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Written by Dave
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Friday, 22 August 2008 16:18 |
Still Summer
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Remember back in elementary school when the teacher told you to "never judge a book by its cover?" Well I did not and I am writing now to warn you I paid the consequences by reading a book that is so fraught with errors and improbabilities that the suspension of disbelief was just not possible.
The plot sounds intriguing, four middle aged friends plan a Caribbean holiday aboard a crewed charter. The back cover promises us a "desparate fight for survival" as the women "battle the elements, the threats of modern day piracy, and their own frailties." Sounds intriguing enough to occupy a summer's afternoon or two on the annual cruise. As I began to read the book, the first words I read were in the Acknowledgements, it was then that I realized my afternoon might not go so well. Mitchard writes, "This is a work of fiction. The author is neither a sailor nor a geographer [uh-oh], and the events described in this book might not have happened exactly how and when where they did in the fictional world. [huh?}" If these events did not happen in the fictional world, where did they happen? One thing for certain, the author spends the next 300 or so pages proving that she is neither a sailor nor a geographer. Heck, I don't think she every looked a map of the Caribbean! And when was the last time you "yanked on your jib?" Before roller furling, I always hanked on my jib. Or perhaps this was a Freudian slip?
To be certain, the plot was interesting, the characters ones with which you could identify (especially if you're a middle aged woman), and the writing skilled enough to build sufficient tension to keep the reader reading. But, and here's a big but, if you're a sailor, if you have some knowledge of the Caribbean, you will repeatedly stumble over the inaccuracies in the book and in the story. It didn't need to be this way, if Mitchard had only done her homework a little better. If only her editor had given the book to a sailor before publishing. If only Mitchard had gone down to the Chicago Yacht Club and asked for some advice, we'd have a better story for sailors and everyone else. The errors are many, detracting from what could have been a great story. And then there are the loose ends, dangling like participles from a poorly formed sentence and too numerous to report here.
Now if only I had remembered my teacher's lesson, but that's the purpose of NauticalReads.com, we help to sort the wheat from the chaff.
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