If I Were Not Upon the Sea

by Joyce Gleeson-Adamidis

What cruise ship guests never see and never hear about, they can read about in "If I Were Not Upon the Sea". One very 'male' Captain and one very 'female' Cruise Director of different backgrounds and very differing points of view, give a tour no brochure will ever offer. Life at sea is uncharted territory until this book.

170 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2000

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a memoir written by two people, a husband and wife duo who work in the cruise line industry, and relates their experiences working on various smaller ships. The husband is Greek and writes in a somewhat broken English style. This book lingered in my TBR pile for some time because it isn't the best written book. One rule of writing is to show and not tell, and both of the authors just tell you about their experiences without showing you through any sensory details. There are plenty of places where the story could benefit from explaining things much better. There are multiple instances where the authors do a lot of name dropping, which was also a turn-off for me, especially as I didn't even recognize most of the names. Additionally, there are lots of grammatical errors throughout. If you're someone who does a lot of cruising, this book may be more enjoyable for you than it was for me.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Joyce Gleeson was in her 20s when she started working on cruise ships. Later on, she met the man who would later become her husband – he is a cruise ship captain. This is a memoir for both of them.

It was unfortunate, I thought, that she started out with a chapter talking about how everyone is sleeping around with everyone else – spouses or significant others, be damned! It actually kind of put me off the book right at the start. But, I stuck with it and it got much better. The book alternates between Joyce or her husband narrating each with their own anecdotes (text is bold and italicized for her husband, so it's easy to tell when the “voice” changes). Having been on a few cruises myself, it is always interesting to see behind the scenes. In the end (despite the start of the book), I did enjoy it.

[Maki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was written by a good friend of mine who used to work on the cruise ships with me. Her stories are honest and give you a real-life feel of what it is like to live the wonderful and exciting life of working in the international seas, working your way around the world with international people. I enjoyed this book mostly because I could think back on my amazing life when I was working on cruise ships.

[Tyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fully agree with Nancy's review. I only rated it slightly higher because I worked on cruise ships and found I could relate to some of it.