It was the storm of the century—a tempest created by so rare a combination of factors that meteorologists deemed it "the perfect storm."
reviews
Jul 27, 2010
Matt
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"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 Gran More...
-- William Langewiesche, A Sea Story
On October 28, 1991, the fishing vessel Andrea Gail and her crew of six men disappeared off the Gran More...
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Oct 04, 2007
Beth
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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 b More...
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 b More...
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(3 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Jennifer
rated it: 
This was pretty good and read really quickly, especially toward the end. The quite drawn-out description of what it's like to drown was terrifying, as well as the description of what the ocean is like in a storm like that. I'm scared of the ocean so I found it oddly fascinating in a horrific way. I also thought that the very real importance of dreams and premonitions was described in the book--crewmen would get a "bad feeling" about going out with a boat and family members would dre
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Dec 05, 2007
Eva
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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
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Mar 07, 2010
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Feb 26, 2009
Ann
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I read this book because I had read 3 by Linda Greenlaw, a fisherman who, at the time of this storm was captain of the Hannah Boden, sister boat to the Andrea Gail which was lost in the storm. She is mentioned numerous times in the book and was portrayed in the movie, The Perfect Storm, by Mary Stuart Masterson. I am intrigued by her lifestyle and thought it would be interesting to learn more about the people who fish hundreds of miles offshore - it takes a week to get to the Outer Banks off New
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Jan 20, 2009
Susan
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I was motivated to read this book after I fell in love with authors like Krakauer and Pierce who wrote books on real, chaotic events that have inspired many. For example, Krakauer writes about mountain climbing experiences and experiences in the snow while Pierce wrote about a plane crash in the Andes where the survivors struggled to make it back home. After being fascinated by the way these authors wrote about tragic events that always left me in suspense I thought The Perfect Storm would be th
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Jan 02, 2009
Katherine
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Junger’s book, The Perfect Storm, documents the storm and the disappearance of a sword fishing boat, The Andrea Gail, which took place off of the Massachusetts coast in the early 1990s. The Andrea Gail set out several days prior to the storm beginning and was having very bad luck finding swordfish. The captain of the boat, Billy Tyne, refused to return home empty handed and so he decided to sail farther out to sea in order to find the swordfish. After completing a successful swordfish run, Ty
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Jan 09, 2012
01celestes
rated it:
The Perfect Storm, a powerful book about men stranded at sea during a storm. The perfect Storm was written by Sebastian Junger. It's 231 pages long and is very historically correct. This book really shows the dangers fisherman face everyday.
The Perfect Storm takes place in Gloucester, a fishing village on the East Coast. Billy Tyne is a captain of a sword fishing boat called the Andrea Gail. His crew, Bobby Shatford, Murphy, Bugsy, Sullivan, Moran, and Pierre all have to go out righ More...
The Perfect Storm takes place in Gloucester, a fishing village on the East Coast. Billy Tyne is a captain of a sword fishing boat called the Andrea Gail. His crew, Bobby Shatford, Murphy, Bugsy, Sullivan, Moran, and Pierre all have to go out righ More...
Jan 04, 2012
James
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A True story Of Men Against The Sea, The Perfect Storm y Sebastian Junger was a book filled with excitement, joy, drama, anger and other mixed emotions. It is the perfect book. The Perfect Storm is about the struggles that a captain and his five-man crew face. They come from a New England fishing town in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The towns fishing industry struggles but the captain is determined to make a lot of profit this year and decides to take his crew to dangerous fishing grounds far awa
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Dec 12, 2011
03kayleeh
rated it: 
If you are someone who loves to read fact after fact, tons of boat history, and a book that has at least five different perspectives that the story is told in, in the first 20 pages, then this is the book for you.
"The Perfect Storm" Starts with Bobby and his girlfriend, Christian, sleeping. They wake up, and they round up their gang. Then they all head to a bar. Bobby and his friends drink and drink, and drink some more. Afterward, everyone in the group, not including Christ More...
"The Perfect Storm" Starts with Bobby and his girlfriend, Christian, sleeping. They wake up, and they round up their gang. Then they all head to a bar. Bobby and his friends drink and drink, and drink some more. Afterward, everyone in the group, not including Christ More...
Nov 14, 2011
(Drakakis and Grier CP English 2)
I Read the Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger for my independent reading book. My Opinion on it is varied. At first I didn't enjoy the book because it took about five chapters to actually pick up and get into the main focus of the story. Once I got into the bulk of the story when the crew of the Andria Gail get stuck in the storm, the action and suspense kept my fingers glued to the book. The detail and description the author provides gives the reader a clea More...
