by Linda Greenlaw
I didn't like this book as much as The Hungry Ocean, but it was still a very good read. After years of swordboat fishing on the ocean, Greenlaw went back home to the small New England island where her parents still lived, to become a "lobsterman". The island is so small it only has some forty year-round inhabitants, increasing to about seventy in the summer months when vacationers come. I was fascinated by the accounts of trapping lobsters, but even more so enthralled with Greenlaw's stories of her neighbors and friends on the island. More than a treatise on lobsters and fishing, The Lobster Chronicles describes what life is like in such a small, family-centered town. It's really interesting and quite funny at times. There's so many fascinating characters, intrigues, small-town politics, and the spirit of community pride and solidarity. And in the last twenty pages you'll find two scrumptious-sounding recipes for lobster! Boiled and casseroled. Yum. Mostly, I would say this book is about life. Capitalize that: LIFE with all its ups and downs.My favorite line was this (describing a walk through a piece of forest in the dark): "A startled rabbit skittering from ditch to ditch like a bead of hot water in a skillet would pace my heart at the same beat."
Rating: 3/5 238 pages, 2002
I just finished reading The Hungry Ocean and enjoyed it so much...although the crew of the Hannah Boden was eager to come home, I hated to see their journey end.
ReplyDeleteThe Hungry Ocean is much more exciting than Lobster Chronicles, but they're both good books! I hated to see it end, too.
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