The Tournament

By Kenneth Kirkeby

Five years back from Vietnam, Jim Nielsen travels to The Bahamas with two companions to renew his forgotten passion for fishing. But the passion Jim had not forgotten, a wealthy girl he once had an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965141004
• ISBN13: 9780965141000
• Release Date: August 2013
• Publisher: Black River Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A love story with a happy ending, although the two people part company

The main character is a man of the sea named Jim Nielsen. He grew up on boats and served in the American Navy during the Vietnam War. He was stationed on a hospital boat and worked as a door gunner for medivac helicopters. When he came back to the U. S. he was disconcerted, spending years with no apparent direction. He finally decided to make a life for himself, so he entered the investment business and was successful. However, he felt there was still something lacking with that career so he ends up back on a boat in a deep-sea fishing tournament being held in the Bahamas. Kirkeby does an excellent job in setting the stage for this climactic event. When Jim was in his late teens, he rode out a hurricane with Inez, the daughter of the owner of a boat he was working on. They have a short and torrid affair, and his love for her remained, even though he lost track of her. His passion is rekindled when he learns that she is also at the Bahamas during the tournament. Inez is now married, although Jim has every reason to believe that it is not a happy union. While Jim tells her that he still burns for her, and it is clear that she still has some emotional attachment to him, the sparks are not completely rekindled. The conclusion of their involvement is something that you rarely see and is very well handled. They do not run passionately into each others arms, Inez then divorcing her husband and the both of them living happily ever after. Somehow, they agree to keep their love alive in a more distant manner, and they part after a night of simply holding each other. This is a difficult way to conclude a love story, but Kirkeby pulls it off quite nicely. In a secondary plot line, Jim's boat catches the prize fish of the tournament, although they encounter too many problems while doing so. That aspect of the fishing plot line could have been scaled back without the story suffering in any way. This is primarily a love story with a happy, albeit different ending. I liked it; the love story is set up well and in no way rushed to a conclusion.

Deep plot for a deep-water novel

This plot goes much deeper (no pun intended) than the offshore fishing which is brilliantly described and technically accurate. It is a story of letting go of one's past, of moving forward, and, as a result, getting one's life back. High fives for "The Tournament"!