The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 2 June 2006
by John Casey
Dick Pierce is a fisherman in South County, Rhode Island. He ekes out a living with piecemeal work on boats, scraping for clams, and hiring himself out for various small jobs. All of this in the service of his ultimate dream of finishing his own lobster boat, the Spartina. Dick is a pretty powerful character, both in himself and in Casey's depiction of him. He carries around with him the pride of a swamp yankee. He is stubborn, won't easily accept the kindness of others, worries himself to distraction, and will go to almost any length not to be beholden to anyone. This makes Dick a bit of a difficult person to read about. But Dick's story is redeemed by his improbable good luck. He falls in with his wise-ass of a buddy, Parker, who drags Dick through some shady adventures along the coast. They narrowly escape arrest for smuggling. Dick comes out more crochety than ever, but a bit wiser, at least. He falls, then, into a love affair that catches him off-guard. And then he's out at sea when a huge hurricane bears down on Southern New England. And, somehow, Dick's luck pulls him through all of the misadventures that are aggravated by his stubborn pride. Dick's wife, May, is a translucent character who doesn't really come alive until late in the novel. His kids are growing up and Dick doesn't seem to realize that. His friends want to help him reach his dream, but his go-it-alone attitude almost turns them all away. The book rolls through all these developments, shot through by Dick's native good luck. We see his life, in a way, through the filter of his pride. Casey's depiction of fishing, of the coastal landscape, of riding through a hurricane are all spare and vivid without being in any way overbearing. There are bumps in the story, but there are moments of poetry. Dick struggles with life, often unecessarily, but learns a thing or two along the way. A modern-day adventure.
(For this book, Casey was awarded the 1989 National Book Award for fiction.)