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438 Days by Jonathan Franklin


5.0%



"Background. Flight from El Salvador. Bravery as fisherman and as rescuer of others. Marijuana, alcohol, danger of winds and currents, Hemingway life."
04/01page 50
17.0%"Remarkable book--very clean, beautiful prose. Ch. 1: Sharkers--background on Alvarenga. San Salvador . . . threat of death . . . move to Mexico . . . large personality . . . great skill as fisherman in Costa Azul. Ch. 2 Stormy tribe: Ray, regular helper, unavailable . . . threat of storm . . . self-confidence . . . need . . . hires Còrdoba . . . skill at sea . . . Còrdoba overmatched Ch. 3 Ambushed at sea:"
04/01page 55
19.0%"Ambushed at Sea: huge storm . . . Alveranga incredible skill . . . motor dies 15 miles from coast . . . fish catch dumped . . . "pinball game" with storm tossing them about. Ch. 4 Search and No Rescue: Alveranga's status leads to desire to rescue him despite danger . . . early stories of Alverenga: "I saw him with a bowl of dog pellets and he poured milk atop it and was eating it like cereal.""
04/01page 65
22.0%"Chapter 5: Adrift . . . blown by storm out to sea . . . bailing . . . thirst . . . hunger . . . shelter of sorts built from ice box . . . optimism . . . catches triggerfish with hands . . . makes hook out of guts of useless motor . . . garbage all around them . . . food all around, but sharks too . . . sea turtles, sunning, captured . . . meat, blood for liquid . . . Córdoba squeamish . . ."
04/01page 100
34.0%"Hunter Gatherers: Alveranga's desire to live . . . hunt turtles, birds, fish . . . making meals "gourmet" to entice the despondent Córdoba . . . mahimahi caught . . . hook lost! . . . A. creates a grocery store in his mind, and he shops for Córdoba to keep C's spirits up. "How do you catch a bird? I thought: Think like a cat.""
04/01page 110
38.0%"Steve Callahan, survivor of another shipwreck: "I have a pet theory that one of the most dangerous things you can do is to try to minimize risks. If you never falll on your face, nothing happens, and so when something big happens, you're totally unpreapared, you have no tool kit." p 101 Christmas dinner . . . Cordoba eats turtle meat with poison snake inside . . . sick, but recovers"
04/01page 110
38.0%"Chapter 7: A fight for life The Doldrums . . . rain . . . one mile per hour . . . waterspout . . . food and water, reminiscence of life on land . . . mothers, daughters etc. God, sort of . . . Córdoba drying up, turning into a skeleton . . . attempted suicide by throwing himself to sharks . . . Alvarenga stops him . . . starves himself, dies,Alveranga talks to the body as it mummifies, eases body into sea burial"

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