Finding North: How Navigation Makes Us Human

by George Michelsen Foy

Navigation is the key human skill. It's something we do everywhere, whether feeling our way through a bedroom in the dark, or charting a ship's course. But how does navigation affect our brains, our memory, ourselves? Blending scientific research and memoir, and written in beautiful prose, Finding North starts with a quest by the author to understand this most basic of human skills---and why it's in mortal peril.

In 1844, Foy's great-great grandfather, captain of a Norwegian cargo ship, perished at sea after getting lost in a snowstorm. Foy decides to unravel the mystery surrounding Halvor Michelsen's death---and the roots of his own obsession with navigation---by re-creating his ancestor's trip using only period instruments.

Beforehand, he meets a colorful cast of characters to learn whether men really have better directional skills than women, how cells, eels, and spaceships navigate; and how tragedy results from GPS glitches. He interviews a cabby who has memorized every street in London, sails on a Haitian cargo sloop, and visits the site of a secret navigational cult in Greece.

At the heart of Foy's story is this navigation and the brain's memory centers are inextricably linked. As Foy unravels the secret behind Halvor's death, he also discovers why forsaking our navigation skills in favor of GPS may lead not only to Alzheimers and other diseases of memory, but to losing a key part of what makes us human.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Travel, History, Psychology, Cartography, Memoir

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2016

About the author

GEORGE MICHELSEN FOY is the author of ZERO DECIBELS: The Quest for Absolute Silence, and twelve critically acclaimed novels. He is the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship in fiction. His articles, reviews, and stories have been published by Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Harper's, The New York Times, and Men's Journal, among others, and he has been an investigative reporter, writer, and/or editor for BusinessWeek, The International Herald Tribune, and The Cape Cod Register. He teaches creative writing at New York University and is married with two children. Foy divides his time between coastal Massachusetts and New York.

Reviews

[Lisa Cobb Sabatini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won Finding North: How Navigation Makes Us Human by George Michelsen Foy from Goodreads.

Part fascinating research, part memoir, part rollicking adventure, George Michelsen Foy's book, Finding North: How Navigation Makes Us Human, is a must read for anyone who enjoys seafaring adventure and human studies.

Foy takes readers into the labs of scientists, doctors, and other researchers who share their vast knowledge in understandable ways, helping readers to feel comfortable with complex theories, research, and discoveries. His own experiences, as well as family stories handed down through generations, are a welcome addition to Foy's serious research.

Readers hold their breaths as they virtually accompany Foy on risky voyages at sea, and then catch their breaths as the author's moving accounts of his own realizations bring home the importance of not only human navigation, but also human connections to one another.

Heart pounding, heart wrenching, and heart touching, George Michelsen Foy's research into his family history and the significance of navigation to us all, Finding North, is a powerful tale that leaves the reader pondering all of life.

[Brakob Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not what I was expecting. It was part science. Mostly memoir. Part mystery. I did enjoy the book but it at times felt quite meandering. Which maybe is the point as the book is about navigation and much of it deals with how we find our way when we are lost.

There are sections of the book where George Foy speaks with researchers dealing with navigation. And he casts a wide net with what "navigation" encompasses. Physical navigation with a sextant, for instance. But also how to navigate life when one has Alzheimer's. How to navigate grammar.

Most of the book is about him trying to find the truth behind the wreck of a ship his grandfather captained that was lost in a storm killing his 31 year old grandfather in the late 1800s. He strives to recreate how his grandfather sailed in his own boat the Odyssey using only the technology his grandfather had at the time.

It is also a story of loss. His brother died and much of the book is about how big a loss that was for him, and how he had to learn to navigate the world without him.

So if you don't mind a bit of a roving story line, the writing is very good and the book is informative and interesting.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance reading copy as a giveaway. The writing in this book is very good, but I found myself struggling to be engaged in the topic of navigation. The author makes may interesting observations about navigation, but overstretches in his attempt to identify a navigation gene and to link the use of GPS technology to rising rates of Alzheimer's. This book may be of interest to those who are innately interested in navigation, but this is likely a niche group of readers.

