazines as Outside, Men's Journal, American Heritage, and The New York Times Magazine. Drawn to stories of adventure, Junger has delivered radio reports from the war in Bosnia, covered smoke jumpers in Idaho's wilderness wildfires, and written about the smallest border town in Texas. In addition he has for many years worked a high climber and trimmer for tree removal companies. He currently lives in New York City and Cape Cod. The Perfect Storm is his first book.