Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
By: Erik Larson / Narrated By: Richard Davidson
Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
A tragic tale of hubris… engaging once you get past the stuff that makes you doze off…
Ya know what?
I’ve tried reading a couple o’ Erik Larson books (Reading, like actual print and paper! Right…?!), and I’ve DNFed ‘em. Something I do NOT do with audiobooks. How, oh how, can a person offer edifying remarks, a complete review if one hasn’t had the common decency, the curiosity to see if something Gets Any Better? OR if it ends all Whiz Bang WOW-ish? Ya know?
Okay, so here I am, going into Isaac’s Storm after Listening to, LOVING! The Splendid and the Vile, a definite Fave. High bar, y’all; reeeeally HIGH BAR.
So the first time I dozed off in THIS Listen, I was a wee bit irked. Certainly it was the story’s fault as I had scarfed neither TexMex Trail Mix nor some other Carb/Sugar-laden snackies. Stuff that knocks me out. Nope, here it was definitely the writing. A slow start, just like in the E. Larson print books I’d attempted so long ago. There’s just sooo much background crud, sooo many historical intricacies added, stuff I can only think Uber-fascinated Larson sooo much that he had to twist it, turn it, include it all mostly in the beginning.
>YAWN<
But hold!
I NEVER DNF an audiobook, so I swilled some caffeine, kept with this… AND? Dude! Whiz Bang WOW!!!
Do NOT give up on this because as once past a LOT of info on our (Non)hero Isaac Cline’s background and history gets a thorough going over, as well as the ins and outs of weather/weather forecasting? it picks up. But mostly? The inCREDible hubris of the time, 1900, where the Men of the Day (And I tell you, it’s ALL men here, the women here have to rely on themselves as the menfolk think and act as tho’ all was Fine and Dandy) truly believe that they’ve evolved to the point of being able to change the weather (Gunpowder blasts to the sky/clouds to get rain), to forecast exACTly.
Larson meticulously describes the state of affairs of nationalistic forecasting (Cuba had sooo many run-ins with hurricanes that they were far and away ahead of the U.S., but alas! America thought better of themselves). Further, there was the order that the word “hurricane” NEVER be used as the Powers That Be deemed it too dramatic a word, one apt to cause panic. Even at the cost of, well, safety matters that might save lives.
Cline bought into it all and, as Larson weaves in and out of this story, writing in a nonlinear fashion, we come to see that, tho’ Cline eVENtually came to sound an alarm, we find that post-devastation, he crafted statements so that he was a hero, took such actions that saved 3,000! no! make that 6,000! lives. It’s galling… but very interesting and engaging, esPECially when the storm hits.
What begins as delight, streets flooded for children to play in, soon turns into a nightmare of indescribable horror. Indescribable? Scratch that as Larson describes the absolute mayhem and horrific death that came to Galveston. All, the devastation, the disbelief, the absolute fear and insecurity that each citizen felt, wondering where on earth to go, whether or not their abodes were safe places to survive, are perfectly written. Isaac’s Storm is utter perfection as various individuals hunker down, trying to simply live through the chaos and terror.
This is one sad, sad tale by book’s end, with post-storm eyewitness accounts of people who’d considered tales (Filtered back to weather headquarters and such places) to be overblown. But as trains rolled in, the stench of death became all too real. The discovery of the dead, the people who didn’t make it is tragic, especially since the people who DID make it would have to live forever more with their personal tragedies.
At first, since I was dozing fitfully away, I’d rather dinged Richard Davidson’s narration. After all, the man ain’t no John Lee (Think: The Splendid and the Vile’s soaring performance!). But he’s an American, and this is an American tragedy. And soon? Well, once past the minutiae, the plodding ins and outs, the facts that seemingly have no place in the telling, the stuff that must’ve made Larson, as a historical journalist, excited, Davidson does well. This is, after all, a story of men (Dismissive jerks) and women (Confused and left to survive on their own, some of them, uhm, a lot of them), of children forever scarred, and so Davidson does well. And when we come to the aftermath, his somber tones bring the tragedy front and center into the modern mind of the Listener.
Well done, engaging as all Get-Out.
Just take my advice and stick with it to the Unbearable.
And for gosh sake! Do NOT eat any TexMex Trail Mix during the beginning, or you’re a Goner…!
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