Review by Booklist Review
Greenlaw's first book, The Hungry Ocean(1999), was a best-selling account of a grueling, month-long swordfishing trip on the sister ship of the tragic Andrea Gail, of The Perfect Storm fame. The Lobster Chroniclesfinds her still fishing, but in a different place, at a different pace, and in pursuit of a different quarry. And rather than another treatise on commercial fishing, Greenlaw's newest is a flotsam-and-jetsam commentary on life. Her decision to give up being captain of a larger vessel for a return home to the small Maine island where her family has lived for generations leads her to pursue a more personal and independent style of making a living. The labor of maintaining the boat and hundreds of lobster pots is taxing, but she sets her hours and goals, and so has time for local lighthouse politics and interplay with family and other odd characters. All is not perfect, as the lobster season is poor and her mother becomes ill, but Greenlaw, as comfortable on the page as she is on the ocean, once again proves to be both enlightening and highly entertaining. Danise Hoover.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Greenlaw (The Hungry Ocean), known to readers of The Perfect Storm as the captain of the sister ship to the ill-fated Andrea Gail, gave up swordfishing to return to her parents' home on Isle Au Haut off the coast of Maine and fish for lobster. Her plainspoken essays paint a picture of a grueling life as she details maintaining her boat and her equipment, setting and hauling hundreds of traps with a crew of one (her father, a retired steel company executive), contending with the weather and surviving seasons when the lobsters don't bother to come around. She intersperses her narrative with plenty of eccentrics who live on her tiny island (there are 47 full-time residents, half of whom she's somehow related to). Among them are Rita, the inveterate borrower who's such a nuisance that Greenlaw's parents hide behind the couch when they see her coming; George and Tommy of Island Boy Repairs, who make a horrendous mess of every job they undertake; and Victor, the cigar-eating womanizer who imports a red-headed flasher from Alabama. One of Greenlaw's themes is her desire to find a husband but, according to her friend Alden, she intimidates men: she's tough talking, feisty and very self-assured, which is no doubt why the other lobstermen on the island readily accept her as one of them. Self-speculation and uncertainties such as these nicely balance her delightfully cocky essays of island life. (July) Forecast: Greenlaw's previous book appeared on many bestseller lists. While this title may lack the thrill and Perfect Storm mystique of her previous book, expect strong sales, which will be boosted by an appearance on the Today show. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Greenlaw's first book, The Hungry Ocean, was a best seller because it was written by a female sword boat captain; her vessel was a sister ship to the Andrea Gail (the subject of Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm); and it was a darn good story. The author has an impressive command of language, combining her own salty remarks with wry and witty characterizations. It also doesn't hurt that she has an eccentric and eclectic group of people to describe in her latest memoir. Greenlaw left swordfishing to return to Isle au Haut, seven miles off the coast of Maine, where her parents live. Confronted with only one general store, no Starbucks, no video store, no mall, and lacking nearly any amenity that most people expect these days, she would be the first to admit she's returned to a simpler way of life. With her retired father as her crew of one, she maintains her boat, the Mattie Belle, and the equipment; sets and hauls hundreds of lobster traps; and wrestles with the weather, elusive lobsters, her mother's battle with breast cancer, and her own biological clock. She returned to this island in order to be closer to her parents, find a husband, build a house, and have children. Despite the isolation and lack of services on Isle au Haut, most listeners will somewhat envy the simpler life and sense of community and family that Greenlaw celebrates. Highly recommended for all public library collections.-Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll., Kansas City, MO (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Greenlaw, who chronicled life as captain of a swordfish boat in The Hungry Ocean (1999), here describes her new work: lobstering on the tiny Maine island where her family lives. Isle Au Haut in Penobscot Bay has fewer than 50 permanent residents, half of them relatives of the author. As skipper of the Mattie Belle, Greenlaw waits season after season for salable crustaceans after setting 500 traps, putting out herring for bait, and watching factory-boat interlopers cruise by without so much as a wave. Our captain provides lots of lobster lore and a stark evocation of the ocean's ever-present cruelty, including a discussion of hypothermia and death at sea. (Not many of the island's dozen or so commercial fishermen see the point of learning to swim in the North Atlantic.) Along with matters nautical, Greenlaw describes Isle Au Haut's anthropology, ethnography, and ethos, delineating the complex genealogy and traditions that bind the islanders. It's a nice narrative of one year in community relationships: life with Mom (who falls ill) and Dad (Linda's sole crew member), crazy Rita and the gal who bares her boobs, the sweet preacher and the B&B proprietors. We see small-town civics in action when the Lighthouse Committee runs into trouble and the debate about waging gear war against invading mainland boats runs out of gas. Life on an island has its hardships (no Starbucks!), and Greenlaw is frequently lonely-but more frequently quite self-sufficient. Despite the occasional wayward personal pronoun or misidentification of a biblical character, her writing is clear and sharp. Anecdotes about encounters at the boatyard or general store recall a quieter, less crowded America that now seems rare indeed. Straightforward storytelling and captivating reading: satisfying as a Maine lobster dinner. Author tour
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
