Book Review

Isaac's Storm

By: Erik Larson 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=isaac's%20storm&sprefix=isaac's%20,aps,204&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aisaac's%20storm

The book Isaac’s Storm written by Erik Larson describes the hurricane that hit Galveston in September 1900.  The author uses the real stories and descriptions of the hurricane from people living in that time period. The book focuses on the life of the weather man Isaac Cline and his experience in Galveston and working for the National Weather Bureau. Erik Larson uses these personal accounts to show how politics, overconfidence, and pride caused one of the worst disasters in US history.

The author separates the story into six different parts as well as a prelude. The prelude describes Isaac’s day before the storm.  The author uses this to set the scene for the events to come and to give a good description of life in Galveston in the 1900’s.

The first part of the book “The Law of Storms” describes many things that had happened before the hurricane. Erik Larson describes how Isaac Cline started working for the Weather Bureau. He gives a good description of the Weather Bureau and the controversy and politics that caused them to be very defensive and take a passive role in forecasting the weather. He also gives very good descriptions of the storm from boats that were out at sea at the time.

 In the second part of the book “the Serpent’s Coil” Erik Larson uses several different people’s descriptions of life in Galveston at that time and continues to give a description of the sea and the formation of the storm from boat captains. He also discusses the controversy that was happening in Cuba with the Weather Bureau and the local forecasters. This was a great example of how the disaster could have been much less destructive because the local forecasters predicted the storm to hit Texas but were not allowed to send out a telegram and report it due to the Weather Bureau insisting they be banned from sending telegrams.  

In the third and fourth part of the book, “Spectacle” and “Cataclysm”, Erik Larson describes the storm as it hits Galveston. He uses the different people’s descriptions in a way that gives the reader such a good image of what it must have been like in the storm and the helps the reader realize how powerful the storm actually was and what kind of an impact it had of the people in Galveston .

The fifth part of the book,“Strange News”, described the destruction that was done by the hurricane. Erik Larson vividly describes the gruesome sights such as dead bodies scattered all over and neighborhoods that were completely destroyed.

The last part of the book is fittingly called “Haunted” where Erik Larson describes the life of Isaac Cline, Joseph Cline, and a few others after the storm.  He describes how the hurricane had forever changed their lives and how Isaac Cline though out his life still wondered about the choices he had made that day.  

I thought the book was very well written. Erik Larson did a very good job of bringing a lot of information together into a very well organized story.  He described life in Galveston in the 1900’s with a large amount of detail which set the scene and gave me a good image of what it was like at that time. He also described the hurricane perfectly without becoming overly technical or making it fictional. Isaac’s Storm was the best historical book I have ever read and would highly recommend it to anyone.