Amazon.com
Rarely is the barbed edge of mother love described with such scorching wit and raw emotion as it is in Vivian Gornick's reissued memoir. Fierce Attachments zigzags between a Bronx tenement teeming with immigrants in the 1940s and New York in the 1980s. It chronicles an almighty struggle between the author and her mother, a stubborn rabble-rouser bursting with tart, angry pronouncements, moxie, and an undeniable measure of charm. Waving away an "Eastern religionist" trying to sell her on his god, she raps out: "Young man, I am a Jew and a socialist. I think that's more than enough for one lifetime, don't you?" Her husband's untimely death is the occasion for such wild histrionics--screaming, refusing to walk, flinging herself into the grave--that when Gornick works the Middle East years later as a journalist, the ululating cries and fainting mourners at funerals seem comfortably familiar. The rapid-fire flow of confidences and furious arguments between the duo mellow slightly, believably, as they grow older together.
Book Description
In this deeply etched and haunting memoir, Vivian Gornick tells the story of her lifelong battle with her mother for independence. There have been numerous books about mother and daughter, but none has dealt with this closest of filial relations as directly or as ruthlessly. Gornick's groundbreaking book confronts what Edna O'Brien has called "the prinicpal crux of female despair": the unacknowledged Oedipal nature of the mother-daughter bond.
Born and raised in the Bronx, the daughter of "urban peasants," Gornick grows up in a household dominated by her intelligent but uneducated mother's romantic depression over the early death of her husband. Next door lives Nettie, an attractive widow whose calculating sensuality appeals greatly to Vivian. These women with their opposing models of femininity continue, well into adulthood, to affect Gornick's struggle to find herself in love and in work.
As Gornick walks with her aged mother through the streets of New York, arguing and remembering the past, each wins the reader's admiration: the caustic and clear-thinking daughter, for her courage and tenacity in really talking to her mother about the most basic issues of their lives, and the still powerful and intuitively-wise old woman, who again and again proves herself her daughter's mother.
Unsparing, deeply courageous, Fierce Attachments is one of the most remarkable documents of family feeling that has been written, a classic that helped start the memoir boom and remains one of the most moving examples of the genre.
Customer Reviews:
An unpleasant memoir about horrible people.......2006-05-26
This memoir is Gornick doing a hatchet job on her mother. Gornick's mother is a pathological arrogant narcissist who verbally abuses everyone around her, including and especially Gornick. The dimension of it that Gornick seems not to see at all is that she is identical. She abuses her mother and everyone else with the same pointless malice her mother turns on her. It is two hundred pages of two pathological personalities who make themselves and everyone around them miserable. Their constant discourse is arrogance, insult, accusation, blame, and dismissiveness. They never stop bickering bitterly with each other and everyone else. Gornick is as blind to what a loathsome person she is as her mother is. One tires of them quickly.
The proposition that Gornick can write comes from her inserting pompous epigrams at the end of each section. Few of these are original and none are good enough to bear the weight she puts on them.
This is a thoroughly unpleasant book and well worth skipping.
Cliched, all around........2004-05-26
Upon first reading Fierce Attachments, I thought that it was an acceptable novel- interesting anecdotes, good dialogue, etc. However, after thinking it through and re-reading sections, it became painfully clear that Gornick has no deep insights to tell us, and because of this lack of original and profound thought, she writes about cliched things in a cliched manner. Yes, the novel can be entertaining, especially if the subject matter holds interest. In my opinion, get it from the library. It's not worth the money.
Be Aware of Gornick's Feelings About Memoirs.......2003-08-13
I think one would be hard put to find a reviewer who thinks that Gornick can't write, or that she doesn't have insights that other people feel are incisive and/or applicable to their own lives. I will not dispute any of this; this is an excellently-written book that does a wonderful job exploring the mother/daughter relationship. (Not being either one, I'm somewhat handicapped at commenting on how accurate it is in that area.)
I do think, however, that one should be aware of Gornick's take on what constitutes a memoir. Gornick has written that she views the lives on which a memoir is based to be the "rough draft." She feels that the "memoir" does not need to be held to the strict standards of truefulness that other non-fiction is. (For details on Gronick's take on what a memoir is, please read her piece in Salon: http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2003/08/12/memoir_writing/index.html
Personally, I find her explanations unsatisfactory, and her justifications to be rationalizations at best. I do not get enjoyment from the literary technique of an unreliable narrator, no matter how many literary persons find it to be a brilliant technique for exploring whatever (the universality of subjectivity, the unreliability of supposed objectivity, the capricious nature of life, or what have you), and similarly I have trouble with the concept of a "memoir" that is, at it's base, a piece of fiction. Perhaps I am a philistine, but I much prefer something like "The Ladies Auxiliarly," which, while certainly *based* on the author's life, does not pretend in any way to *be* life.
