I didn't see the film so I came fresh to the book. It had a lot of impact on me because I have been in a small boat, a 34' catamaran in a 4 day storm out in the Atlantic before Brazil. It wasn't a 'perfect storm' but it was still rough, with huge seas and a constant exhausting beating against the wind. It prevented us going into Fernando do Noronha, our next stop, we couldn set a course for the archipelago at all. So I could not just see but feel what a difficult position they were in. I know qu...

I couldn’t put it down. I had to keep reading until I finished. A whole variety of background stories, historical perspective, analysis, and best of all gripping adventure. No matter how much you respect the power of the ocean, this book will reinforce your respect. The movie was good, the book is WAY better.

Such a fascinating and gut wrenching account of a storm that affected so many lives. An odd half documentary/half story-telling feel to it and as it doesn’t try to fictionalize anything allows the reader to come to her own conclusion about the final moments of the Andrea Gail. It starts out strong, gets a bit too technical in the middle, but finishes as a page turner with true accounts from others who survived the storm. All in all, a really great book.

I absolutely hated this book. It's just over 200 pages but it took me more than three weeks to force myself to complete it; I hated the author's style so much that whenever I could bring myself to read a few pages, I started looking for something to distract me.Beyond stylistic preferences, I had problems with its structure. First off, it was entirely written in the present tense, making it sound like a sports play-by-play commentary. This is a very clumsy approach; the only thing worse is writi...

" A mature hurricane is by far the most powerful event on earth; the combined nuclear arsenals of the United States & the Soviet Union don't contain enough energy to keep a hurricane going for one day." Page 102 I have had The Perfect Storm on my bookcase for quite sometime. Near the end of " Columbine", the author, Dave Cullen, mentioned that Mr. Junger's description of the crew of the Andrea Gail & their last hours, was what he strove for when he wrote his book.He said that the way Mr. Junger

I thought this would be a pretty interesting book - I had vaguely heard the story when the movie came out, although I haven't seen the movie.The Perfect Storm is a great name for the book, as the book revolved around the storm that took out the Andrea Gail. It gave a lot of good information about fishing, but overall I wasn't impressed by the book, especially when it concerns the Andrea Gail. The synopsis on the back of the book annoyed me, because I thought the book was going to be entirely abo...

I had mixed feelings about this book, but I would recommend it to just about anyone. The history and dangers of commercial fishing off the treacherous waters of New England/the north Atlantic are well expounded; full of fascinating facts and anecdotes. But Junger was faced with a fundamental problem with this book that I'm not sure he was able to overcome satisfactorily: and that's that he spends a good deal of time getting us intimate with a large cast of characters--the fishermen and loved one...

I like Junger's writing style a lot. He's very poignant and manages to write in a both matter-of-factly and emotionally sensitive way at the same time. This is the story he could piece together about one particular boat lost at sea, as well as what might have happened to its crew, during one of the worst storms ever recorded. He does this by combining very technical know-how about fishing and boats with an understanding of the psychology behind men's choices to go out at sea and how they deal wi...

"How do men act on a sinking ship? Do they hold each other? Do they pass around the whisky? Do they cry?"This is the heartbreaking true account of the last moments of those aboard the fateful last voyage of the Andrea Gail, the swordfish boat caught in the heart of the ocean during one of the worst storms to hit the North American eastern seaboard, in October 1991.This book was more of a factual account, attempting to recreate the last days and the possible thoughts and actions of those who sadl...

"All collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it had five thousand years ago." - Moby Dick. I have a special bond with this story. My first encounter with "The Perfect Storm" was through watching the movie. I still remember that movie clearly on my mind even though I haven't watched it for a few years now. It's even easily in my top-ten favorite movies of all time list. I simply loved it. As a child I had always been terrified of the ocean and all its dangers. Strangely though, I

I had heard that this book was good but I thought it was sort of boring. I don't know anything about boating and I think you have to have some boating knowledge before reading this book. There are pages and pages of descriptions about what a swordfishing boat looks like, using words I had never even heard of! It would have been helpful if there was a diagram of the boat, just as there was a map of the Atlantic at the beginning of the book that was a great reference. What I did like about the boo...

