Exciting ... Mazzeo writes with a no-nonsense crispness that feels appropriately shipshape. The fact that the author is an experienced sailor is also enormously helpful when it comes to explaining the challenges of the sea. She is, in short, an author capable of guiding her readers through this remarkable chapter of history — as competently as Captain Patten sailed her ship.
Mazzeo is the kind of accomplished literary figure who makes you wish you’d paid better attention in school ... The difficulty a reader faces in The Sea Captain’s Wife is that it takes half the book to get to the action. Ms. Mazzeo alternates between the macro and micro, now giving us detailed genealogies, now discussing the shipbuilding industry and the place of women in 19th-century society. There are important insights here...but it’s not enough to keep the ship moving forward.
Riveting ... This is a thrilling story, well told ... The storm doesn’t hit until about page 140. Fortunately, Mazzeo is an engaging writer ... Mazzeo, a former academic, did her research for this book and there are prodigious and interesting footnotes. But she also acknowledges there are gaps in what she can prove ... Mazzeo’s descriptions of the storm are vivid and chilling ... This book will leave you alternately shivering, cheering and seething.