That caveat aside, I *do* honestly think that this is a very good book that many will enjoy. Just caveat emptor, is all.
A superb stylist.......2001-07-17
The truth is, Gornick could write about the hard bit of cheese left over and I would thill to it. She is a superb stylist and I've read all her books greedily -- precious objects that they are. This book, with its dark and painful attachment to her mother laid bare for us -- and how this attachment has acted upon all her other attempts at attachment -- is kinetic both intellectually and emotionally. She repeatedly tiptoes up to that taboo -- the lack of love that keeps a mother and daughter so intimately entwined -- and lets us stare over the lip of the abyss. I see myself, I see so many women. She is an incredible writer. Every hard won word is worth the wait. A true gem.
I just realized I spelled interesting wrong..........2001-06-28
in the review below.
It still doesn't look right! Oh the perils of relying on spell check!
Book Description
From the award-winning author of Change Me into Zeus's Daughter comes this compelling memoir about a single mother determined to break the patterns that she has been taught.
Barbara Robinette Moss grew up in the red clay hills of Alabama, the fourth of eight children, in a childhood defined by close sibling alliances, staggering poverty, and uncommon abuse at the hands of her wild-eyed, charismatic, alcoholic father.
In Fierce, Moss looks at what happens when a child of such a family grows up. At once poetic and plainspoken, Moss, a "powerful writer" (Chicago Tribune), paints a vivid, moving portrait of her persistent quest to reinvent her life and rebel against the rural indigence, addiction, and broken dreams she inherited from her parents.
With warmth, insight, and candor, Moss tells the poignant story of finally leaving everything she knew in Alabama to fulfill her ambition to become an artist. It is an odyssey filled with gritty improvisation (bringing her son, Jason, to her night job to sleep on the floor), bittersweet pragmatism (filling her purse on a dinner date with shrimp, rolls, and even a doily, to bring home to a waiting eight-year-old), and staunch conviction and pride (chasing a mail carrier down the street to defend her use of food stamps).
As with many other children of alcoholics, the legacy of her father's alcoholism catches up with Moss, and an abusive relationship -- an inheritance and addiction of its own sort -- threatens to destroy all that she has accomplished. But as Moss learns to cope with her anger and pain, parenthood helps her discover true strength.
Ultimately, Fierce is a warm, honest, and triumphant story, from a writer celebrated for her Southern lyricism, about a woman determined to make it on her own -- to shrug off the handicaps of her childhood and raise her son responsibly and well.
Customer Reviews:
Tom Dering.......2006-02-24
I read this book in three days awhile back, and still remember most of it, especially the night I bolted up in bed and turned the light on after dozing and thinking about the rattle snake and said to the air, "There has to be magic." I went back to sleep with that thought.
I'll never forget the garbage can, which I think is the story of all of us at one time or another. The contemplation of this book followed me around for several weeks, weaving in and out of other books read after it.
Thanks.
Review by Irene Watson, author of "The Sitting Swing.".......2005-11-12
Again, Barbara has written a compelling story of a part of her life that is insightful, and most of all thought provoking. As I read the book I found myself in many of the pages. It gave me courage and strength to look at my own life.
Fiercely amazing.......2005-10-28
Moss' work, Fierce, channels every emotion felt and puts it on paper in a way that makes you feel as if you are sitting in a chair, watching the events of her adult life unfold. A masterpiece!
A Riveting follow-up to 'Zeus's Daughter'.......2005-03-11
When I first read "Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter," I immediately wanted more from memoirist Barbara Robinette Moss. In her follow-up "Fierce," she does not disappoint.
"Fierce" is Barbara's story of leaving all she knew behind to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. Every step of the way, childhood demons haunt her: her charismatic and alcoholic father, staggering poverty and abuse, broken dreams and rural indigence. Men with whom she has close relationships fight demons of their own, Patrick with schizophrenia and brother Stewart with alcoholism. Her childhood memories wake her at night, but Barbara never loses focus of what is most important - her only son Jason and a better life for both of them.
