From Booklist Two storm-wracked trips across the Atlantic Ocean become voyages of self-discovery forxa0McClure, as she explains in this epic tale of adversity and triumph. McClure details her attempts to become the first woman to row across the Atlantic, interspersed with reflections on challenges she has faced in the past. She recounts her struggles to protect her developmentally disabled brother, Lamar, from abuse by neighborhood children; her time at Harvard’s divinity school; and her work with the homeless, all the while describing herxa0battles through towering waves and fierce storms. Her tiny vessel, the American Pearl, is batteredxa0by winds throughout the journey, forcing McClure to come to terms with her own vulnerability. Throughout it all, she relies on a loyal cadre of friends who help her attain her goals. Yet, for McClure, perhaps the greatest accomplishment is learning to accept her own weaknesses as she submits to the whims of the ocean swells and allows herself to become receptive to the myriad possibilities of life. --Katherine Boyle Tori Murden McClure is one of the most remarkable women I have ever met; her journey across the ocean is equal only to her journey of the heart. This is a story of courage, adventure, and personal discovery that will appeal to women--and men of all ages. --Candice BergenUnlike Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Tori Murden McClure's true story of a woman and the sea and a boat named American Pearl is one of victory. But her triumph is not merely over the elements. Tori finds the courage to cross the inner seas and discover not monsters but a land of promise and an expanded opportunity to love. If you want to be inspired, read this book. You won't stop till you've finished.Unlike Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea , Tori Murden McClure's true story of a woman and the sea and a boat named American Pearl is one of victory. But her triumph is not merely over the elements. Tori finds the courage to cross the inner seas and discover not monsters but a land of promise and an expanded opportunity to love. If you want to be inspired, read this book. You won't stop till you've finished. -- Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife Unlike Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, Tori Murden McClure's true story of a woman and the sea and a boat named American Pearl is one of victory. But her triumph is not merely over the elements. Tori finds the courage to cross the inner seas and discover not monsters but a land of promise and an expanded opportunity to love. If you want to be inspired, read this book. You won't stop till you've finished.Unlike Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea , Tori Murden McClure's true story of a woman and the sea and a boat named American Pearl is one of victory. But her triumph is not merely over the elements. Tori finds the courage to cross the inner seas and discover not monsters but a land of promise and an expanded opportunity to love. If you want to be inspired, read this book. You won't stop till you've finished. -- Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife For those six billion or so of us on planet Earth today who will never row across an ocean, this extraordinary narrative by one fellow human who did so transports us to places beautiful, haunting, daunting, terrifying, and uplifting. -- Roy Hoffman, author of the novels Almost Family and Chicken Dreaming Corn In this fine book, Tori McClure generously gives us at the same time a wonderfully told adventure story and a moving account of a storm-wracked journey through self-discovery into healing. . . . Even for the most confirmed landlubbers, there is much to enjoy and much to learn from in these pages, and--believe me--you will find yourself hating to turn the last of them.In this fine book, Tori McClure generously gives us at the same time a wonderfully told adventure story and a moving account of a storm-wracked journey through self-discovery into healing. . . . Even for the most confirmed landlubbers, there is much to enjoy and much to learn from in these pages, and--believe me--you will find yourself hating to turn the last of them. -- Charles Gaines, author of The Next Valley Over Book Description This account of rowing across the Atlantic is riveting. Certain chapters are terrifying, all of them smart and engaging. Tori McClure is a magnificent endurance athlete (she also skied to the South Pole) but also an eccentric in the most admirable sense of the word. -- John Casey, National Book Award-winning author of Spartina "In the end," writes Tori McClure, "I know I rowed across the Atlantic to find my heart, but in the beginning, I wasn't aware that it was missing." During June 1998, Tori McClure set out to row across the Atlantic Ocean by herself in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore, but nevertheless she decided to keep going. Not only did she lose the sound of a friendly voice, she lost updates on the location of the Gulf Stream and on the weather. Unfortunately for Tori, 1998 is still on record as the worst hurricane season in the North Atlantic. In deep solitude and perilous conditions, she was nonetheless determined to prove what one person with a mission can do. When she was finally brought to her knees by a series of violent storms that nearly killed her, she had to signal for help and go home in what felt like complete disgrace. Back in Kentucky, however, Tori's life began to change in unexpected ways. She fell in love. At the age of thirty-five, she embarked on a serious relationship for the first time, making her feel even more vulnerable than sitting alone in a tiny boat in the middle of the Atlantic. She went to work for Muhammad Ali, who told her that she did not want to be known as the woman who "almost" rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. And she knew that he was right. In this thrilling story of high adventure and romantic quest, Tori McClure discovers through her favorite way—the hard way—that the most important thing in life is not to prove you are superhuman but to fully to embrace your own humanity. With a wry sense of humor and a strong voice, she gives us a true memoir of an explorer who maps her world with rare emotional honesty. Tori Murden McClure is the vice president for external relations, enrollment management, and student affairs at Spalding University. Her firsts include being the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic and to ski over land to the South Pole. She has an AB from Smith College, where she currently serves on the board of trustees, a master's in divinity from Harvard University, a JD from the University of Louisville School of Law, and an MFA in writing from Spalding University. She has worked as a chaplain at Boston City Hospital and for Muhammad Ali at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband. Read more
Features & Highlights
"In the end," writes Tori McClure, "I know I rowed across the Atlantic to find my heart, but in the beginning, I wasn't aware that it was missing."
