Turned into a successful film starring George Clooney, The Perfect Storm details the drama of the Andrea Gail, a Massachusetts swordfishing boat that was caught in a storm of vast proportions in 1991.
The biggest challenge to the author is that none of the crew survived to tell their stories. I was curious to see how he would piece together the narrative without the help of testimonies from those who were there. He does this using a variety of sources. There’s plenty of detail on shipping lore and ways of life in the small town of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Radio reports to other ships and observations on weather patterns from other craft in the vicinity help build the picture. Plus he has interviewed rescue workers and survivors from other dramas in the same once-in-a-lifetime event, along with affected families and colleagues.
It’s so much richer and fuller than the film, and yet the film did its best to cram in what it could and was surprisingly faithful to the text. But whereas the book can take several pages to explain how – for example – rescue swimmers jump into the sea and have a strong chance of survival, in the film this looks reckless and even unbelievable. Likewise, the author can take the time to explain how ships float – or don’t – and goes into detail on the science of sinking. Later he tackles the science of drowning – what actually happens in those last few seconds. Disturbing stuff.
But overall it’s the humanity of the book that makes it special. Junger has a real sense of the lives at stake and he’s sensitive to the many losses. It’s never merely an adventure yarn.
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