SOURCE: "Sturm und Drang," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 25, 1997, pp. 8-9.

[In the following review, Ellis lauds Junger's The Perfect Storm as "a wild ride that brilliantly captures the awesome power of the raging sea and the often futile attempts of humans to withstand it."]

In October 1991, Sebastian Junger was standing on the shore of Gloucester, Mass., as winds howled, waves crested at 100 feet, ships were overturned, rescues were effected, men died. In The Perfect Storm, he writes: "A mature hurricane is by far the most powerful event on Earth; the combined nuclear arsenals of the United States and the former Soviet Union don't contain enough energy to keep a hurricane going for one day. A typical hurricane encompasses a million cubic miles of atmosphere and could provide all the electric power needed by the United States for three or four years. During the Labor Day...