Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Book Review: My Old Man and the Sea
























Our first book review on here. We will be doing a bunch more, they will be short simple and full of opinion so hope you enjoy.
I received this book for a present. That is always the best way to get a book since you have no real idea about anything in the book other than the person who gave it to you thought you would enjoy it. Honestly I still haven't decided if I liked it or not so I will pass it on and see what others have to say.

Quick summary from my point of view; a father and son from CT make the voyage around Cape Horn in a very tiny sailboat. I expected an gripping story but overall it was more of a insight into the journey from two perspectives and a lot of emotions.
Starting off the book went into a little history of the characters and described the boat and sailing experience. From this I expected it to build into a story of the trip and all the norm you would expect from an adventure story. About a quarter in it turned to a duel perspective, which Carolyn and I had talked about doing with our future book, mostly drawn from personal journals. As it progressed the relationship between the father and son kind of weirded me out. I don't know, perhaps I just don't have an over the top  emotional relationship gene but the amount of over the top emotions between them was to much for me.
I cruised through the first 2/3 of the book in a few days but won't lie I put it down for a few weeks before powering through to the finish. The trip they went on was amazing and brave for both of them since no amount of experience guarantees a safe passage. I wish the book talked more about some of the trails and details encountered in the trip but that is just because I had expectations that where not met. I guess what I didn't really understand when it was all done was the reason for the book. Of course writing a book is a great idea but it wasn't particularly motivating, didn't really go into trip details and didn't try to pass on any morals or teach anything you would expect. It did however show that ordinary people can do things that are not the status quo in society with out fan fare just to make themselves happy. It really did reinforce that living on a tiny boat and sailing vast distances sure gives you a lot of time to contemplate yourself and the relationship of the person you are with.

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