We, the Drowned

This is an epic story of three generations of sailors from the seafaring town of Marstal, Denmark. It is narrated alternately from a third person omniscient point of view and from the point of view of an unnamed Marstaller, which gives the impression that the town itself is narrating the story. Unlike some of my favorite seafaring novels, this book does not romanticize the life of a sailor–many of the characters, both at sea and on land, are brutal, and the conditions awful. I wondered whether I would make it through the whole book. But by the time I was sailing through Polynesia with Albert Madsen, in search of his father, the story had hooked me and I had to stay with it. I felt kinship with the youngsters in the story who survived their first brutal voyages as ships boys and came to realize that the sea had a hold on them that they did not want to escape.

This is a strange and wonderful novel.

It started off strong. I really liked Laurids, and the description of the battle and the aftermath. I also liked how the author used the collective “we”, it was a good writing style. But chapter 2, where it moves on to the town's kids, slowed way down and I lost interest. It probably picks back up but I don't have the energy to scan the book, looking for it to get good again.

There are bits of this book I really liked but, on finishing it, my feeling was one of meh! The final WWII section piled one incredible coincidence upon another - to the point where I assume the intention was to turn the entire story into just another of Herman's tall-tales.

It is a big book, but not an epic story.