I bought this as part of sell-out sale of my favorite bookstore: $5.00 per bag of books. Having enjoyed A High Wind I Jamaica, I took a chance on this book. After reading the preface and introduction, I set it aside; it was merely another Typhoon transmogrified to a new locale. As I had read Conrads tale, I did not need a rehash. After an incubation period of ten months, I opted to tackle the book anyway. What a surprise! Expecting morbid details of a ships workings, I was pleasantly surprised; it fit well to a laymans erudition. Moreover, and in spite of a dearth of dialogue, the fate of the ship was told in and interesting fashion, although the reader must abide several flashbacks to the Christian adolescence of some characters. I question the necessity for these to justify the characters invoking their creator as they face potential doom. Beside that he gives us a Chinese agitators biography through the turmoil of the Kuomintang and the Communist struggle. Nonetheless, we are saved from the goring details of seabourne navigation found in Cooper, Dana, et al. As in Conrad, our heroes face the mother of all hurricanes; it is truly Man versus unrelenting nature. One fault I find, the text lacks a navigational chart of the Caribbean that would certainly be helpful in understanding the track of their voyage and of the storm, and of the plight of the crew.

Share/Like this Review?