All Fishermen Are Liars: True Tales from the Dry Dock Bar

A few years ago we met another couple on vacation, and somehow they brought up Linda Greenlaw and what a great writer she was. I was already a little familiar with her from The Perfect Storm, so I started reading, first The Hungry Ocean and the book about motherhood, then more recently the Lobster Chronicles and now All Fisherman Are Liars. As another reviewer said, it really seems with this book like she's trying to fill pages. It's the only book I've read of hers that became a slog to get through. All I can say is if you like this book, great! And if you don't, try The Hungry Ocean or one of the others. This (IMO) is not her best writing.

I love Linda Greenlaw! I have been reading her books about fishing and lobstering for a few years now. Her style of writing is honest and as direct as a harpoon. In this book you get a chance to sit next to Linda and her good friend Alden at the Dry Dock Bar in Portland Maine and hear them spin true tales about the sea and the men who risk their lives bringing home catches.She describes the story of a crew of fishermen who get caught in a hurricane in the Caribbean. It was a Force Five blow and they soon lost their boat and were forced to try and survive individually. As one survivor swam to shore near Saint John's he passed a pair of sharks that were eating a dead animal, he just kept swimming past, and the sharks didn't notice him! When he reached the shore, the winds which were well over 100 miles per hour, tore off his clothes, leaving him with only his shorts.If I had been sitting next to Linda, I would have been digging my nails into the bar as she told the story! If you want a great read that will take you away from your easy chair and place you out on the ocean with the wind and spray in your face, this book will get you there.

"Every date and detail and description is accurate and completely well grounded in fact. Honest." - Author Linda Greenlaw on the tales in ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARSLinda Greenlaw, the sometime Maine swordfish-boat captain and lobster trawler, who's entertained armchair seagoing fishers with  The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey  and  The Lobster Chronicles : Life On a Very Small Island , breaks new personal ground with this anthology of salty tales ostensibly remembered from one session of yarn spinning at the Dry Dock Restaurant and Tavern in Portland, Maine, which, as Linda states, is one of her favorite watering holes and really does exist (though, according to reviews of the place on the Web, it emphatically doesn't appeal to everyone).As with any collection of stories based on a profession, whether it's penned by a cabdriver, airline attendant, neurosurgeon, golfer, madam, rodeo rider, astrophysicist, hockey player, test pilot or chef, the reader must have some threshold of interest in the subject or all is lost. Personally, I couldn't care less about hockey, golf or the rodeo circuit. On the other hand, I once found a cabby's workplace stories ( No Guns, No Knives, No Personal Checks: The Tales of a San Francisco Cab Driver ), which I wouldn't have otherwise read unless urged to do so, surprisingly good. In the case of ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS, I used to ocean fish when I was a kid and I find the on-deck assault of marine air across a moving vessel exhilarating, so the potential was there to be entertained. If the prospects of fish as food and water deeper than your bath make you queasy, then perhaps it's best to pass.In my experience, it's unusual to come upon a five-star compendium of short stories because the inclusions may individually run the gamut from awful to mediocre to quite good. Linda's collection happily avoids the low end. Since all are at least minimally interesting, and Greenlaw herself is personable and congenial, four stars are due.Vicarious danger thrills. Thus, the chapters "Seamanship" and "Running Out Your Time" are perhaps the best, both involving storms at sea that endanger Linda herself in the former and an acquaintance in the latter. Conversely, the chapter "Navigation", in which Greenlaw's two young nephews learn valuable lessons on a day spent fishing with Dad, was a little too cute for my tastes. The rest fall somewhere in between and, despite the book's title, none are so outrageous as to be unbelievable. Well, maybe the tale about the steamship Royal Tar is a bit tall.By the end of the author's last book, THE LOBSTER CHRONICLES, she seemed fretful of the fact that, then at 40, she remained unmarried and without children. Her loneliness was uncomfortably evident. ("I have spent much time waiting for Mr. Right, who does not appear to be looking for me.") In ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS, she seems to have perked up a bit.Sail on, Linda, into fair weather and calm seas.

In her latest book author and fisherman Linda Greenlaw introduces readers to the salty denizens of the Dry Dock Bar in Portland, Maine. Greenlaw's lunch date there with her mentor and friend of 25 years, Alden Leeman, provides the framework for the series of stories she shares with readers--the very stories, or so the author alleges (though the book's title may give one pause)--that she and Alden and hangers on at their table swapped that day at the Dry Dock over a very extended luncheon.The stories Greenlaw includes in the book are a mixed bunch--rough seas and unlikely survivals, noisome deck hands and shiv-wielding mates, a refrigerated dead guy. Many of the stories are stirring; the rest are at least good reads. Greenlaw writes nicely, and her characterization of her friend Alden--for whom her affection is palpable--is well done: "I ordered a glass of Chardonnay and waited for Alden to think about what he might like to drink. I knew that he would eventually order a rum and Coke, but he did not know this. He never did."It is not necessary to know anything whatever about fishing or sailing to enjoy All Fishermen are Liars. Nautical types will surely want to view their world through Greenlaw's lens, but landlubbers like myself will appreciate the author's readable introduction to an unfamiliar world. She and her gang of mendacious fishing buddies make for good company for the book's duration.Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

A boring book

Enjoyed all her books a real character

I have enjoyed a few of Linda's books. She writes how it is and that for me is what makes this book a good read. She comes across as the kind of woman you would like to run into and have a good long natter with. Yep, I enjoyed it, as I have her others.

great book

My husband really enjoys Linda Greenlaw's books and stories!! He says she has a wonderful sense of humour!! I bought him four of her books and he loves them all.