Vy Armour
I recently attended a wedding in Texas on the Gulf Coast near Galveston and it brought to mind the first book I read by Erik Larson back in the ’90s—Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History. Although it’s been over twenty years since I read it, I vividly recall some of the haunting scenes he describes in this page-turner.
Larson’s writing is considered narrative fiction, a genre that tells true, thoroughly researched stories using the storytelling techniques of fiction. It focuses on sharing factual information—including history, biography, or investigative reports—through compelling narratives, character development, and dramatic structure while adhering strictly to the truth.
September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. weather bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history—and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devastating personal tragedy.
Using Cline’s own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man’s heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful, it is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.
Larson has published other narrative historical accounts including The Devil in the White City (the serial killer at the Chicago World Fair of 1893), Dead Wake, The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (the luxury liner taken down in 1915 by a German torpedo), and The Splendid and the Vile (Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister 1940-41). I can recommend all of the above if you enjoy history that comes alive on the page.
Violetta Armour, a former bookstore owner, is the author of five novels including the award-winning I’ll Always Be With You and a series of cozy mysteries. All available on Amazon. She resides in Sun Lakes at Robson Reserve