As with "Zeus's Daughter," the author successfully sets the psychology of time and place. We can see the pony tangled in barbwire and the father's shot at close range. We are there when Stewart wrestles with an angel, and we rejoice when Barbara, like Einstein the cat, defies the pull of gravity.
"Fierce" - simply put - is unforgettable. Barbara's story not only inspires, it is a life-affirming testament to the human spirit.
Beautiful story of a life.......2005-01-09
*****
This book is the memoir sequel to "Change Me Into Zeus' Daughter". Although it could easily be read alone, I found it was an incredible experience to read it after reading the earlier memoir. Knowing the background of the author's childhood from the first book adds richness to the already rich second memoir "Fierce".
Although both books describe very difficult life experiences, they are far from depressing; they are about the triumph of love and the human spirit. I cannot imagine anyone having had a more troubled or abusive childhood than did the author, but the central theme of family love is what ,most affects the family members and holds them together above all.
I read this book as slowly as I could to make it last. It was just so good. I can't imagine anyone buying it and thinking they didn't get more than their money's worth, as it delivers on all levels---style of writing, suspense and plot, authenticity and transparency, the ability to draw you into the author's world.
"Fierce" takes place mostly after the author is an adult and leaves home although there are many flashbacks to childhood. "Change Me Into Zeus' Daughter" is about the author's childhood. I would buy both books together in hardback and save them forever to be read again and again.
*****
Average customer rating:
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FIERCE ATTACHMENTS: A MEMOIR
VIVIAN GORNICK
Manufacturer: VIRAGO PRESS LTD
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Americas
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ASIN: 0860689468 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Columbia Journalism Review, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 2277 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The predictable scandal: the book world's lack of devotion to truth runs much deeper than James Frey and the memoir.
Author: Samuel G. Freedman
Publication:
Columbia Journalism Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 44
Issue: 6
Page: 50(4)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
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AIRCRAFT DOWN: Landings, Crash Landings and Rescues
Alec Brew
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Aviation
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ASIN: 1844152405 |
Book Description
When a pilot experiences a sudden loud bang or sudden total silence, he is often faced with the stark choice of the parachute or attempting to get the aircraft down to earth in as few pieces as possible. This book describes twenty-three remarkable and true instances when, for a variety of reasons, all seems lost - but life was not. These life-threatening incidents range through the history of powered flight and all over the globe from Arctic waste to desert sand and from English hillside to coral reef. Within the narrative are moments of humor, despair and utter joy. The author has gleaned his information from a myriad of sources and many personal accounts. For those who love to read of the human spirit and its determination to survive against all odds - this book makes splendid reading.
Book Description
The horrors of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust still present some of the most disturbing questions in modern history: why did Hitler's party appeal to millions of Germans, and how entrenched was anti-Semitism among the population? How could anyone claim, after the war, that the genocide of Europe's Jews was a secret? Did ordinary non-Jewish Germans live in fear of the Nazi state? In this unprecedented firsthand analysis of daily life as experienced in the Third Reich, What We Knew offers definitive answers to these most important questions.
Combining the expertise of Eric A. Johnson, an American historian, and Karl-Heinz Reuband, a German sociologist, What We Knew is the most startling oral history yet of everyday life in the Third Reich, drawing on gripping interviews as well as a unique survey of four thousand people, both German Jews and non-Jewish Germans.
What We Knew shows firsthand the disparity between German Jews like Elise and Hermann Gottfried, to whom all Germans seemed like "detectives in civilian clothing," and non-Jews like Hubert Lutz, who spent ten years in the Hitler Youth, and "never heard anybody suggest that you spy on your parents or that you spy on anybody else."
Johnson and Reuband's research confirms that much of the German population-at least one-third-were aware of the mass murder of European Jews as it was going on. They were similarly aware of the murder of the mentally ill and handicapped, and the widespread torture employed by Hitler's Gestapo. And surprisingly, the research confirms that Hitler and National Socialism were so immensely popular among most Germans that intimidation and terror were rarely needed to enforce loyalty.
Eric Johnson's earlier book, Nazi Terror, was praised by to the Associated Press as "a benchmark work in Third Reich studies" and by The New York Times Books Review for its "levelheadedness and common sense, backed by painstaking research." Continuing this tradition of erudition, What We Knew redefines our perception about life under the Third Reich and changes the way we think about the Holocaust.
Customer Reviews:
A book for the academic........2007-05-15
I just finished this book after some weeks of reading and putting it down then reading again, etc. In short, it was a difficult read but having made that qualifier, it was also positive and surprisingly interesting and valuable. For any person, primarily students, who are researching with an intention of writing a paper about Nazi Germany and any subtopics therein, this is a must-read book.