[Honza Prchal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise is good and the author broadly educated, but, more than his political asides (denouncing Thatcher's permission for franchises to set up shop in London is almost bizarre, and rankly entitled, to boot - don't let young people live so I can have my quaint, poor memories!) bothered me, his habit of naming and describing former lovers really put me off. I never realized how Victorian morality makes sense until I heard him repeatedly violating some of the most sacred rules, like never speak ill of a lady, as when I heard him do so without actually realizing he were doing so, as if he were talking to a psychologist about his regrets. In some ways he spoke of his former lovers better than he did his wife and mother of his children, so that for a while I wondered if he were still married (he is). He sounds like a far worse person than he likely is as a result.
When coupled with George Michelsen Foy's habit of jumping about from navigation to neuroscience to personal recollections without a very good organizing thread, I'd recommend this only to people interested in Norwegian history, quirky people in Martha's Vineyard, or free association about navigation.
The book started promisingly, but only the truly excellent narration by Tom Zingarelli kept me listening once it was clear he wasn't going to find what he was looking for, but rather was content to fool himself that he had.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about navigation. The author's great-great-grandfather went down with his ship in a snowstorm off the coast of Norway in 1844. Foy wants to sail his own ship on a trip of the same length, using only the navigational skills and equipment available to his ancestor. This is also about personal sense of direction and finding one's way every day. He fears that GPS and other technical aids are diminishing our natural navigational skills. But what I found most interesting is his discussion of how the loss of someone close to us--parent, sibling, lover, spouse--removes landmarks and anchors from our lives. and we must re-orient ourselves to the new environment.

[Jerry Wall · Rating 2 out of 5]

quotes and follows E. M. Forster rule that there are two plots, a person goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. In the case of this book the author goes on a journey to find the death place of
of an ancestor died in 1844 in a shipwreck. On the journey, which takes him to a spot in the Atlantic off New England where he thinks his ancestor with down the storm wrecked ship.
Many diversions on ship repairs, ancient navigation techniques, etc. Teaches himself how to use
a sextant and brushes up on map and old newspaper reading. Much family lore and ship and sailing and navigation on land and sea as he researches and finally goes to the spot he feels is the place of the wreck.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointed. If you are in the Foy family perhaps the info about his great grandfather sea captain experience will be worth your time. Otherwise this is a story of a limited experience boat owner taking a 120 mile summer trip from Cape Cod to Maine and trying to relate it to 1800's sailing off Norway in winter storms when Great Grandpa Capt perished.
No real navigation or maritime value to to this book for a sailor. Perhaps some interest if you care about animals ability to navigate.

This is not a "niche" book for experienced mariners as one 5 star review claims. I know because I am a lifetime Master Mariner with an Unlimited Ocean license and I have sailed the world.

[Gry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really uneven. It was not immediately a page-turner for me, but it was still pretty good so I kept going. There is a lot going on here: A shipwreck of the author's ancestor, scientific questions about the effects of GPS technology on our brains, debating the pros and cons of old navigational methods versus new ones, and "navigating" the loss of loved ones and familiar features in our lives. This is a huge scope for the book, and some sections were notably more engaging than others. I found the last quarter of the book to be by far the most interesting.

[Isaac Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Foy is a talented writer. However, he is far too interested in telling his own story to give much space to anything not directly tied to his experiences. In doing so, what could have been an interesting book on navigation and how it makes us human read much more as a memoir which I slogged through because I am fascinated by maps. There’s a lot of interesting material in here, but Foy can’t find the distance from his own experiences necessary to offer more than a faint outline to his readers. 2.5 stars.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Story of Family

I picked it up because of an interest in celestial navigation. Tangentially, that was its topic. But it was more about family history and searching to understand enough of the techniques of navigating over a century ago to discern the causes of a shipwreck that defined his family.

[Jacquelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure that I have the words to describe the way this book has stuck with me weeks after finishing it. Foy is an expert storyteller and the book is not chronological but skips around by theme (not in an annoying way). It is part treatise on technology and part personal memoir, mixed in with some social commentary and a lot of vulnerability about grief and loss.

[Sandi Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a giveaway.
I’m glad I read this book as it was even more interesting than anticipated.
If you’ve ever yearned to go to sea, travel explore this book taps into that. If you sail, fly, travel even better!
Thank you for gifting me this book.

[Doug Wiseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but he does not really make a strong case for the argument that navigation makes us human. If you like sailing books and history you will find this enjoyable.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author's narcissism gets a bit tiresome.

[Dewayne Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some interesting information here but his sailing skills left me at a loss.

[Fernanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: https://bit.ly/2Vhk0P6

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance reading copy as a giveaway. I have a hard time describing this book or the author's main point in a nutshell - I suppose, loss (physical or emotional) is disorienting, and navigation helps us recover from this and find our way again. The author explored this through investigating an ancestor's death at sea, and recreating his voyage using traditional navigational tools to sail a similar distance offshore in the Gulf of Maine, as well as in retracing the actual final voyage of his ancestor in Norway. All of this was interspersed with interviews with various experts in fields related to navigation, seafaring, GPS, cell signalling, etc, and with tales of the author's personal losses - primarily, the recent death of his brother.

