The Perfect Storm

Sebastian Junger

Lots of buzz around this book. Lots of buzz around this movie. Oddly, I don't remember there being lots of bizz around this storm itself.

While Junger begins and ends with the Andrea Gail (and his last chapter lends its sinking an almost supernatural air a la the supposed curse surrounding Rebel Without a Cause), there is far more to this novel the story of six guys and a boat. Of course, what more there is is about more people and more conveyances; the storm took the wind out of a number of other boats, a couple of helicopters, etc.

While Junger and Philbrick have much the same approach in their styles, Philbrick handles In the Heart of the Sea better than Junger handles The Perfect Storm; perhaps it's because, since there were survivors from the Essex, we have enough of a picture of what happened for Philbrick to give us insight into what the men in those jury-rigged schooners were thinking and feeling during their whole nightmarish trip, while the Andrea Gail, by necessity, has left us guessing. Still, there are enough survivors form the other ships affected by the storm that it's demonstrable Junger is not handling his characters as well, and the book suffers for it.

Still, it's hard not to be captivated by a story of man against unpredictable nature, and The Perfect Storm keeps the reader's attention from first page to last, and the immediacy of an event that took place within one's lifetime is more impressive that something that happened before the birth of one's great-grandfather. It is less an indictment of Junger than it is testament to the prowess of Philbrick that, when comparing the two, In the Heart of the Sea comes out on top. The Perfect Storm is in no way a bad book; it just doesn't shine the way it could have.