Under the Eye of the Storm: A Novel

by John Hersey

This is a tale of the sea, of two men and their wives on a sailboat, moving toward the heart of a great storm. It is an adventure story that carries four travelers on the yawl Harmony from Edgartown to Menemsha to Block Island and thence out into a huge, dark cone of uncertainty. In the modulating airs of the voyage four personalities emerge to work changes on each other. The two marriages seem to react to the barometer. As the drama of the storm gathers and breaks, themes are sounded of escape and confrontatoin, of illusion, of the "secret place" that every boat and every person harbors, of a meticulousness, a prudent attention to the details of life, which can blind a man to the whole of reality, and also of endurance, of instinctively courageous seamanship, and of strength that the strong may not know they possess even as they exert it. The skipper, a young doctor, follows his obsession to the terrible goal to which it must lead him at the moment wehn the calm eye of the storm looks down on the tiny boat in the violent sea. The four visions of the characters, which seem to have been focused on the one experience, reveal themselves as sharply at variance with each other, so that a final "truth" of the story has to be bargained out. And in the end that truth turns out to be an irony.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

John Richard Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer, earliest practiced the "new journalism," which fuses storytelling devices of the novel with nonfiction reportage. A 36-member panel under the aegis of journalism department of New York University adjudged account of Hersey of the aftermath of the atomic bomb, dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, as the finest piece of journalism of the 20th century.

Reviews

[Beth]

Wow, this was interesting in an unusual way. The people were very of their time, so two married couples out on a cruise right before I was born, and the way they interacted with each other was incredibly foreign to me, but Hersey is clearly trying to be super-realistic. It's all filtered through one guy's perception, and the big realization he has at the end is that he is super fallible, but even so, his perceptions and ideas of how people worked and how relationships work, and especially how women work were just deeply contrary to how I've ever seen the world.

[Pamela Mclaren]

Two couples take what should have been a pleasure cruise on the Medlar sailboat but goes terribly wrong in this tense, thriller written by John Hersey and first published in 1967.

Dr. Tom Medlar and his wife, Audrey, set sail with friends Flick Hamden, who works in computers, and Dottie Hamden when Medlar discovers that they appear to be sailing directly into the path of a hurricane. And soon enough their personal lives unravel under the psychological pressure of the sea and the storm. While all are effected, the biggest one hit is Medlar himself. While fighting the storm and rough seas, Medlar sees things that cause him to question not only himself but the motives of the other three on the ship. Medlar, as narrator and his actions and feelings, really ratcheted up the emotions while reading this book.

If I have any complaints its that Hersey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author (for the book A Bell for Adano, provides a very detailed description of operating a sail boat with, for me, very foreign terms for sails, winches, ropes, etc. It was a bit extracting for me, even though I could understand that it showed the extent of research/knowledge he had on one of the main characters of this story, the sailboat Harmony.

[David]

This was a challenging read. There were a lot of nautical terms used and the plot dragged in places. The pacing was perfect for the story line. I recommended this for the first read of a new book club I started and was nervous about the selection as I read. I read A Bell for Adano and Hiroshima, both by John Hersey and thought we should give this book a go. I am glad I read it but not sure I would have finished it if I were not part of the book club.

This book was more of a character study than a rich plot read. The author did a great job introducing and developing the characters. I must say, though, that I was saddened to have to say goodbye to the characters at the end of the book. That, I guess is a good sign of an enjoyable read.

All told, I would recommend the book. It is a challenging, thought provoking read.

[Sylvia]

Read this in the 1970s while summering on Block Island. One of my favorite BI-based novels. It was like Couples meets the Perfect Storm.

[Kevin Duncan]

Excellent read. The ending is less than satisfying, but IS logical.

[Kaitlyn Manc]

Interesting story. The writer was amazing at using figurative language.

[Bambi]

Not a particularly well-written book, but a fascinating look at human nature and relationships.

[Andrew]

Under the Eye of the Storm is another impressive book by John Hersey. He never writes the same thing, and rarely in the same style, but he always writes with purpose. While not always stylish, it is careful, precise writing...I have a feeling he chooses each word and each sentence with care, and then builds a whole paragraph with intent.

Under the Eye of the Storm is a a psychological story, about two couples in a sailboat, intending to spend a short vacation together on the water, cruising the New England Atlantic. Dr. Tom Medlar owns the boat, Harmony, and he loves her, loves the routine of keeping her ship shape, pours his soul into her upkeep, maybe to the detriment of his wife Audrey.

Joining them are Flicker and Dot Hamden, who Tom does not really like too much for long periods. But away on Harmony they go, with initial tensions easing as the journey begins.

We see things from Tom's eyes, knowing his feelings about what is going on on Harmony, and the while the tensions of the other three continue to ease, Tom's increases as he suspects an affair between Audrey and Flicker. And then the storm hits. A hurricane that was supposed to go out to sea comes towards the coast.

They tie up in a good place in a harbor, prepared to ride it out, but the storm's violence causes a fishing shack on shore to get tangled in the anchor line and they have to cut loose or go under, and they must now ride out the storm in open water.

But this could be a story about a wagon crosses the prairie in the past or a spaceship in deep space...it is more about how these people act in a crisis, and how they view things during duress, in relative isolation, with only each other to react to. It is also somewhat existential, because it really asks: "If I perceive it such, does that make it so, or can there be other truths?"

Hersey knows sailing, no doubt, and you feel he is accurate in every term he uses, but he is even more accurate in how he describes these four people, how is shows their psychological states. None of the characters are completely noble, nor are any really bad people, they are real, with faults common to many of us. But caught in the maelstrom will they continue to be who they were, or will they sense and see that they can have a new perception?

This is another excellent John Hersey book.

[Jrohde]

the writing is interesting, especially as this is written about waters I know around the Vineyard and Block Island. good command of the terms and situation on a classic old wooden boat with good descriptions of the storm and the behaviour of the boat - a 32 foot Maine friendship (was sloop but rerigged to become a yawl). the real story is about the mind of the protagonist - the owner doctor who reasonably does wonder about his wife and the guest and himself. well written and a good read - got the book from Brian

[Phyllis]

I loved the book. Great adventure. Keep interested to the end. I would recommend this book.

[Jerry]

Heavily nautical--sailors likely to enjoy more than I did.

[Larry]

A good study in human interaction