by John Casey
First published 1991
Dick Pierce stares at the fifty-foot hull sitting incomplete in his backyard. The commercial fisherman once made his living from Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, but those days are gone. Now he works for others, swallowing his pride until anger erupts at the wrong moments. His wife worries about money. His family needs stability. But Pierce cannot let go of Spartina, the boat that represents everything he wants to be. Without funds for an engine, he makes a reckless choice that puts him in danger. When a storm hits and Pierce finds himself battling the sea in his unfinished vessel, he faces the ultimate test of his dream. The waves don't care about his financial troubles or his wounded pride. They only respond to seamanship and will. Casey won the 1989 National Book Award for this story of a man who refuses to abandon his vision of himself, even when the cost threatens to destroy everything else he holds dear.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, redemption, slice-of-life
Setting: Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island
Period: 20th Century
384 pages · Paperback · Sceptre