During June 1998, Tori McClure set out to row across the Atlantic Ocean by herself in a twenty-three-foot plywood boat with no motor or sail. Within days she lost all communication with shore, but nevertheless she decided to keep going. Not only did she lose the sound of a friendly voice, she lost updates on the location of the Gulf Stream and on the weather. Unfortunately for Tori, 1998 is still on record as the worst hurricane season in the North Atlantic. In deep solitude and perilous conditions, she was nonetheless determined to prove what one person with a mission can do. When she was finally brought to her knees by a series of violent storms that nearly killed her, she had to signal for help and go home in what felt like complete disgrace.
Back in Kentucky, however, Tori's life began to change in unexpected ways. She fell in love. At the age of thirty-five, she embarked on a serious relationship for the first time, making her feel even more vulnerable than sitting alone in a tiny boat in the middle of the Atlantic. She went to work for Muhammad Ali, who told her that she did not want to be known as the woman who "almost" rowed across the Atlantic Ocean. And she knew that he was right.
In this thrilling story of high adventure and romantic quest, Tori McClure discovers through her favorite way—the hard way—that the most important thing in life is not to prove you are superhuman but to fully to embrace your own humanity. With a wry sense of humor and a strong voice, she gives us a true memoir of an explorer who maps her world with rare emotional honesty.
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Reviews
★★★★★
5.0
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Fantastic read!!!
A Pearl in the Storm is a fantastic read. With the prerequisite white knuckle moments of a good adventure book, it draws you in and keeps you there. Tori Murden McClure sweeps the reader along as she attempts to become the first woman to solo row the Atlantic Ocean. I found myself gripped with apprehension as the communication systems went out, bracing for the next big wave, and pondering, as the author does, about when she would need to call for help and abandon her quest.
However, to categorize this book strictly as an adventure book would be a mistake.
It is first and foremost a book about human nature and the internal battles we all fight in the course of our lives. Whether you are a scholar, an athlete, both (like Tori) or neither, this is a universal experience. Through the seemingly impossible goals the author sets for herself --- whether it is through her academic endeavors, career choice, or the row across the Atlantic --- she attempts to defeat these demons. She isn't always successful, in fact, her first attempt to row across the Atlantic ends in failure, and this defeat almost ends her battle. But that defeat ultimately leads Tori to understand that her demons are what, in fact, make her human. The human battle described within these pages is the facet of the book that I found so compelling. Tori's adventure appeals broadly--not just to super-athletes--but to all of us who have taken up, abandoned, revived, achieved and learned from our personal journeys.
Read this book for an inspiring story about one woman's quest to understand herself. You'll recognize yourself in Tori's human voice and take heart. She takes us on her adventure to be the first woman to successfully row across the Atlantic, and ultimately, on her quest for happiness.
30 people found this helpful
★★★★★
3.0
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Interesting Adventure Story, but Unlikeable Narrator
I picked up this book thinking I was going to get a kind of introspective female version of Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon-tiki".([[ASIN:0848805275 Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft]]) Heyerdahl, of course, wrote his classic tale about his ocean crossing in a raft in order to prove something scientific - that it was possible for early South Americans to make journeys across the Pacific Ocean in primitive sea-going crafts, which would explain much about the population diversity of Pacific islands. This author, Toni Murden McClure, also seemed to have something to prove -- that she had the inner fortitude to change her life by challenging herself to do something nearly impossible. The task she chose was rowing by herself across the Atlantic Ocean.
Her first attempt at a solo journey across the Atlantic was not successful. She beats herself up about that, but ultimately tries again and makes good. There are some interesting anecdotes in the book about the rigors of her ocean crossings, the beauty of solitude, the fury of storms at sea and her thoughts about her life and her purpose in life.
However, I realized about a third of the way through this book that I really was not enjoying it. I love travel books and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I came to the description of the author's strained relationship with her mother and how the author came to attend "something called a private school". All through the book, the author/narrator keeps throwing in these little personal excerpts about her superiority, her intelligence, her abilities even as a child. I realized that the reason I was not enjoying this book is because I just couldn't stand this woman who was telling the story. Ms. McClure is not someone who I would want to have dinner with. She comes across as entitled, overbearing and snippy.
I really cannot recommend this book. The writing is okay, and the story which the author has to tell should be terrifically interesting. But reading the book itself is like being forced to listen to some overblown, half-drunk quasi-celebrity drone on about how tough her privileged life has been. I kind of would like to shake her, or at least get up and leave the bar.
21 people found this helpful
★★★★★
3.0
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A good story, but I was really hoping for more
I read this book thinking it would be an interesting adventure story about what it was really like to attempt a solo crossing of the Atlantic ocean -- courage in the presence of doubt, perseverance in the presence of pain, triumph over adversity. While those elements are certainly present, they are buried within a much larger autobiographical story and a thematic tone that comes across as self aggrandizing. The author's self-confidence comes across as arrogance, her knowledge and experience come across as haughty, and her noble intentions come across as pompous. She paints a picture of her personality akin to a steamroller, or perhaps a bulldozer: willing to flatten anything that gets in the way of achieving her objectives in life.
The author spends the first 2/3 of the book on her first, failed attempt at crossing the ocean; interwoven in the narrative is a lot of biographical back story starting at the age of two and continuing through her college years. The vast majority of the background is irrelevant to the story at hand, furthermore, the casual name dropping (in a way that does not advance the story) is just irritating. The romance (it is supposed to be a romance story, after all) is relegated to just a few pages and seems to have been added as an afterthought. In the same fashion, the second, successful, crossing is tacked on to the end of the book with almost no discussion on what worked, or didn't work, the second time around. In fact, I was really hoping for more insight on the second journey, not only the journey itself, but the aftermath and how a highly introverted person handled the inevitable attention that came with it.
I was really hoping for more from this book. What was it really like to be all alone in the middle of the ocean with nothing but the dolphins to keep you company? What was it really like to get caught in a hurricane and face your worst fear of abandoning ship and abandoning the journey? How did you overcome the inevitable doubt that must have crept in at some point during the second journey? Overall, it's a pretty good story if you can separate the wheat from the chaff.
11 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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All I can say is "Wow!"
To be very honest, when I had finished the first 30 pages or so I thought I was in for a looooooong read. The book is fairly technical at the beginning, particularly for someone totally unfamiliar with boats or the sport of rowing. Since I had agreed to review it for Amazon, I kept going and I am so glad I did ! By the time I as half way through it, I was staying up way to late to read since I just had to know what was coming next.
This book is part adventure story and part human development story. The author, Tori Murden McClure, chronicles her attempt to become the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean. For this arm-chair adventurer, her stories just took my breath away. I can't imagine attempting such a huge endeavor and just reading about her hardships along the way made me exhausted. Intertwined with the story of the crossing, there are flashbacks to her life which help put the need to attempt this in context for the reader. It's a voyage of self-discovery for the author that you better understand by the end of the book. The typical person would just think she is nuts, but after reading her words, I felt much better able to appreciate what drove her to do this. She grew up with a less than ideal childhood taking on the role of defending her mentally handicapped brother Lamar. The parents appear to be fairly clueless about what is happening to their children and left them to take care of themselves and each other.
The author is obviously exceptionally bright and driven (Smith College, Harvard Divinity school) but I was very impressed with her ability to come across as just being honest with her mental and athletic abilities. The lack of ego in someone so exceptional is amazing and inspiring. She is forthright about her faults and failings in a way that makes you care about her as a person by the end of the book.
Absolutely wonderful book to read if you like adventure and if you like seeing someone discover who they are. I would also recommend watching the book trailer on the product page to get a brief visual glimpse of what she endured.
Outstanding !
9 people found this helpful
★★★★★
4.0
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An excellent adventure tale, but not much more
I'm torn on the review for this. As a tale of adventure, it's top-notch, absolutely first-rate. It's just a wonderfully written book. If you like adventure stories, particularly stories about women or stories about sea travel, you can't do better than this book. I really like the sea-travel, adventure type of book, and I can't think of one I've enjoyed more.
But the book is supposed to have a secondary purpose, to describe how the author grew from this experience. That part I just didn't get. This part of the book really doesn't start until the end and I found the author becoming rapidly less likeable at this point. She's clearly very accomplished. In fact, perhaps due to a rather extreme sense of "helplessness" as she calls it, or pathological insecurity, she includes many bragging points about her life secondary to the story. She went to the best schools, she got the best awards, she impressed everyone she met along the way. Before her "epiphany" of sorts, I saw these inserts as slightly off-putting but balanced by the amount she suffered in her voyage. But once she begs forgiveness of God for not being perfect and then realizes that she "need[s] to forgive myself", she just lost me. The self-absorption became more than I could bear. And she is writing this from the "other side" of her great growth. Her growth clearly didn't bring much other-awareness with it, just the sense that because she is human, and despite her many accomplishments, she does not in fact have god-like perfection. And since this realization is described only in the last few pages, there's no fleshing out of the theme. She isn't able to describe it in any detail, a remarkable irony given her incredible descriptive powers throughout the rest of the book. The book ends with her dissing another female rower whom she says she doesn't respect, and her adding her second ocean voyage and epiphany to her other list of accomplishments. It's too bad that the editing didn't excise some of this stuff, because it really detracts from the book and from the impression that I'm left with of this woman.
In short, the book is an awesome tale of adventure, the author writes well, she's a compelling character, she writes honestly enough that her hubris comes through loud and clear, but I didn't find the "How I found my heart" aspect very convincing; it's not clear to me at all what she actually learned.
9 people found this helpful
★★★★★
2.0
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very earnest and absolutely boring
This book is quite a slog. The author is an absolute square;a total goody-goody; an earnest one dimensional do gooder and a fabulous bore as far as I'm concerned. And to boot, she has absolutely no sense of humor. In the entire book she does not say one funny thing. She is earnestness personified and there is nothing as tiresome as earnestness.
The only part of the book that resonates as being written by a human being regards her relationship with her younger brother who is mentally challanged. Otherwise, reading the book is like trying to have a conversation with your very boring and conservative aunt.
5 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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A delightful adverture
I wondered, Would a book covering a long row at sea, from the East coast heading for France, get really boring? Well, maybe that's what separates the good writers from the not so good. The author is good, maybe even gifted. The gift is her ability to tell her story not just honestly--a challenge in itself, for sure--but to keep her reader interested and captivated. This she does.
For example, one thing she successfully does is to weave excerpts from her past into the chronological episodes of her boat trip, with all the experiences and problems she encounters at sea. But the bits and pieces, the anecdotes, from growing up and her experiences at school, add key contextual information to the story. In short, I got to know her really well, and inevitably her trip takes on significantly more depth. I found myself not only understanding her better, but also I learned more than just what I would be like to undertake a rowing challenge like that. It was as if I went with her, rowing together with her, repairing the boat together, witnessing the dolphins and whales, even the sharks together.
I remember vaguely something I read years ago, advice to writers, which was (approximate quote) "Write so that your story becomes a part of the experience of your reader." That's what literature does, and I have to conclude that this book belongs, at least to a generous degree, in that category. This is a human story, about a human being facing adversity, raw nature, scary nature, with courage and determination, and at times almost despair, but through it all, coming to know herself. That, I think, is a lot of what life is about.
Of course there's a happy ending. Not always true in life but true this time. And not many of us can resist a romance!
A thoroughly enjoyable read. Surprised me, really. Well-written, clear and effective prose, nicely readable too. Highly recommended.
5 people found this helpful
★★★★★
5.0
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A Hero(ine)'s Journey
"You don't want to go through life as the woman who almost rowed across the Atlantic." So Muhammad Ali advises Tori Murden when she is vacillating between attempting another try at rowing across the Atlantic after a soul and body-battering first attempt and failure.