“How do men act on a sinking ship? Do they hold each other? Do they pass around the whisky? Do they cry?” October 1991 - It was "the perfect storm"Most of us have seen the movie. I have watched it many times and was inspired to read this book for a reading challenge. I found it to be well written, thoughtful, educational, moving and heart breaking. The amount of research that went into the writing of this book is impressive. Junger did his homework and it shows. If you are expecting the book to

It took me a little while to get into this book, but I'm really glad I did. The last third was so powerful that I'm getting goosebumps writing this review. A Perfect Storm was packed full of information on the fishing industry, weather formation, and culture of fishing villages. I was more interested in the tales of rescue, survival and loss, which the book also delivers on.The format of this book didn't match my initial expectations; it is not a single linear story, even though it seemed that w...

"More people are killed on fishing boats, per capita, than in any other job in the United States."What a tragic, but true story. The author did a good job capturing the feel of the fishing culture. It was technical, but interesting how the science of the weather and the science of the fishing industry came together to make this perfect (the book even defined perfect as something NOT good) storm. I was enthralled the entire time, even though I knew how the story ended. A great book for me.

"There was no God to turn to for mercy. There was no government to provide order. Civilization was ancient history... Inside the ship, as the heel increased, even the most primitive social organization, the human chain, crumbled apart. Love only slowed people down. A pitiless clock was running. The ocean was completely in control..."-- William Langewiesche, A Sea Story On October 28, 1991, the fishing vessel Andrea Gail and her crew of six men disappeared off the Grand Banks in a tremendous stor...

I am partial to gritty, tough bars where men eye you like they could pick you apart and hardened women wonder whether you would survive. But once the bluster eases, and if you return often, you can be accepted among some of the toughest people alive. It is a toughness tempered by pain, disappointment, suffering, and a zestful appreciation of the rare good times when they arrive. Sebastian Junger wrote “The Perfect Storm” after one tragedy to befall the Gloucester seafaring community in 1991 — th...

This is a powerful and heart-wrenching true story. Many people are familiar with the movie – I saw it at the theater when it first came out in 2000. But, it wasn’t until now that I finally read it.It is the story of many different people and how they were affected by the Perfect Storm (also known as The No-Name Storm and the Halloween Gale) in the North Atlantic during Halloween week in 1991. The primary story follows the crew of the Andrea Gail:The early part of the book is reminiscent of Moby

"Perfect," of course, means perfectly disastrous. A Nor'easter forms when a tropical low meets a Canadian arctic blast, which intensifies the storm and creates a whopper whether in the North Atlantic, off the Northeast US coast, or inland. In late October, 1991, a seasonal Nor'easter became even more powerful by picking up energy from disintegrating Hurricane Grace: a Perfect Storm. Sebastian Junger's superlative telling of the real-life event, which resulted in this 1997 book and the 2000 movie...

Since the Mayflower, my relatives were fisherman around Gloucester, making this book a fascinating read for me. I remember my great grandfather talking about cod fishing on the Grand Banks and the storms that sank friends' boats. Not long after I read the book, I was staying in a bed and breakfast in the small town of Scituate down the Massachusettes coast, and the movie was playing in a tiny theater across the street, so I went. When I came out, it was pitch black and a huge thunderstorm had co...

This is a review of the audio book which I downloaded for free from the Sync Audio summer reading program last summer. (If you haven't had a chance to use this program, go to http://audiobooksync.com/ and register). Remember that movie with George Clooney and Mark Walhberg? This is the book that inspired that movie. While the book doesn't really have any sexy movie stars, it does pay homage to the fishermen and rescue workers alike. The Perfect Storm is the story of the Andrea Gale, a fishing bo...