The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger Search Amazon for other books by or about Sebastian Junger. Rating: Reviewed by: Henri Hein

The Perfect Storm is a vivid account of a storm that hit the waters outside of Maine in October 1991. The book describes in detail the events of the storm on a personal as well as technical level. Junger does an incredible job of describing the characters involved, both those who made it and those who didn't. The people described are all real, and yet, reading The Perfect Storm is like reading fiction - in the most positive sense of the word. The intimacy with which the reader gets to know the persons appearing in the book goes above and beyond any other documentary I have ever read. Of course, I cannot say whether the descriptions are accurate, but based on the detail, the number of first-hand accounts, and Jungers acknowledgements, it doesn't seem like much is left to chance.

I appreciated the way that Junger is able to describe all these details, and recreate the characters and the events so clearly, yet show due respect to friends and families of those involved. Many tragedies occurred, but at no point does the story become gratuitous. On the contrary, the reader is left with the impression that Junger highly respects the fishermen, the rescue people, the coastal residents, and everyone else involved.

Junger is also able to describe the complicated meteorological events in layman's terms. Some of the technical details are pretty involved, but even I, who know practically nothing about this highly complex field, could follow the description of the mechanisms that Junger gives us.

All in all, this is an excellent documentary and a very exciting read. I recommend it to anyone interested in true, dramatic events.