This is a rich and gripping tale of adventure, courage, and persisting effects of long-held secrets. "The Voyage" is a powerful novel about a family whose ways and deeds were once a template for a nation.
The Voyage: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries)
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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.
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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
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
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By A Customer
Format: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.
Format: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.
Format: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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3.9 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sailors - Stay away!
Well, there's a reason this book is a bargain. One major and inexcusable problem with it is that Philip Caputo failed utterly in his background research for this book. Read more
Published on Feb 7 2002 by Jeffrey C. Haines
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like a sandwich: the meat was great, the bread was okay
Caputo's story of three teenage brothers and their journey of personal discovery held me captive. However, Caputo almost lost me through the first 50 pages, and again in the last... Read more
Published on Dec 17 2001 by E.S. Kraay
4.0 out of 5 stars
down by the sea ...
If you're vacationing by the sea and/or enjoy seafaring novels, this book is for you, despite its few faults. Read more
Published on Aug 16 2001
3.0 out of 5 stars
Contrived
A good sea story with an interesting concept and a very good overview of the New England society of its time. Read more
Published on Aug 7 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best read for the summer of 2001!
... Without giving away the story this is at the same time a great adventure, a travelogue of America in 1900, and most important a haunting family history. In a class of its own.
Published on July 26 2001 by Steve Sora
5.0 out of 5 stars
A voyage like non other....
A most remarkable book - told in such poignant detail and riveting prose the reader feels like he is part of the action. This is a perfect telling of a not so perfect storm. Read more
Published on Mar 30 2001 by V. Eglit
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Engaging Seafaring Tale
This is the first of Philip Caputo's books that I have read, but I suspect it won't be the last. Since I had just published a novel that also involved boys sailing in days gone by... Read more
Published on Mar 25 2001 by Ben Erickson
5.0 out of 5 stars
history lesson
I first read about this book in the Internation Herald Tribune and was intrigued enough to read it as soon as I could, not because of the story, initially, but because I love... Read more
Published on Sep 1 2000 by bethannes
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Seafaring Nailbiter
The Voyage is a family story. It's a seafaring yarn. It's a gripping, can't put down nailbiter. Caputo tells a gripping tale of four kids against the sea. Read more
Published on Aug 17 2000 by Jerry D Young
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unique creation
This book takes you on a voyage of adventure as four young men (teenagers, mostly) set sail from Maine on orders from their strange father. Read more
Published on Aug 17 2000 by Robert S. Mellis
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