Winter 2024
Reviews by Sandy Marsters
There are many ways to write a story, put a cover on it, and call it a book. In the case of the following three books, we look at a chilling fiction fashioned from whole cloth, a book of historical mystery/fiction about something weird that really happened but nobody knows why, and an autobiographical account by two fishermen who are utterly obsessive, though in a very endearing sort of way.
Suddenly
by Isabelle Autissier (Author), Gretchen Schmid (Translator). Penguin Books. 2023. 224 pp. $18.00 (Paperback). $12.99 (Kindle Edition).
Any self-respecting sailor should be familiar with Isabelle Autissier, who in 1991 was the first woman to complete a competitive solo circumnavigation, the BOC Challenge. She is a giant in the sport and a hero in her home country of France.
She is also an accomplished writer, and in her recent novel, “Suddenly,” draws on her experience in the Southern Ocean to tell a tale of love, survival and guilt in one of the loneliest, most dangerous places on Earth.
In an effort to bring some meaning to their sedate city lives before it is too late, Louise and Ludovic have sailed to the Antarctic, where they visit a remote island with an old whaling station. As they explore the island’s interior, a storm arrives. They take shelter in the whaling station, and when the storm passes they go back to the bay where they had anchored their boat.
Which isn’t there.
Stranded thousands of miles from anywhere with only the dinghy, they strategize various escapes, only to realize that suddenly their dream has turned into a nightmare from which they may never escape.
Love and ingenuity get them by until emotions begin to interfere and not much is left to be ingenious with. Eventually, Louise realizes that she no longer has a functioning partner. Alone, she sets out into the mountainous interior, in search of what she does not know, except that the journey revives her.
Autissier, I’m sure, is thinking of her time alone at sea when she writes of Louise, “This vigor is her personal brand, what has always allowed her to keep going – to believe in herself . . . to survive when all seemed lost.”
Aspiring writers are often told to “write what you know.” That’s what Autissier has done, and it makes for a compelling, engaging novel.
Secrets of Mary Celeste
by Steve Dahill. Jumpmaster Press. 2023. 300 pp. $15.99.
The term “ghosting” is 21st-century internet slang, but it could just as well describe the 19th century mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, which was found adrift in the eastern Atlantic, sails set, food on the table, little disturbed and the crew of 10 vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.
Many have tried to solve the mystery with far-ranging – and some far out – theories: a giant squid; a water spout; paranormal intervention; foul play; insurance fraud. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took a shot at it.
But nothing has stuck. Now author and Massachusetts sailor Steve Dahill has jumped in with his historical fiction, “Secrets of Mary Celeste.”
Dahill’s theory? Well, you’ll have to read the book, won’t you? But it’s clear that while Dahill is spinning a yarn, he’s trying to keep things on a serious level, using science, navigation, weather, boatbuilding, sailing techniques, and admiralty law to support his conclusion.
A skillful storyteller, Dahill wastes no time drawing you out of the comfort of your armchair and into the rigging on a stormy December day in 1832.
“A cold rain stung the lookout’s cheeks as gale-driven spindrift flooded his weary eyes. The young sailor’s frozen hands clung precariously to the mast peak of the British ship Halifax as it rocked violently in a confused sea of massive, white-whipped breaking waves . . . . There! Where first a leviathan appeared to rise from the deep, a black ball emerged bearing down on Halifax as if running from a rabid pursuer.”
This was the Mary Celeste, of course, which they found still seaworthy, but mysteriously abandoned.
The funny business in Dahill’s story begins at the Briggs and Sons Boatyard in Rochester, Mass., where Ebenezer Briggs has amassed a small fortune in the seafaring business. With a full hold he sails off with his wife and young daughter and a [fictional] crew of 17 aboard Mary Celeste, their finest ship.
He leaves behind his oldest son, Ezekiel, who had taken over operation of the yard after his father fell ill, and driven the business aground through “greed and stupidity.” Unlike his educated younger Brother, Alex, one of the few likable characters in the book, Ezekiel is a disgruntled schemer.
