The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

A good edition of a good book! Good quality! Thanks!

Factual? I think very probably. Are the facts selected fair? Hard to say. Is the presentation masterfully gripping? Definitely!— Definitely recommend.

The Perfect Storm, know to many as a movie, was a meteorological anomaly of sorts, that impacted more people that you could imagine.Junger does a good job of trying to lay out what may have happened to the crew of the Andrea Gail during that fateful fishing trip in late October 1991.The book not only covers the Andrea Gail, but other boats/ships/vessels who either survived the storm and lived to tell about, as well as the rescue crews from both the Coast Guard and Air National Guard. There is more to the story than the Andrea Gail, but this is a story that needed to be told.As a meteorologist, back in 1991, NOAA/NWS was limited to an extent on model data, relying on just 2 or 3 models. Even in today's technology and models galore, rare events like the Halloween 91 storm can be tough to forecast.Needless to say, Junger tries not to throw NWS under the "boat", but explains the wildness of 3 systems interacting with each other.The first part of the book introduces the crew, family and friends. The middle covers the trip from Gloucester to the Flemish Cap and the possibilities of what may have happened once contact was lost with the Andrea Gail. The last part is about recovery, other rescues, and coping with the loss of loved ones, and even some who changed their mind to sail that day, were later caught by the sea.There was even a section of a chapter detailing of how it feels to drown.No idea what the crews in the North Atlantic that day dealing with. Worst I experienced was on a cruise ship in the Gulf of Alaska with 20 foot seas and 60 mph wind gusts, which was exiting as a meteorologist, but nothing you could do about it but wait it out, and try not to get sick.In summary, a must read for those who love weather disasters, fishing life, and how tough the fishing industry is, as was not aware, as the job of the fishermen is the deadliest to have in the U.S.

I read the book long before the movie came out and was riveted by it. I decided to re-read it for the first time in over 25 years and it was just as good as the first time I read it.

Literally finished this book in one reading while at the beach. It is a fascinating and extremely well-written and researched account of the 1991 collision of Hurricane Grace with a nor'easter, creating a massive "perfect storm" off the coast of the north east United States during the height of fishing season.The main focus of the story is on the crew of the Gloucester Massachusetts sword boat 'Andrea Gail', caught in the heart of the storm, and the friends and family of the crew waiting to hear news of their fate. The author also details the plight of two women on a pleasure cruise unlucky enough to be caught at sea. But perhaps most compelling is the story of the Coast Guard teams tasked with rescuing those unlucky souls battling the immense storm.This book is a real page-turner, and one that I did not want to put down. I highly recommend it those interested in real-life drama.

Sometimes I found myself skimming the book to finally get back to the Abigail. Each boat was interesting but each deserved a chapter of their own.Great read and being a boater myself learned quite a lot.

First of all, I feel for each and every individual affected by the events that are described in the book.Putting that aside, and talking strictly about the book, I would say that it is sitting around 3.5 to 4 stars. Especially until we get half way through it, is probably a two star book. It takes some considerable effort to go through the first half of the book.(spoiler alert)As far as the story of the Andrea Gail is concerned, it was a little bit frustrating that it was supposed to be factual, but then you realize that we have no idea about what happened, and that everything is pretty much a guess. Accidents can be really interesting and complicated, but they can also be simple and, unfortunately, stupid. Sometimes, when we have rigid data, we are able to tell, and sometimes, as in the case of Andrea Gail, we will never be able to know. We can lay down four million different scenarios, and we will still probably not get close to what really happened.Things drastically change when we get on the other stories. The book picks up speed there, and it gets compelling, and hard to put down.All in all, an interesting book to read, but it wouldn't be one of my top priorities. I did like the simple language of it, and the fact that most of the time I didn't feel that pressure of "let me mesmerize you, my dear reader, with the awesomeness of my vocabulary, and how I can lay down sentences that will give you no clue about what I am describing."I do feel that 4 stars are a little higher than what I would like to rate it, but 3 stars wouldn't do it a lot of justice either,... So 4 stars it is.

This is a great true story I have ever read. Description of nature and natural calamity is awesome.

I really enjoyed how informative the book was - the movie just couldn't convey how storms work and how different ships react to severe weather. The author also did a nice job of describing the life of an Atlantic fisherman. All very insightful.

Eins vorne weg, wer ein Buch wie den Film sucht der ist schlecht beraten. Das Buch ist für denjenigen spannend, der neben Einzelheiten der Berufsschifffahrt auch an meteorologischen Details Spaß hat. Als Segler bekommt man beim Lesen dessen was hier beschrieben wird regelmäßig Gänsehaut. Aber auch Respekt vor Berufsfuschern. Insofern meiner Meinung nach absolut lesenswert. In der englischen Original Ausgabe allerdings nur für Leute die in der Sprache wirklich zu Hause sind.

I've read two books by Sebastian Junger: The Perfect Storm, and War. Both books are equally captivating and written with a level of detail that is fascinating giving the reader an amazing insight into the lives of the people involved and what it must've been like to live through the experiences he describes. I was a little sceptical about reading The Perfect Storm at first because in truth we will never really know exactly what happened to the Andrea Gail and her crew but Sebastian finds other ways to piece the events of this tragedy together as accurately as possible that it's hard to leave the book alone. The knowledge base he draws from is both scientific and experiential and with so many other vessels at sea during this fateful storm you get a pretty clear picture of how things probably transpired. A simply brilliant yet heart wrenching story of true courage on the high seas and the fisherman who risk it all to make a living for themselves and their families.

Thrilling read. There are quite a number of typos and very minor formatting issues in this electronic version, which I suspect aren’t in the paperback.