- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Vintage (Nov 14 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679768394
- ISBN-13: 978-0679768395
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 2.3 x 11.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #500,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The title voyage of Philip Caputo's sweeping new novel commences under exceedingly strange circumstances: in June 1900, Cyrus Braithwaite, a gruff Yankee granite magnate, orders his three teenage sons to board the family's beloved schooner, sail away from their imposing Maine summer home, and stay away until September. His sole explanation for this sudden expulsion: "It's a new century, boys." Puzzled, abashed, but also intrigued by the adventure forced upon them, Nathaniel, Eliot, and Andrew leave behind their privileged WASP childhood and head out to sea--bound, they decide more or less on a whim, for the Florida keys.
Adventures are slow to shape themselves at first, but once the Braithwaite boys enlist the help of blond, worldly wise Yale dropout Will Terhune, the pace quickens considerably. Nat, who serves as skipper, and is also the most naive and most ambitious of the brothers, nearly dies in a bar fight in lower Manhattan. Fourteen-year-old Drew, the seasick-prone family rationalist, discovers a penchant for cold-blooded violence. Caught in a blow off the Carolinas, the boys limp the damaged schooner into Beaufort, South Carolina, their mother's birthplace, where an ancient aunt invites them to dinner and hints darkly at family secrets. Then, about two-thirds of the way in, what has seemed a leisurely coming-of-age story explodes into an elemental drama as a hurricane swallows the boat and spits it out on the desolate coast of Cuba. This, as it turns out, is but the first in a series of terrible reversals.
The Voyage is a departure for Caputo, a former foreign correspondent who made his name with a Vietnam memoir (A Rumor of War), and he does a fine job of conjuring up an age "when both the awareness of death and the hope of salvation were writ on every face." True, his framing device of a present-day Braithwaite descendant delving into her family's secret history is a bit forced and yes, the characters could use more depth. No matter. At some point, The Voyage becomes irresistible. --David Laskin --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Caputo, author of the Vietnam classic Rumors of War, has crafted a compelling novel that offers both rousing adventure and penetrating insight into the mystery that is family. At the turn of the 19th century, a flinty New Englander suddenly orders his three sons, the oldest of whom is 16, to sail away from the Maine coast and stay away until September. "Where are we supposed to go?" they ask. "Don't much care," he answers. So off they sail to face the series of adventures that make up most of the book, all the while trying to understand their seeming abandonment. Their story is reconstructed by one son's granddaughter, herself haunted by the mystery. Determined to unravel the secret behind her great-grandfather's behavior, she is able to put together major pieces of the puzzle using both hard facts and a lot of imagination, which "is not an unreliable sextant, if you're trying to get a fix on the truth." That, of course, is exactly what all good novels do. This book should appeal to a wide audience, including older teenagers. Highly recommended for all public and most academic libraries.
-ADavid W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, FL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
-ADavid W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, FL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
THE SEA was gray that morning, and as smooth as the surface of an eye. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE SEA was gray that morning, and as smooth as the surface of an eye. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book, beautifully written,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Voyage: A Novel (Paperback)
The better part of the Voyage is exciting and well-written. The characters, especially of the four boys stand out and it feels as if you get to known their every flaw and virtue. The story of the sailing from Maine to Key West is marvelous and does a great job of evoking the power of the sea and how the boys handle themselves in some tough situations. The only problem I have with the novel is the use of the modern day narrator who is so "curious" to find out the meaning behind the father's actions. We realize early on that she is the one "writing" the story and then you really have to suspend belief to comprehend the plot , if you dont you will begin to wonder if this is "what really happened" or is it Sybil's imagination that we are reading. This fiction within fiction is nothing more than a distraction and the book could have been written well without it. Its a great book though, just try to ignore the flaws. A good filmmaker could make a wonderful movie out of it, if they do it right.
2.0 out of 5 stars
this disappointing book needed a good editor,
By Alexanderplatz (Kentucky) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Voyage: A Novel (Paperback)
The author of this book obviously lacks a good editor who could have told him to dump the entire framing device of the modern-day narrator. The story of the three boys on the ship is compelling enough that you might overlook some of its flaws, but the interruption by the narrator disrupts completely the ability of the reader to suspend disbelief. It's like the author had all this backstory he wanted to include, and ended up tacking it all on at the end with the narrator's story. Besides that glaring flaw, the book also lacked fully fleshed out characters. The boys sail down the coast and meet up with a series of two-dimensional people whose only distinguishing characteristics are their various vernacular speech patterns. A more politically-correct type than myself might call some of them racist, but to me it was just dull and disappointing, especially since the premise of three brothers cast out to sea by their stern father is such a great starting point for an exciting novel. Too bad this one sank.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sailors - Stay away!,
By
This review is from: The Voyage (Hardcover)
Well, there's a reason this book is a bargain. One major and inexusable problem with it is that Philip Caputo failed utterly in his background research for this book. It is quite obvious that he knows nothing about sailing, let alone sailing traditionally-rigged boats, and he chose to make up for that deficiency by making it up as he went along. With page after page of mangled terminology (you don't haul on SHEETS to raise sails!), poor charachter developement, and dubious plot, I just couldn't take it any more and gave up. It comes off as something that was knocked together in a weekend and sold on the basis of previous sucess. This may sound a bit harsh, but I read several books a week and this is the only one in the past year or so that stands out as a truly bad book. It looks like this is being marketed towards the sailing adventure story crowd, and if you're a fan of that genre, I would highly recommend looking elsewere.
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