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When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man

by Nick Dybek
Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Apr. 2012. c.320p. ISBN 9781594488092. $26.95. F
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Loyalty Island, WA, is a fishing community made economically viable by generations of the wealthy Gaunt family. When patriarch John Gaunt dies and his mercurial son, Richard, threatens to sell the fishing industry to the Japanese, the residents are afraid of losing their livelihood. The story is told from the perspective of teenaged Cal, whose father is gone fishing most of the year in Alaska and whose cultured and restless mother secludes herself in her basement studio listening to her extensive record collection. When Cal's mother decides to spend the fishing season in her hometown in California, Cal refuses to accompany her and is left with a schoolmate's family. Feeling abandoned, Cal makes routine visits to his house and discovers a secret that haunts him for the rest of his life.
VERDICT In his debut novel, Dybek writes expertly about fishery and music, an odd juxtaposition that nevertheless gives the story a deep, otherworldly quality. A main theme is the question of what sins we are capable of when pushed to our limits. A captivating, literary coming-of-age novel. [See Prepub Alert, 9/30/11.]
Reviewed by Joy Humphrey, Pepperdine Univ. Law Lib., Malibu, CA , Dec 01, 2011
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