I Read the Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger for my independent reading book. My Opinion on it is varied. At first I didn't enjoy the book because it took about five chapters to actually pick up and get into the main focus of the story. Once I got into the bulk of the story when the crew of the Andria Gail get stuck in the storm, the action and suspense kept my fingers glued to the book. The detail and description the author provides gives the reader a clea More...
Sep 10, 2011
Keith
rated it:
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 w More...
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 w More...
Sep 04, 2011
Jacob
rated it:
When I first saw the perfect storm book and decided to read it I was excited, I had seen the movie ‘the perfect storm’ before and I really liked the movie it was a thriller and a great story. The book was about 6 fishermen who swordfish and went out for a month trip on the boat called the Andrea Gail. It tells the tail of their hardships on the boat and how they tragically died.
Sebastian did a great job with telling their stories, describing their struggles on the boat, especially d More...
Sebastian did a great job with telling their stories, describing their struggles on the boat, especially d More...
Jul 07, 2011
Michael
rated it:
What would you do if you went to work one day and were thrust into a hell beyond imagining? What would you do if you had little to no hope of coming through that day alive?
This possibility is surely branded in the psyches of anyone who makes his or her living from the sea, where dangers — both human-made and natural — lurk literally at all deceptively serene points of the compass. But you go on because you have to — because it's what puts food on your table, and because there's always More...
This possibility is surely branded in the psyches of anyone who makes his or her living from the sea, where dangers — both human-made and natural — lurk literally at all deceptively serene points of the compass. But you go on because you have to — because it's what puts food on your table, and because there's always More...
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Jun 03, 2011
Nikitabanana
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In October 1991, a crew of fisherman left the port in their hometown, Gloucester Massachusetts to fish for swordfish. They were never seen again.”A Perfect Storm” Sebastian Junger’s creative nonfiction account of these men and their fate is a researched, sympathetic, and mesmerizing chronicle of man’s struggle against nature.
The book follows the lives of the sword fishing crew of the Andrea Gail and their family members before and during the 1991 Perfect Storm. Among the men boarding the A More...
The book follows the lives of the sword fishing crew of the Andrea Gail and their family members before and during the 1991 Perfect Storm. Among the men boarding the A More...
May 13, 2011
Sara
rated it:
It's the last days of October 1991. Most of the Gloucester swordfishing fleet is on the fishing grounds and will be there for another week or so. The Andrea Gail, however is headed home. She's off her usual cycle and with a broken ice-machine and a hold full of fish, her men are ready to go home. With the rest of the fleet out, their boat and their fish will be alone in the harbor, promising a good payday for the 6 men aboard. At 6:00 PM on October 28th, she is hailed by the Mary T, to the
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Mar 05, 2011
Gossymotto
rated it:
I enjoyed the movie (George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane), and found it to be an incredible story, but like most true stories, if you want more of the fact you have to read the book.
Sebastian Junger does an excellent job of telling this story and since nobody knows for sure, what happened in the last moments on the Andrea Gail, he fills this in with the best possible information, by interviewing others that have faced similar conditions so that in reading it, you understand jus More...
Sebastian Junger does an excellent job of telling this story and since nobody knows for sure, what happened in the last moments on the Andrea Gail, he fills this in with the best possible information, by interviewing others that have faced similar conditions so that in reading it, you understand jus More...
Feb 17, 2010
CC
rated it:
We enter the doomed fate of the fishing boat, the Andrea Gail, mostly through the eyes of one of its six crew members, Bobby Shatford. Bobby's fiance, a divorced woman with three kids to supposrt -- Christina Cotter -- is depending on Bobby. In turn, Bobby, who owes thousands of dollars of back child support for his own two kids, is depending on his fishing time on the Andrea Gail. With the money made there they can pay off debts and start their new life together fresh.
The Crow's Ne More...
The Crow's Ne More...
Jan 31, 2010
Bobbi
rated it:
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
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Nov 12, 2009
Robbie
rated it:
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (Hardcover)
by Sebastian Junger
256 pages
W. W. Norton & Company
0393050327
A group of swordfish fisherman, were having trouble making end's meat, not getting enough catches. However, their captain, Billy, had an idea. He found out a place, where they knew their would be fish. Bobby, one of the fisherman, was skeptical about this trip since he just got back from a previous one, and couldn't spend time with hi More...
by Sebastian Junger
256 pages
W. W. Norton & Company
0393050327
A group of swordfish fisherman, were having trouble making end's meat, not getting enough catches. However, their captain, Billy, had an idea. He found out a place, where they knew their would be fish. Bobby, one of the fisherman, was skeptical about this trip since he just got back from a previous one, and couldn't spend time with hi More...