If this sounds like a lot of random stuff to jam in a book, it was. It didn't quite flow into a cohesive unit for me. Truthfully, I struggled to stay engaged in this story. I found the author's writing style (he's a creative writing teacher) was ineffective for addressing the "science" sections. I think the author took many of his conclusions way too far, based on the available evidence. I get that the author says a place can bring back a memory...but so can a sound, or a smell, or a taste, or many other things. And I still don't really totally get what that has to do with navigation (other than that it affects our "mind maps", or whatever he called them).

And for a book about navigation...would it have killed them to include a map of the route of Halvor's last journey?! That's what the book was about, right? That would have been helpful!

Oh, and when you live on the Cape, and you own a boat, and you have an apartment in NYC - claiming you leave the lights off on the staircase of your house and stub your toes in the dark to "lower expenses" is freaking irritating and insulting.

I think there are people who will really enjoy this book. I'm a Navy navigator's daughter, a former sailing coach, and have a background in science - I thought this book would be right up my alley. For me, the sailing parts are the only ones that really clicked.

[June]

Entertaining and mellow reflection on navigation, the human faculty of finding our way around in our world. The heart of the story, is seeking to explain the death of an ancestor whose ship went down off the coast of Norway – the author not only visits the place, but re-enacts a similar voyage, attempting to use the same methods of navigation as were used in the past. I received a copy in the Goodreads Giveaways program.

He also models a different kind of exploration, by seeking knowledge not in a library or the Internet, but by seeking out people who possess the knowledge. His search for information takes him places like Haiti, to meet some sailors who (at least reputedly) use more traditional means of navigation; Colorado to look at the GPS control center; London, to talk with a cab driver who not only possesses, but teaches “The Knowledge” of London streets. He doesn’t look on the web for how to use a sextant, but finds someone that can give him lessons. He interviews neuroscientists that study how our brains help us find our way around, and early theories of how off-loading that work to GPS may alter how we think.

This is an enjoyable read and would be especially good read around the campfire, preferably after getting slightly lost in the woods and finding your way out again.

[Randy Harris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was such a disappointment. I’m amazed with all the negative reviews this book has received, that no one (that I can see) noticed the irony of how a book about navigation loses its way and goes so far off course. There is very little here about navigation (the two stars are for the bits that are) instead like some bad cable TV show about someone’s obsession about finding their family’s history it goes on and on and on about the loss of the writer’s great grandfather to a shipwreck in 1844. The book then spins further off course with endless details and pages and pages about the writer’s decision to re-enacted his great grandfather’s voyage, only not in Norway but on the US east coast. Huh?

[Brad B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like Finding North more, having thoroughly enjoyed Foy's previous non-fiction book Zero Decibels. Finding North has a lot of interesting information, but the text meandered too much for my taste, without enough depth to really make a strong case. Just as the author delved into one aspect of navigation, he quickly returned to his personal story (which is quite interesting but too choppy to get fully engrossed in). Mr. Foy seems like a fascinating character, someone I would much enjoy a conversation with over a cup of tea. But Finding North could have used a little more editorial navigating to find its own way home.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book, but it is, by turns, so filled with technical jargon, flowery descriptions and maudlin sentimentality, that the point is often lost, or at least the point I was expecting was lost. Every once in a while the author breaks through the fog, the real kind of which he so fears, to make his point that our total reliance on navigational technology is doing real damage to our brains. Unfortunately, such nuggets of wisdom are too few and too far between. Disappointing.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book by a new author for me. I thought this book would be more about the technical aspects of navigation and was pleasantly surprised to find this book a personal and historical account of navigation. The author intertwines his personal life, challenges, losses, history, and interests into a unique blend that becomes an informative book on navigation.

I really liked this story and found it interesting and informative. Look forward to more reading from this author.

[Doug Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not what I expected/hoped for and I only made it through about 1/3 of the way. There's probably enough interesting information to make up a good magazine article, but the rest is way too much about the author himself. I also didn't care for the writing style. The author teaches creative writing and got a bit carried away with flowery writing, stretched metaphors, etc.

[Tory · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a 'giveaway'. I kept picking it up and then putting it down, I just didn't want to stick with it. I admire the author's intent, connecting navigation to memory, and as someone who still uses maps instead of GPS, I really wanted to like this book more.

[Portia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be very interesting and informative. Particularly how the GPS works..all-in-all a book worth reading.