ADRIFT 76 Days Lost at Sea: The Amazing True Story of Steven Callahan

The author attempts a foolish winter crossing of the North Atlantic alone in a small sloop. A storm sinks the craft, leaving him in a small inflatable raft for 76 days. Padded with Hemingway-like prose on unrelated subjects, the story of survival sometimes seems secondary. Callahan's voice at first sounds monotonous, but it takes on a little more life as his peril grows. He speaks in the first person and present tense while creating a mood of want and depression. The tone varies little between descriptions of sucking the juice from raw fish eyes and fending off attacking sharks. A couple of sentences have an echo for emphasis, and Callahan does a Maine accent for a man he remembers. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
[Published: AUG/ SEP 07]