Sailor Girl

By Sheree-Lee Olson

The Great Lakes serve as the setting for a powerful story about the men and women who labour upon them. Sheree-Lee Olson's protagonist, Kate, belying her contemporary suburban origins and current... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889843015
• ISBN13: 9780889843011
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Porcupine's Quill
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A beautiful book

This book tells the story of a confused college student who spends her summer working on freight liners on the Great Lakes. Kate, our protagonist, has gone to the boats to earn money, but she's also gone to escape her life: her seemingly too perfect sister, her parents' disappointment at her desire to become an artist, and an abusive boyfriend. On the boats Kate finds things that trouble her, like the rigid hierarchies, and the rampant sexism. But she also finds a substitute family, a group of people who care for one another in their own way. And Kate also finds danger. The aforementioned abusive boyfriend comes from the crew of her first boat, and Kate ultimately finds herself in more danger than she can possibly imagine. This is a book that tells an engaging story, but even more, this is a book about environment. Olson takes her reader to the lakes and their boats. We feel the storms, the waves, the tedium of the locks, and the residue cargoes leave behind. This is a world I didn't know existed, and Olson paints a brilliant picture. Kate is a spunky, likeable heroine, and she lives in a richly-created world. Olson creates a true sensory experience. The publisher, too, has created a sensory experience, as this is one of the most beautiful books I've had the pleasure of reading and holding. The text includes photographs and is printed on thick, textured paper. The inside covers are printed with color maps of the Great Lakes region. A pleasure to hold and a pleasure to read.

A tale of growing up done in an unusual and unique way

What drives a nineteen-year-old girl to find herself on a harsh ship? "Sailor Girl" is Kate McLeod's story of her time on a Great Lakes Grain boat. She is trying to get over a harsh relationship with a boyfriend who treated her as if she was sub human, and she finds comfort in the brutal labor that comes with being a sailor. A tale of growing up done in an unusual and unique way, "Sailor Girl" is highly recommended for its sweet blend of elements and original presentation.

Swooning for Sailor Girl

It's been a long time since I've read a book so full of gorgeous--and fresh--imagery (Sheree-Lee Olson would find a more inventive way of writing that). I loved the poetry of Olson's language, the feistiness of her lead character, Kate McLeod, and her knowing depiction of life aboard ship. I never expect to set foot on a Great Lakes freighter. Now I feel as if I have.

An extraordinary debut - the girl who went down to the ship

Sailor Girl is Sheree-Lee Olson's sexy debut novel about a young woman's odyssey aboard Great Lakes freighters in the early 1980s. Kate McLeod navigates the waterbound world of men, nautical tradition, hierarchy and sexuality. Taken on as a cleaner and cook and working most closely with the few other women on board, Kate struggles to define herself in her own terms - true to her maverick nature, her desire, and her sense of the relationships that matter. Throughout, she finds herself drawn to the hard-working women, wild weather, and even wilder men. The writing is rich in insight and poetry, especially at unexpected moments - in the midst of a storm or the depth of the engine room: "In the morning she went down to the little room tucked into the stern where the crew did their laundry. There was a wringer washer chained to the steel bulkhead and lines to dry clothes in the heat that poured up from the engine room. There was nothing but a bare skin of steel between her and the ship's giant propeller, churning the river water the way the washing machine's agitator twisted and punished her clothes. Leaning over the railing she saw someone moving at the bottom of the great clanging machine that was the engine. She realized then it was Boyd, slipping fluidly between huge gears and pistons, an oilcan in his blackened gloves, shaking his head to fling sweat from his hair. She watched him bend and duck, tending his machines. He was like a dancer. She could not reconcile the grace of his movements with the noise and stink and heat that filled the air. Hell would be like this, she thought; hell would be loud. She wondered how he could think in such noise. Maybe that explained his habitual silence. He had learned to function in a place where words were meaningless." And then there's the book - a work of art in itself. It's beautifully printed with an evocative cover, full-colour maps inside the front and back covers, and featuring several lake photographs by the author. Overall it's a chewy, absorbing read about how a woman finds her way in a world that's not quite ready for someone of such spirit and raw desire. It would make for a terrific discussion at a reading club. Preferably over a shot, or two, of vodka. For a preview, see the except at [...].