When Ezekiel discovers that there is more in the hold of the Mary Celeste than has been officially documented, he vows to get her back, and tasks Alex with the job.
The journey to retrieve her is no pleasure cruise. On his chartered ship, Alex has no clout. His days aboard are marked with unbearable cruelty and violence. Enter the abusive captain’s daughter, Priscilla, a charmer who quickly catches Alex’s eye and gives him something to hope for.
Perhaps we’ll see what that is when the second and third books of this trilogy are published. Can’t wait.
The Power of Positive Fishing: A Story of Friendship and the Quest for Happiness
by Michael J. Tougias and Adam Gamble. Lyons Press. 2023. 256 pp. $29.95 (Hardcover). $21.49 (Kindle Edition).
When renowned nautical writer Michael Tougias and his friend and fellow writer and publisher Adam Gamble, authors of “The Power of Positive Fishing,” headed south in a chapter called “Bahamas,” my excitement rose. Avid pursuers of fighting fish that they are, I figured they were headed to the Out Islands to hook up with some bonefish, permit, or tarpon.
After all, I’d been fishing with these guys in New England for 13 chapters as they hauled in stripers big and small, found trouble big and small, struggled through personal and professional changes big and small, and generally opened their hearts to me and to each other.
Self-deprecating, humble (except perhaps when there was a big striper to crow about), honest, and funny, they’d entertained me through all these chapters in a way that made me feel like I’d been right on the boat with them. I could relate. I even owned and fished, albeit much less skillfully, from the same kind of boat – an 18-foot Scout powerboat that I named Scout, as unimaginatively as they had.
Now I was ready to trade the shifting shoals and sands of their home waters of Cape Cod for the warm, turquoise seas of the Bahamas, where I have tried for years to land the wiley bonefish, without success. I was ready to learn the secrets to successful bonefishing, in the same way they had entirely altered my approach to striper fishing. Like them, I would become an intuitive fisherman, mustering all the mindfulness I could as I worked the water.
Instead, in this chapter, I got sharks. Lots of them. These guys hadn’t even brought their fishing gear. They didn’t stray far from Nassau. The local fishermen didn’t want to talk to them. So they joined a bunch of other tourists on a snorkeling boat, where the mate threw a bucket of bloody chum overboard and ordered the snorkelers to follow. Michael went into the water first.
“I don’t know what got into me,” he writes. “Maybe it had something to do with my life changes. Maybe it was the southern sun . . . . ‘I’ll go,’ I heard myself announce nonchalantly.” Like lemmings, the other passengers followed.
Then the sharks came. Which, of course, was the point. Six-footers. First a few near the bottom, then 20 more.
“I saw one of those monster bad boy sharks shoot up from the depths like a torpedo, not turning until it came within a foot of a swimmer,” he recalled later. That was not supposed to be the point.
Panic ensued, but somehow everyone got safely out of the water. The crew clearly had little control of the situation. Back at the hotel, a little research showed that the tourists had been very lucky.
Before heading home, they fished a little with a guide who they surmise was either drunk, stoned, or both. They bombed around on Jet Skis. On the plane home, they had an epiphany: “Perhaps it was possible to be nurtured by Mother Ocean without fishing rods in our hands.”
Maybe not.
To any fisherman, competent or not, this book is a gift. Seldom do we get such a holistic look at the fishing personality, which turns out to be a lot like other obsessive personalities.
Fishing is not a life; it is part of life in all its myriad complications. As they trade authorship chapter by chapter, spanning decades, Michael and Adam reveal themselves, warts and all. In doing so, they help us – fisherman or not – understand ourselves a little better.
Sandy Marsters was co-founder and first editor of Points East. He lives in Portland, Maine, where he explores Casco Bay in his 21-foot Tolman Skiff and writes a column for the “Portland Phoenix”.
