In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

Rating:
Summary: The Heart of the Sea's Tortures and Salvations
Review: This is an amazing book. Initially, it comes across as sort of a spin-off on books like "Into Thin Air" and "The Perfect Storm" -- both of which Mr. Philbrick has acknowledged as inspirations -- but I actually think "Into the Heart . . ." surpasses both, particularly in the depth of feeling this book inspires. All the elements of a great adventure story are here: life on the high seas, tragedy at sea, cannibalism, rescue after months at sea in small whaling boats, and so on. But the author trascends the obvious, and renders the participants in this tragedy as fully believable, three-dimensional human beings even though the incidents described in thebook took place almost 200 years ago. A couple of seasons ago, NBC TV managed to make a fairly dull documentary based on this book, which may have dissuaded a few potential readers. If so, it's very unfortunate because "In the Heart of the Sea" is a very, very well-written and very moving story.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful stuff
Review: Nat Philbrick's book created much interest in this fascinating episode in American whaling history. It is a strange and almost impossibly unhappy story, but Mr Philbrick leaves all participants, even those that decided to violate our greatest taboo by eating dead crewmen, with dignity. The book is simply a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Great if you want a light read.
Review: Philbrick has written his book in the style of a "Docu-drama" on the TV. That is to say, this is neither a history of events, nor is it a novelisation. It hangs awkwardly in-between.

On the one hand the author provides us with pages of notes at the end of the book, and makes this "Seem" like a well researched history of events. But on the other hand he injects excitement and character into the book by imagining the inner workings of the minds of those involved.

At times, to illustrate sufferings or events, he leaps to other incidents (the Donner Party) and to studies (of thirst and hunger) to explain the decisions or points of view of the characters involved. This can be disorientating, but generally helps the modern reader to get to grips with the subject.

What Philbrick singularly fails to do is to convey the reality of life aboard a whale ship to his readers. Many other books have done this far better. Dana's "Two years before the mast", and Melvilles "Moby Dick" give much more insight into the sailors lot, and there are many other well known incidents that Philbrick could have drawn upon to illustrate his story better.

This is a light read, and interesting to someone who knows little or nothing about the subject. But for those who have read a lot on things nautical it comes across as shallow, and clearly an outsiders perspective.