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The Lonely Voyage
The gripping tale of one boy’s journey into manhood… and towards war.
Jess Ferigo, a young man with few prospects other than growing old in the same town he has always known, dreams of a life at sea, much to the ire of his family.
Making the tough decision to leave his old life behind, he takes up a position in charge of poaching on a battered trawler, accompanied by Pat Fee and Old Boxer, a wreck of an educated man who redeems Jess.
As he leaves his boyhood behind, bitter years are followed by the Second World War where Old Boxer and Jess make a poignant rescue on the sand dunes of Dunkirk. After years of searching, finally Jess Ferigo's lonely voyage is over.
Jess Ferigo, a young man with few prospects other than growing old in the same town he has always known, dreams of a life at sea, much to the ire of his family.
Making the tough decision to leave his old life behind, he takes up a position in charge of poaching on a battered trawler, accompanied by Pat Fee and Old Boxer, a wreck of an educated man who redeems Jess.
As he leaves his boyhood behind, bitter years are followed by the Second World War where Old Boxer and Jess make a poignant rescue on the sand dunes of Dunkirk. After years of searching, finally Jess Ferigo's lonely voyage is over.
287 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 19, 2021
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10 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 30, 2021
Found at last: a valuable and very fine modern expose
The covid lockdown endured by so many did, however, provide the opportunity to embrace with curiosity and some courage all manner and types of today,s efforts with the written expression. My overall opinion is one of near outrage that writers and propped up professional critics could possibly recommend much authorial attempts to the reading and purchasing public. Many current authors, mainly of the fiction genre, and for myself essentially, the crime and mystery category i approached for the first time, away from my usual choice of nonfiction including history, the social and political sciences and medicine. i anticipated a profitable duration during which i anticipated to be entertained, to be amused, to be edified, to be enthused, to be immersed with the development of the situation and carried to an eventual satisfactory conclusion having with the story,s progress be charmed, be impressed with the author,s command indeed be impressed with a distinguished example and command of the written word. What has been my experiene over the past angst riven expeditionary eighteen months of searching for that commendable read. I have discovered much fetid tosh, page after page of disagreeable and offensive language indicating a shallowness, an insolence or laziness of thinking, a stubborn resort to the modern idium found for example in the defaced walls of railway cuttings and drab hoardings behind which dwell the bricks and mortar of the motivational delinquent developer.
What a surprise, what a delight to stumble on The Lonely Voyage. Though not of the unqualified grandeur of Joseph Conrad the artistry evoking the sea and attendant characters was memorable. The unrelenting sordiness of the onshore personalities such as Ma, Boxer, Minnie; the heros such as Dig, Yorky and of course Jesse with his frailties yet promise with growing maturity and ratifying lifes perversities; the central and occasional personalities often recalled those coveted roles in D H Lawrence interpretations of the immigrant soul. The sea is the motiffe and utilised and applied with professional authority and artistry by Hennessy. This was a satisfying experience and a book that was unexpected in the tosh that is proffered as superior material in a dumbed down world.
The covid lockdown endured by so many did, however, provide the opportunity to embrace with curiosity and some courage all manner and types of today,s efforts with the written expression. My overall opinion is one of near outrage that writers and propped up professional critics could possibly recommend much authorial attempts to the reading and purchasing public. Many current authors, mainly of the fiction genre, and for myself essentially, the crime and mystery category i approached for the first time, away from my usual choice of nonfiction including history, the social and political sciences and medicine. i anticipated a profitable duration during which i anticipated to be entertained, to be amused, to be edified, to be enthused, to be immersed with the development of the situation and carried to an eventual satisfactory conclusion having with the story,s progress be charmed, be impressed with the author,s command indeed be impressed with a distinguished example and command of the written word. What has been my experiene over the past angst riven expeditionary eighteen months of searching for that commendable read. I have discovered much fetid tosh, page after page of disagreeable and offensive language indicating a shallowness, an insolence or laziness of thinking, a stubborn resort to the modern idium found for example in the defaced walls of railway cuttings and drab hoardings behind which dwell the bricks and mortar of the motivational delinquent developer.
What a surprise, what a delight to stumble on The Lonely Voyage. Though not of the unqualified grandeur of Joseph Conrad the artistry evoking the sea and attendant characters was memorable. The unrelenting sordiness of the onshore personalities such as Ma, Boxer, Minnie; the heros such as Dig, Yorky and of course Jesse with his frailties yet promise with growing maturity and ratifying lifes perversities; the central and occasional personalities often recalled those coveted roles in D H Lawrence interpretations of the immigrant soul. The sea is the motiffe and utilised and applied with professional authority and artistry by Hennessy. This was a satisfying experience and a book that was unexpected in the tosh that is proffered as superior material in a dumbed down world.
September 26, 2021
Depressing
What a sad tale with only a slight lift at the end. I realise that war time Britain was a tough place to live this book brings it home in spades.
What a sad tale with only a slight lift at the end. I realise that war time Britain was a tough place to live this book brings it home in spades.
October 24, 2021
Slow start
A very slow start followed by an even slower mid section. Saved by a reasonably action filled ending that added to my knowledge of conditions at the evacuation.
A very slow start followed by an even slower mid section. Saved by a reasonably action filled ending that added to my knowledge of conditions at the evacuation.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews