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In a day and age when no small number of folks celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, an author who manages to speak compellingly in the voice of a pirate for some 260 pages has managed no small feat. And Edward Chupack, a first time novelist, manages that in this first-person tale of Long John Silver. The infamous rogue is being transported back to England to be hanged, but on the way--fueled by a diet of rum, since he's afraid his food is poisoned--he furiously scratches out the story of his blood-thirsty rise to power amid threats of future murder. Chiefly, he tries to seduce his listener/reader with hints about the location of the great treasure horde the whereabouts of which is known to him alone.

The autobiographical story of his origins as a Bristol pickpocket to a crewman for Black John to a pirate captain in his own right, and, quite late in the book, of the events that formed Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is maybe not as attention grabbing as one might like. To be honest, I found my attention wandering and it doesn't help that the narrative must inevitably be measured against Stevenson's, one of the great sea adventures of all time. But this is a book that is to be read for the narrator and the narration instead. The title, Silver, is entirely appropriate. Likewise the first line: "I am Silver, and there is no other pirate like me on these waters." For the text is all Silver, all the time, and other characters and what plot there is barely stand out from the overwhelming tide of words he unleashes.


(Reviewed:)

Grade: (B)


Websites:

See also:

Sea Stories
Edward Chupack Links:

    -BOOK SITE: Silver Pirate
    -GOOGLE BOOK: Silver: My Own Tale as Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder by Edward Chupack
    -ESSAY: Long John Silver for President (Edward Chupack, 10/17/08)
    -ESSAY: SOMALIA, LONG JOHN SILVER AND THE U.N. (Edward Chupack)
    -ESSAY: LAWYERS AND PIRATES (Edward Chupack)
    -ESSAY: Which Candidate Would Make the Better Pirate? (Edward Chupack)
    -ESSAY: How to Talk Like a Pirate, Me Hearty -- a Tutorial (Edward Chupack)
    -ARCHIVES: "edward chupack" (ArticlesBase)
    -ARCHIVES: "edward chupack" (Find Articles)
    -REVIEW: of Silver by Edward Chupack (Sarah Hughes, New York Times Book Review
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Tom Knapp, Rambles)
    -REVIEW: of Silver (BRYAN WOOLLEY, The Dallas Morning News )
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Tim Davis, BookLoons)
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Talk Like a Pirate)
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Allen Pierleoni, sacbee.com)
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Lynne Maxwell, Mystery Scene)
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Friend Mouse, Blog Critics)
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Ben Spier, Entertainment Weekly)
    -REVIEW: of Silver (Publishers Weekly)

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