The first two thirds of the book are fascinating primary sources--interviews with people who experienced various aspects of being caught up in this horrendous machine that was Nazi state power. The conclusion makes the premise that virtually everybody at the time knew what the Nazi state was working to accomplish. The authors lay waste to the old claim that "we didn't know". Almost every person knew of the collections and the deportation because it happened in daylight and no attempt was made to hide the event. The "network information" that came from stories told by soldiers on leave and by undercover BBC broadcasts contributed to this general knowledge. The plethora of work camps in Germany itself provided evidence of major wrong-doing. The size of the operations and the number of people involved preclude any reasonable denial that major parts of the Nazi Party's Manifesto was being acted upon.
The general reader and I certainly include myself among this group, will particularly get bogged down in the last section. The authors take their data and display it in numerous charts and conduct a precise analysis of this raw information. It is all terribly useful if you are footnoting a research paper but considerably less so if you are trying to have a quiet read. Therefore, be warned. This is a book containing many pearls of information but the water where they are located is deep and sometimes murky.
Primary Source? Or, Secondary Source?.......2007-04-17
"What We Knew" by Eric A. Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband.
Subtitled: "Terror, Mass Murder, and Every Day Life In Nazi Germany".
Basic Books, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2005.
This book was written by a team of authors, one, an American historian and the other, a German sociologist. The excellent team of writers has compiled a lengthy book (434 pages) that attempts to determine what, if anything, the ordinary German knew about the extermination of so many people, including more than six million Jews, by the Nazi regime which held power from 1933 to 1945. The authors have applied the techniques of modern statistical analysis, interviewing a large sample of individuals who lived through the terror, in an attempt to extrapolate their opinions, into an estimation of the actual feelings and actual knowledge of the actual participants, Jew and Gentile. I emphasize the word, "actual". I congratulate the authors on their efforts. I would be frightened to attempt the same thing.
The greater portion of the book (some 253 pages) accumulates selected interviews with both Jews and Gentiles. Pages 3 to 135 deal with interviews of the Jewish participants while pages 141 to 259 deal with the testimonies of the "ordinary Germans". These interviews represent a "primary source" as Historians define them. By their very nature, however, these interviews do not lend themselves to a flowing, comprehensive story. This makes it difficult to read. The interviews do present a statistical sample of how the people felt about the terror and what they knew about the camps.
In the next few chapters, called "Part THREE", pages 263-399, the authors analyze the data. This section of the book is a good "Secondary source", as defined by Historians. There are tables summarizing a wealth of information, such as the "Level of the Knowledge of Mass Murders of Jews among Jewish Survivors", broken down by the country to which the survivor escaped. Interestingly, on page 313, Table 10-3 shows that the main "Source of Knowledge" of the Mass Murders of Jews was radio broadcasts!
Technology affecting History. One wonders what television would have done. I served in the United States Navy in the segregated South during the late 1950s. Back home, in Manhattan, my tales of water fountains for "Colored" and "Whites" were looked upon as sea stories from a distant country. It took television reports of incidents such as Selma, Alabama, to make the nation conscious of the meanness of segregation. Who knows what a future statistician might make of our nastiness in segregation and what the ordinary citizen, living in The Bronx, knew about the evils of segregation?
The final conclusion of the authors is that "...a dictatorship can enjoy widespread popularity among the majority even while committing unspeakable crimes against minorities and others". (Page 398).
Interesting but redundant.......2007-02-01
I found the premise of this book very interesting and looked forward to cracking it open from the moment I made the purchase. Overall I think the concept of the book is solid, but it just becomes a bit redundant after a while as many of the stories begin to sound exactly the same. The final 100+ pages were a chore to make it through because it became so overly analytical in its investigation, which is subjective in my opinion, that it read more like an overly long business meeting full of graphs and charts, ad nauseum.
I would have preferred the authors have presented fewer interviews with greater detail paid to the more interesting ones. The end result is close, but misses the mark of my expectations.
Magnificent.......2005-02-13
I was born and raised in Germany, many years after the end of World War II and the Nazi period. There is a tremendeous amount of information available about the Third Reich, the war, and the Holocaust; but for me, there was always something lacking: How could all that happen? How was it possible? And what did people really know?
