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No wait a minute, that would be Patterson.Give this one a pass. The anorexic daughter, the overweight younger son, the Stoner brother, with the too career focused mother. It seems that we are experiencing the literary equivalent of the production line that churns out the same artwork that is hung in cheap motel rooms. The disfunctional family Dunne sale together and provide the first set of cliches. A super villain has rigged the sail boat to blow up. The seeminly loving smarmy step father is actually an adulterous murderer. I cannot believe how weak the start of this story is. I received this audio book as a gift second hand, and I was glad for the fact as I would not pay for it.
Then.The daughter tries to kill herself. I think I have hit all of the cliches. I have read a lot of Patterson's and his collaborators work. Patterson's book seem to be specializing in neurotic women characters, hunky outdoor type hero men, and supremely irritating and downright stupid children. The boat starts to flood and sink.
This was a great book. At first I thought it was going to be all about the trip, but James Patterson came through again.
The female narrator was terrible. I got the audiobook abridged version. The way Katherine Dunn's role is written; first person diary style, really sucked too; its very choppy, no flow. The story was so so. I was hoping it would be a lot more of a sailing adventure; the title is misleading. I cringed everytime it was her turn to read (reading is split with a male narrator).
And with this book, I did. Patterson now has a number of books where he has co-authored with someone. Doesn't take a lot of reading effort 'cause the book hooks me in early, it's quite relaxing, I fly through the pages, and get the expected entertainment out of it.Sail is co-authored by Howard Roughan. The books still maintain his style - the large font, short chapters, often ending with an event that makes you want to turn the page to find out the what-is-it part.The Alex Cross series of books are still my favorites, but anytime I see another James Patterson book at the local Half Price Books clearance section that I haven't still read - then for a buck or two - I am usually pretty certain I'll get my entertainment value out of it. Read this book during the Christmas holidays. Generally knew what the ending was going to be, it's the how and what-will-happen-next parts that kept me turning the pages to the end.Last book of the year, and it was a quick read as always whenever I read a James Patterson book. So I wonder who really writes the book, Patterson or the co-author - and is his name there just for marketing purposes.
In the hands of a really good novelist that would have been the heart of the book. But I got the feeling while listening to it (I got the audiobook) that I it was like the "cliffs notes" to a great novel. I really never got the feeling that I "was there" if you know what I mean. The plot was actually really interesting. Two excellent readers, and really good production values all around. Their whole experience at sea really could have been given a much fuller treatment.
Every event seemed like it was just sort of summarized rather than described in detail, which was a bit frustrating.One thing I will say is that for those considering the audiobook, they did a great job with that production. I enjoyed Sail, and that's the bottom line, but it easily could have been a lot better. Many "extraordinary" things happen, and it has an interesting ending. But mostly the book seemed to focus on "who did what with their gun" etc, rather than what the characters were really going through.
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