5.0% | "Background. Flight from El Salvador. Bravery as fisherman and as rescuer of others. Marijuana, alcohol, danger of winds and currents, Hemingway life." | |||
| 04/01 | page 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:" | |
| 04/01 | page 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."" | |
| 04/01 | page 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 . . ." | |
| 04/01 | page 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."" | |
| 04/01 | page 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" | |
| 04/01 | page 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" |
Follows Sadie and Sam (Mazer) from childhood to mid-thirties when both are feeling old and a bit out of it in the gaming world. Characters are well-rounded, develop throughout the novel in interesting way. Plot is involved but sensible. Not a single, "Oh, come on!" moment. The book could have been faster paced. Odd, since the main topic is video games which are not for their speed of engagement and Gabrielle Zevin clearly knows her video games. Recommended by Michael Connelly in an interview. He also has Bosch pick up the book in his novel, Resurrection Walk, as Bosch tails a possible witness to a crime as she moves through a bookstore. Sadie and Sam do not get together at the end, which is good. Marx killed by homophobic nutcase who really wants to kill Sam, but Sam isn't there. Marx is father of Sadie's child.
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