The standard answer, which I was given a lot when I aksed people about it, was that they didn't know anything about the Holocaust until after the war. I never found that very convincing. There is just no way that a country can organize the killing of millions of people, many of who were their own citizens, with the vast majority of people being absolutely clueless. It simply doesn't make any sense. Didn't people notice how their neighbours disappeared? And wouldn't soldiers on visits home mention things they had seen? Given the involvement of the German Army in many of those crimes - a fact that is still hotly contested in shamefully large circles to this date - I have never found the claim credible that "we didn't know anything".
Finally, there is a way to get better information. "What We Knew" contains the results of a decade long scientific study about what people - Jewish and non-Jewish - knew and experienced. A large part of the book consists of interviews, separated into different categories. Of course, the picture is infinitely more complex than "we didn't know anything" or "they all knew" - but now finally, it is starting to make sense.
I admit that even having read so many voices I am still at a complete loss as to how this all was possible. But at least now we know what people knew, how many people knew etc. This book is a masterpiece, and it's a must-read for anybody interested in what was going on almost 70 years ago.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2006. The length of the article is 557 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany, An Oral History.(Book review)
Author: Richard J. Evans
Publication:
The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68
Issue: 4
Page: 878(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Amazon.com
The oceans of the world rank foremost among humankind's last great frontiers, and their climatological and ecological workings remain mysterious to all but specialists. In this lively, well-written survey, marine scientist Carl Safina encourages readers to take a wider interest in the oceans, especially because so much of that great blue expanse is now threatened by human progress. Safina notes, for example, that the North Atlantic's tuna population has fallen by more than 90 percent in just the last few decades. It has gone the way of cod and herring and pilot whales thanks to a combination of changing global temperatures, overfishing, pollution, inland watershed and delta destruction, and other causes--many of them attributable to human activities. Even now, he notes, many Pacific fishing fleets use cyanide to catch fish, a process that destroys sensitive marine ecosystems. Safina's tour of the world's waters may inspire readers to press for changes in the way that fish is brought to their tables, and to take a more careful look at the natural processes that govern this watery planet.
Book Description
Part odyssey, part pilgrimage, this epic personal narrative follows the author's exploration of coasts, islands, reefs, and the sea's abyssal depths. Scientist and fisherman Carl Safina takes readers on a global journey of discovery, probing for truth about the world's changing seas, deftly weaving adventure, science, and political analysis.
Customer Reviews:
Absolute poetry.......2004-08-06
I'm only about halfway through this book, but it's so moving that I decided I needed to rave now. Carl Safina uses an amazing grasp of language to paint mental pictures of what he writes about. I work in the scientific community and have spent a lot of time on that water, and his writings are not only objective and scientifically sound, he constructs them in such a way that they are beautiful. You will have a thirst for each topic and region of which he writes. I borrowed this book from the library and had vowed to buy it before I'd finished the first chapter. It has only improved as I've proceeded.
Beauty beyond compare.......2004-04-29
This is one of the most beautiful, powerful books I have ever read. Safina's journey encompasses the entire world and all points of view. His words have inspired me to pursue my dreams and opened up new worlds of knowledge. Now, every time I hear of politicians doing something stupid to the oceans or rivers, I just shake my head and say "'Song' should be required reading for them before they can draft a piece of legislation dealing with the oceans."
McPhee on Red Bull.......2002-07-01
This book would be twice as good if it were half as long. Evidently the only editors were fawning friends of the author, who must have felt that every observation, no matter how offhand or trivial, needed to be included in the bloated text. This is too bad, because he is a decent writer, knows and cares about fish and fisheries, and the story is compelling. Imagine John McPhee full of Red Bull and vodka and you get the idea.
Also, a book that uses the silly word "waitron" without irony, and "heregia" twice in a hundred pages can be a little precious.
Entertaining Science.......2001-05-10
Is it a novel, a journey through the seas, or a scientific work describing the demise of fishes around the world while offering policy suggestions? It doesn't matter what kind of book it is- it may be all in one. What matters is that Carl Safina has written a book, Song for the Blue Ocean, which tells the story of living oceans; a book that catches your attention through adventure and interesting characters, witty writing, strong emotion, and terse opinions strewn amongst simple science.
