What do you think?
Rate this book
The Sea Devil
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 4, 2021
This week's short story began with a bee in my bonnet.
I had finished rereading this classic example of the man vs. nature conflict for my May reread challenge selection (review to follow) and I couldn't stop thinking about a story I read once upon a time that was also a huge example of this same kind of conflict, about a man and a giant Manta ray in the Gulf of Mexico. The thing is, I couldn't remember the name of the story or the author. I did, however, remember vividly reading it in seventh grade as part of my reading textbook. I googled the ever living shit out of everything I could think of (including stories from seventh grade reading and literature textbooks from the mid to late 90s) and nothing was ringing a bell. I was about to throw in the towel when I came across a PDF of this story dug deep in the interwebz and I realized
This was a simplistic tale of survival that I really enjoyed reading again after 20+ years. One evening, off the coast of western Florida, a young fisherman is out alone at dusk in a small fishing boat. He fishes because he loves it, loves the solitude, loves the connection to the gulf and nature. After catching a small mullet and relishing in the glory of the catch, he casts his net when suddenly he finds himself at the mercy of a gigantic 9 foot long, 1000 pound Manta ray when it becomes entangled in his net, a net that he has attached to his own wrist with a slipknot. This story is one man's fight to survive against a freak accident of nature, and it is really effective in showing how bitchy nature really is.
I took a few stars off for the very lengthy descriptions of fishing and fishing equipment at the beginning that I did not find enlightening or interesting, but otherwise this story held up to my 13 year old self's rememberance of it.
The premise of a man vs. a giant sea creature never gets old.
3.5 stars.
You can read this one for FREE here:
https://cpb-ca-c1.wpmucdn.com/myriver...
I had finished rereading this classic example of the man vs. nature conflict for my May reread challenge selection (review to follow) and I couldn't stop thinking about a story I read once upon a time that was also a huge example of this same kind of conflict, about a man and a giant Manta ray in the Gulf of Mexico. The thing is, I couldn't remember the name of the story or the author. I did, however, remember vividly reading it in seventh grade as part of my reading textbook. I googled the ever living shit out of everything I could think of (including stories from seventh grade reading and literature textbooks from the mid to late 90s) and nothing was ringing a bell. I was about to throw in the towel when I came across a PDF of this story dug deep in the interwebz and I realized
This was a simplistic tale of survival that I really enjoyed reading again after 20+ years. One evening, off the coast of western Florida, a young fisherman is out alone at dusk in a small fishing boat. He fishes because he loves it, loves the solitude, loves the connection to the gulf and nature. After catching a small mullet and relishing in the glory of the catch, he casts his net when suddenly he finds himself at the mercy of a gigantic 9 foot long, 1000 pound Manta ray when it becomes entangled in his net, a net that he has attached to his own wrist with a slipknot. This story is one man's fight to survive against a freak accident of nature, and it is really effective in showing how bitchy nature really is.
I took a few stars off for the very lengthy descriptions of fishing and fishing equipment at the beginning that I did not find enlightening or interesting, but otherwise this story held up to my 13 year old self's rememberance of it.
The premise of a man vs. a giant sea creature never gets old.
3.5 stars.
You can read this one for FREE here:
https://cpb-ca-c1.wpmucdn.com/myriver...
Displaying 1 of 1 review