Aug 18, 2009
Matthew
rated it:
The best thing about Sebastian Junger's tale of the "100 Year Storm" that crushed the western-to-mid North Atlantic in 1991 is the insight it gives into the lives of fishermen and the unique environments that are fishing towns. Fisherman are a different breed of person, and fishing towns are unlike any towns most of us ever encounter, much less get to know and understand. Almost as compelling are the descriptions of the severe weather generated by the freak convergence of 3 separate
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May 08, 2009
Steven
rated it:
This book whose title added another phrase to our lexicon is classic non-fiction: a collection of unrelated true stories, interwoven with essays examining everything from ocean rescues, to deadly occupations, to the line-fishing industry, to weather patterns of the Atlantic Ocean. Where the movie cuts most of this and focuses on the ill-fated vessel at the center of the storm, the book does what books do so well---it explores the issues and colors in the background, never forgetting to keep bui
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Aug 09, 2011
Maria
rated it:
So this book was a really interesting read for me. I know that it’s been made into a movie (which I still haven’t seen), but I also already knew the ending beforehand. Still, something told me to pick it up and read it. I’m glad that I did.
The author, Sebastian Junger, set out writing this book in the hopes of giving readers a chance to imagine what happened to the crew of the Andrea Gail. Although he knew he could never fully tell you what happened (since no once survived the storm), he d More...
The author, Sebastian Junger, set out writing this book in the hopes of giving readers a chance to imagine what happened to the crew of the Andrea Gail. Although he knew he could never fully tell you what happened (since no once survived the storm), he d More...
Mar 04, 2010
Benny
rated it:
I didn't think I would like this, but it's pretty damn good. As well all know, the movie is about George Clooney and Mahk Wahlberg dying at sea. As much as I love a comedy, the book is a bit different. Ultimately, only a little more than half of the Perfect Storm is given over to the sinking of the swordfishing boat the Andrea Gail.
The rest of the book looks into all kinds of parallel and ancillary stuff, like other boats that survived that storm, the development of the weather patt More...
The rest of the book looks into all kinds of parallel and ancillary stuff, like other boats that survived that storm, the development of the weather patt More...
Dec 20, 2011
04connerc
rated it:
I will have to be honest, the only reason I really wanted to read this book, was to get points for my term project in science and english. I was expecting a lot more from this book! I was hoping it would be full of action and keep me on the edge of my seat. But I still gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Because it was overall a good book.
What happens in this book is simple and pretty depressing. Billy and his crew take out to sea to go longline fishing for swordfish. They set out f More...
What happens in this book is simple and pretty depressing. Billy and his crew take out to sea to go longline fishing for swordfish. They set out f More...
Nov 29, 2008
Eric_W
rated it:
In Gloucester there is a sculpture of the Virgin Mary between two tall bell towers of the Our Lady of Good Voyage Church. She has a bundle in her arms that she lovingly gazes at. The bundle is not the infant Jesus; it’s a Gloucester schooner. Fishing the Grand Banks has always been extremely dangerous. Dories rowed out to haul in lines, back-breaking work at best, and disappeared into dense fog never to be seen again; or, occasionally the seafarers might walk up the lane months
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Jan 16, 2010
Amanda
rated it:
This book was good, but not great. I enjoyed the retellings of actual events, like the rescue of the Satori and the others, but what the author placed as the main narrative, the loss of the Andrea Gail had too much conjecture. In the circumstances, that's not surprising, but the way the author went about it was disappointing. I felt like I was reading the end of the movie Clue: "Here's what could have happened" over and over.
Obviously it's impossible to know what actuall More...
Obviously it's impossible to know what actuall More...
Jan 17, 2012
Lauren
rated it:
In the late summer of 1991, my husband and I were unloading fish on the docks in Fairhaven, Massachussets right next to the Andrea Gail. Our company boat, The Mary T, fished alongside the Andrea Gail on the Grand Banks on that final trip of the season in October. It was the Mary T that saw the only remains of the Andrea Gail, a small bit of floating debris, as they steamed back towards Fairhaven after the storm blew off. I will never forget the moment when we tied her to the dock, and the co-
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Aug 05, 2011
Carrie
rated it:
Disappointing book. This account of a true story has so much potential, but it reads like it was written by a meteorologist who has had some nautical training. Junger often writes in the subjunctive, which confused me as to whether or not the events he describes actually happened, or if he is just describing the worst-case scenario. It reminds me of a cross between a history text book and a novel (with the emphasis on the former), as if Junger can't decide which genre to use. The characters are
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