Isaac’s storm: A man, a time, and the deadliest hurricane in history
Book Review
Introduction
About The Book And Author:
The fiction based history book of Isaac’s storm is written by Erik Larson. The author has outlined the details of the biggest hurricane of American History. The book is about a proud nation of Galveston and also about a meteorologist- Isaac Cline, who overlooked the symptoms of a hurricane due to their life’s success and festivities. Nature proved them completely wrong (Lohmann, 2008). The novel is written by Columbia University journalist and non-fiction author, with a work history with ‘The Wall Street Journal’, ‘Time Magazine’ and several other publications, Erik Larson. He enlists five New York Times bestsellers in his profile. The books include: Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, The Devil in white city, Thunderstruck and Isaac’s Storm. His book The Devil in the White City won an ‘Edgar Award’; it was even considered for movie making by Leonardo DiCaprio and became finalist for ‘National Book Award’. Currently he is living in Seattle with his wife and three children (Lohmann, 2008).
Critical Summary
Summary
The book is starting from Sep 7, 1900 when Isaac Monroe Cline observes the strange weather condition. Mr. Isaac was meteorologist and pedagogue; he worked at the newly built Weather Bureau who sent him to Galveston. He lived with his wife and three daughters. He woke up during the night time, sensing the presence of something wrong. The narrator of the story described Isaac to be a strict and punctual man regarding his daily schedule. Apparently, he was a self-effacing and modest man; after becoming acquainted people realize it is only his confidence. His firmness by his routine made him hard. In 1900s, scientists did not know the exact causes and reasons behind the formation of a hurricane from a large storm. There were different concepts, some scientists believed the flapping of a butterfly to be the source of a hurricane, caused by the domino effect. The town previously boasted itself as an advanced, modern community with respect to technology, instruments and prosperity in all aspects of life. It was in competition with Houston. Galveston was in bowl shaped geography, right on the coast and next to Gulf Coast. The residents were unaware of the geographical impacts; even Isaac predicted the chances of hurricane in Galveston to be none. We, the readers of today know these scientific guesses are wrong (prezi.com, 2013).
Use Of Concepts And Story Techniques:
Larson is a non-fiction writer, who is not a natural in science; still he studied and presented the scientific concepts lightly. He did not go into intricate scientific details, dug deep into the life of Isaac and people of Galveston. The book is entertaining and written in a novel form (Lohmann, 2008).
There is suspense in the organization of ideas and storyline. Science is presented in the most interesting formatting. The environmental details of hurricane are connected with life stories of people in a novel like format (Lohmann, 2008). The book is written in third person narrative style with a participation of voices, and participants of the living time. Larson has done a detailed research of the hurricane by using reports, telegrams, logs and personal accounts of the eye witness of the real incident (Lohmann, 2008).
Conclusion
The book has brought the detailed information about the historical disaster in one place, from various sources. Larson has compiled the stories of many people who suffered from the hurricane in 1900 and are part of his book too. The writer has done his research in detail and presented them in an interesting and fluent manner. The Galveston hurricane was bureaucratic incident, but Isaac avoided pinpointing such extreme ends of history. The facts and figures are presented in a captivating format; the Larson has not gone into the extreme details of hurricane, instead he has focused upon the stories of people, especially that of Isaac Cline (Lohmann, 2008).
Bibliography
Larson, Erik. Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Lohmann, Jennifer. "Book Discussion Guide." NoveList. March 2008. Accessed March 9, 2016. http://novselect.ebscohost.com/Display/TreeNodeContent?format=html&profile=s7762 05.main.novsel2&password=dGJyMOPY8U2vpgAA&ui=428071&schema=http:&sour e=163226&version=2.1&print=true.
Larson, Erik. 1999. Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History.
Prezi.com. April 17, 2013. Accessed March 08, 2016. https://prezi.com/ceeiasvt7pem/isaacs storm-a-man-a-time-and-the-deadliest-hurricane-in-history-by-eric-larson/.
Kulb, Loretta. "Erik Larson - Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History - Book Review." BookPage.com. Accessed March 08, 2016. https://bookpage.com/reviews/706-erik-larson-isaacs-storm-man-time-deadliest-hurricane-history#.Vt8FU3197IU.
