BOOK REVIEW: The Perfect Storm – by Sebastian Junger

Title: The Perfect Storm
Author: Sebastian Junger
Genre: Non Fiction, History, Adventure
First published: 1997
Finished reading: June 17th 2015
Pages: 248

“How do men act on a sinking ship? Do they hold each other? Do they pass around the whisky? Do they cry?”

I know that Sebastian Junger wrote The Perfect Storm as a non fiction story and he wanted to incorporate as many facts as possible. I really appreciate his effort and I can’t deny the story is interesting, but with all the different facts about fishing it was hard to stay focused on the main story. It took quite some effort to keep reading all those details about fishing boats; while it is interesting, it can get a bit monotone. I did appreciate the many historical facts in The Perfect Storm, but the story itself didn’t seem to have a logical order and that made it quite hard to read. The prose is solid and it shows that Sebastian Junger really made an effort in trying to make the story more readable. It is quite an interesting story, but I guess someone who is really interested in fishing and history would probably enjoy this book a lot better than I did.

This non fiction story will tell you all about the history of sea fishing and what went wrong during the trip of the Andrea Gail back in October 1991. Working on the fishing boats has never been an easy or safe job, and a lot of fishermen have lost their lives to the sea. Mother nature can be cruel and the sea can have a tremendous force that is beyond anyone’s control… And a storm can arrive when you least expect it. The crew of the Andrea Gail will soon find out just that… As the author relates what happened before and during those last days at sea.

It’s not like The Perfect Storm isn’t an interesting story and I enjoyed reading part of it, but after a while it became repetitive and it was hard to stay focused. I know it’s a non fiction story and I normally enjoy reading that genre, but I guess it didn’t help I’m not all that interested in sea fishing. Maybe if the story would have been told chronologically it would have been easier to stay focused… For now it was a struggle to reach the final page. If you are interested in fishing and sea adventures, you will probably like this one. If not, the movie might be a good alternative… I haven’t seen it myself, but I’ve heard good things about it.