In the preface, Safina mentions that he will be our guide and interpreter, but ultimately we have to make our own decisions regarding what the oceans and their inhabitants really mean to us. Nonetheless, I feel quite comfortable following Safina's lead. After receiving his doctorate in ecology and starting a career as an academic, Safina decided that he needed to take a stronger stand on conservation and scientific policy regarding the world's imperiled fish. He founded and now directs the National Audubon Society's Living Oceans Program, and wrote Song for the Blue Ocean merely 10 years after graduate school. Safina has a unique and open perspective on the state of the world's fishes, once as a commercial and sport fisherman, and now as a world-renowned scientist. Personally, I feel quite comfortable allowing Safina's guide and interpretations to influence my own opinions.
Song for the Blue Ocean is split into three distinct sections: the Northeast, the Northwest, and the Far Pacific. In addition, each section focuses on an imperiled species, namely the Giant Bluefin Tuna, pacific Salmon, and coral reefs; nonetheless, Safina is able to depict the bigger picture of the world's fisheries and common problems with these three examples. Not only does the reader get an inside look at fishing culture and the conservationist culture, but we also learn about the bigger picture of fisheries, i.e. externalities of fishing like by-catch, various fishing styles (from spear fishing to cyanide poisoning), the state of these fisheries, and the huge political aspects of fishing. Safina artfully intertwines information about national and international agencies involved in the conservation of fisheries, like CITES and the Endangered Species Act, without it sounding like a lecture. We learn about various species of sponges and coral reef fish, or the difference between steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, during the while we are enchanted by Safina's adventures floating down an icy Northwest river or almost dying of nitrogen narcosis while SCUBA diving 160 feet deep in the Palau islands.
The book flows very smoothly. Safina builds up the story, grasps ahold of your attention, and then leads you through the steps until he has made his point clear. For instance, Safina talks of the beautiful large and diverse trees in the Pacific Northwest, then introduces the concept of a snag- a tree that has died, but continues to stand upright for many years. Once it finally falls, hundreds of species move in, under, through, and around the fallen log. Finally, we understand that clear cutting and second growth forests near rivers do not provide adequate habitat for spawning salmon, which rely on the deep pool behind the fallen snag to deposit their eggs. All the while, this simple chain of events is presented in a very romantic and mysterious way, and it all seems so important. Safina also captures my attention with the conversations between the amazing characters in his book. They are funny, disturbing, happy, sad- they are martyrs, antagonists and clueless. They provide much of the information in the book, but they also provide relief from the continuous science and bleak outlook on the state of the fisheries.
Truthfully, there is not much about Song for the Blue Ocean that I did not enjoy, but Safina does tend to dwell on the past, with a few too many "back in the good old days" stories. This type of talk can be fun and contagious, nonetheless too much of this babble is unhelpful in the context of conservation. Similarly, Safina slips from time to time with sarcastic remarks. Some may find this witty, but I find it ineffective. Enjoyment of this book also depends on what your expectations are, some may find it too political, or others may not find it scientific enough. Safina approaches his journey with an open mind- and this is also the best way to approach his book.
Safina's unique perspective lends itself to an original story. He is a weary scientist in the middle of a debate over the state of the world's fisheries, who wants to discover the truth for himself. His journey takes him to all corners of the ocean, where he meets and listens to real people whose livelihood depends on the fish. His book therefore portrays all angles of the story, which allows the reader to form her own opinion (as Safina wanted). Safina does distinguish between fact and opinion on a regular basis; nonetheless he is not afraid to express his opinion, sometimes very strongly.
This book is for anyone- scientists and non-scientists. Young and old alike. People who want to learn more about the worlds imperiled fisheries will get their fill. Others who are mildly interested in fish, or fishing, or the world's oceans will be entertained. Even people who just pick up the book without any preface will find the writing, unique characters, and Safina's journeys across the Atlantic and Pacific extremely refreshing. This book really is all-in-one. Safina has mastered the art of hybridization, with perfect proportions of science, policy, and adventure.
Song for the Blue Ocean - a phenomenal book.......2001-02-18
I could not put this book down. It is well written and well- balanced. Dr. Safina describes three different areas of the world, the North Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest and Palau, east of the Phillipines. He describes in detail how intricate ecosystems are, and all the complicated relationships between fish , man and the environment. He describes in wonderful detail the biology of the bluefin tuna and salmon. More importantly, he impressed me with how devastating certain fishing techniques have effected fish. I think this book should be read by everyone who cares about wildlife and the environment.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, published by Kluwer Law International on September 22, 1999. The length of the article is 736 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Song for the Blue Ocean Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas.(Review) (book review)
Author: Michael A. Rivlin
Publication:
Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1999
Publisher: Kluwer Law International
Volume: 2
Issue: 3
Page: 379
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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