Fortunately for us, Tori was not willing to concede defeat in her attempt. This book is a remarkable tale of adventure and self-testing, of pride and humility, of failure and winning. She proves that it is not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up again that count. We all know this but few of us have the courage to act upon it.
Tori Murden is a special person. Her story relates many of the obstacles she had to overcome to reach the heights she has attained. It didn't seem as if she was bragging but was just being very factual about her life's journey. From a young age, she has acted as guardian of her older but mentally handicapped brother Lamar, she fought the neighborhood bullies, sometimes unsuccessfully, she overcame tremendous obstacles of being a highly intelligent but misplaced youth; she had guardian angels and helping hands along the way to be sure, but 95% of her victories were self-attained. She also has had a long history of giving back to her community wherever that might be, even to putting herself in danger and going where lesser souls might not, would not travel.
Not only has Tori rowed twice across the Atlantic (her first attempt was aborted only a few hundred miles from her goal), but she quickly glosses over the fact that she has trekked to the North Pole and was one of the first women to reach the South Pole on the overland route. Climb mountains, cross jungles, traverse the worst of inner-city neighborhoods. What an inspiration!
The adventures of Tori's first trip across the Atlantic, enduring the worst hurricane season in decades, will make your adrenaline pump. You will be holding your breath along with her. You will feel her every ache and pain as she is battered inside her small rowboat in fifty foot seas with lightning crashing and storms raging outside for days. You will admire her perseverance as she rows against the wind for fifteen hours only to lose half the distance at night when she sleeps, and then she gets up the next day to do it all over again. You will appreciate her keen intelligence as she draws upon the insights of her heroes, long dead presidents and poets, among others.
When she asked a favorite uncle if she should write a book about tragedy, history, comedy or romance, her uncle replied, "A romance...the greatest stories in life are about romance." In the end, Tori finds romance and her heart. She finds humility and humanity.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good adventure, who needs inspiration in your own journey, who is doing some soul searching, or who is looking for...romance.
5 people found this helpful
★★★★★
2.0
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Okay, but not as good as I'd hoped
I ordered this book after hearing the author interviewed on NPR. She was great on the radio, but it just didn't translate into the book. The writing was somewhat choppy and the romance angle seemed to be a forced and somewhat unnecessary component to the overall story. McClure is obviously an interesting and brave woman, but the book just felt flat and rushed.
4 people found this helpful
★★★★★
4.0
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Great adventure book
This book joins the other great rowing books,[[ASIN:1559724609 Daring The Sea: The True Story of the First Men to Row Across the Atlantic Ocean]] and
[[ASIN:1559708026 Across the Savage Sea: The First Woman to Row Across the North Atlantic]] and yet it's not just another I get a boat and go for an extremely long row. This book is the authors attempt to rid herself of inner demons.
And what inner demons inhabit those who row long distances alone you ask? Well you will have to read this book yourself to find out, I won't ruin it. However this book is a page burner, at least for me. I love good adventure books, those where the quest is big, but possible, the adventurers are normal people not super humans, the usual bit of adversity occurs and then the really big stuff happens where you just go OMG! How did they ever survive? Books like [[ASIN:1599213230 South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance (The Explorers Club Classic)]] This book fits right in.
What would make this book better is photos. I have a pre-print version and there are no trip photos. I found some by searching the web but I would like some in the book. Also where is the movie? She filmed lots of this trip, what happened to all that video?
On the author, yes she is driven to achieve. I bet she reads all these reviews and obsesses over them, how could I have made my book better? Why did that person say that?? Relax! There is no pleasing everybody. Those of us couch potatoes would call her an "over achiever" but really, is there such a thing? Life is about balance and for some people they are able to see the possibility of something and attain it. Ms. McClure has been lucky and smart and able to do so much, we should be glad that she has applied her writing skills to inspire others to shoot for the moon as well. And I for one am glad she did.
Those of you would like to know more about Ms. McClure, Kentucky public TV did a nice interview with her, after reading this book, you should watch it. ([...] )
For those of you who think that rowing these long distances is rare, Search for Roz Savage, she's out rowing the pacific (there are lots of youtube videos that are well worth watching) and Erden Eruç, who is rowing and climbing and bicycling around the world. (search for Around-n-Over ) That will lead you to the links for the rest.
And I doubt that this will be the last time we read about Ms. McClure. (You could write about your journey to Arctic, or perhaps another sprit quest, you have many more to go....)
