The Ordinary Seaman

by Francisco Goldman

Book Overview

The Ordinary Seaman, the second novel from acclaimed writer Francisco Goldman is a lyrical and spellbinding story of hope, despair, and the promise of love. The ordinary seaman is Esteban, a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080213548X
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.1" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A modern parable

Francisco Goldman's (b.1955) second novel, "The Ordinary Seaman" has been described as a modern parable of America's hidden immigrant culture. Son of a Jewish American father and Catholic Guatemalan mother, Goldman populates his fiction with characters who serve as projections of a self that is culturally divided. "TOS" is essentially a story about liminality: that space, like the sea itself, where one's perceptions or situation blends with, or crosses over into, perceptions or situations of others. The novel centers upon Esteban, a nineteen-year-old Nicaraguan between adolescence and manhood, communism and capitalism, first and second love. An ex-Sandinista guerrilla, he signs on as a sailor without seaman's papers and is transported, with a makeshift crew of fourteen other desperate Centroamericanos from varied backgrounds, to the urban jungle of a remote pier in a desolate Brooklyn shipyard. Abandoned, in political, legal, and personal limbo, they become virtual prisoners on a ship that never sails, the broken-down, rat-infested Urus. A cavernous freighter crippled by fire damage, stripped for parts, and lacking even the most basic provisions for human habitation, this vessel becomes a deathtrap. A "greenhorn" undergoing a rite of passage, Esteban had been encouraged by a surrogate father-figure to jump ship in a foreign to escape a magalomanic captain with no regard for his ship or crew, beyond their usefulness. Goldman uses the uniquely privileged position of the sea captain to illustrate the corrosive effects of unbridled egoism, not merely skewing the moral compass but jeopardizing life itself.

Highly recommended, very tight and well written

This is a very fine novel. The plot is tightly woven; the writing is crisp and even, sprightly, occasionally darkly humorous, and always interesting. Its characters are fascinating portraits drawn on a carefully crafted palette. Mr. Goldman has done a truly remarkable job and this work should be widely read. His story line, the travails of a desperate group of dirt-poor Nicaraguans, is dispensed in calculated doses. I learned just enough about each helpless participant that I was always felt tuned for more information. Mr. Goldman links the civil war so carefully into his novel that it never intrudes, instead it adds constant, new dimensions. While seemingly effortless, the author's construction is beautifully coordinated. Masterful blending of each character yields an astonishing, cleaver plot. Although Estaban appears to be the protagonist, he is always balanced and never intrudes on the whole. He acts much like the anchor line of the Urus, the ill-fated boat, which itself appears to be Mr. Goldman allegory of life. Or is this simply too much a stretch, beyond the author's intentions? I think not. Mr. Goldman succeeds where so many others fail; this is a terrific, powerful, carefully crafted, interesting novel. At first I was distracted by the colloquial Spanish Mr. Goldman includes in dialogue and descriptions. It was a trial for my two years of college training. I soon understood many of the words, much of them if only from the situations described. In time they became actually pleasurable and added to the authenticity. I think this is a remarkable feat and the author deserves to be congratulated on his successful technique. I do not read books to find faults. However, sometimes they appear as deficiencies that distract from the effects authors set out to achieve. In Mr. Goldman's cases there are none. This book is a fine effort and very interesting, well worth the time spent reading, and it is highly recommended.

Diamond in the Rough

I found this book in the remainder pile. Talk about a diamond in the rough. This is an unusual story of seamen stranded on a ship that is delayed leaving port. They are doomed to remain on-board because they have immigration problems and can't wander the streets of New York without risking being picked up by the INS. The "owners" of the ship keep them working at repairing the rusting heap until one brave seamen grows tired of the on-board squabbling and the failure of the recalcitrant owners to show up with food and even the most meager of everyday necessities. Overcoming his fear he strikes out, creating a life of his own, risking the dangers of the streets and incarceration to find love as well as food and income, most of which he returns to his crewmates, most of whom are surprised to find he is leaving the ship at night. The characters were rich and individualistic, the settings alive with texture, and the depth of writing to be envied. What a gem this book turned out to be.

Civil War in El Salvador, reflections of a Brooklyn shipwrec

El Salvador's recent history, their civil war, should not fade away quite so quickly. It was evil. This book reflects on it through a character who is original, believable, and sorrowful. Post traumatic stress sliced open down to the exact scenes he is recalling as he steals food for the conned crew of central americans stuck on a boat that can't leave the Brooklyn Harbor. Stalled dreams, pushed off the track by war. Read it. Supposedly, it really happened. Came from a newspaper article Goldman saw. He explains it in the epilogue.

Goldman packs "The Ordinary Seaman" with thrilling truths.

Francisco Goldman utilizes his Latin American roots to fill "The Ordinary Seaman" with much more substance than one might find in a purely U.S. novel. When his ragged band of abandoned latino seafarers reminisce, converse or crack jokes the impression on the reader is astonishingly vivid. Love, war, politics, existence -- all are explored with a depth and meticulousness that make them seem breathtakingly important, astonishingly multi-dimensional. Elements of Central America and New York City are woven together ingeniously. One occassionally clumsy aspect of the book, however, involves the author's fusing of Spanish and English. Nonetheless, Goldman's careful structuring of the novel combined with his tireless attention to rhythm and mood make it a real reading pleasure. One can turn to the "Ordinary Seaman" to find wisdom, humor and beauty