Down at the Docks

New Bedford is an alien city, a messy collection of triple-deckers, stone churches, abandoned textile mills and infinite sadness. New Bedford is sad because of its past greatness - it was arguably one of the wealthiest cities in the world in the middle of the 19th century. I expect most people think of New Bedford through Ishmael's eyes; Jack Tar rolling down cobble-stoned streets past the Seaman's Bethel to the Spouter Inn. Few see it as the drug-ridden, tired mess of a fishing port it is today, cut off from the sea by a ugly rampart of stone built to protect what's left from another hurricane like the ones in 1938 and 1954 that nearly wiped the place off the map forever, ruined by Route 18, an ugly slash of highway some dumb politician pushed through to tie the docks to the interstate. Yes, there's the Whaling Museum - it's cute and kind of sad as it tries to revise the bloody history of what the city did to the world's whale population -- and there are parts of the town that ache with memories of past glories, when New Bedford men roamed the globe and fortunes were made on everything from oil to golf balls, rope to coke.Rory Nugent wrote Down at the Docks following nearly two decades living in New "Bej" It's about eight chapters long, each a profile of a different character, all related to the waterfront in one way or another. From the Portuguese-American, former Miss Massachusetts (third runner-up) tending the dockside diner coffee pot, to the unluckiest fisherman, or Jonah, on the docks, the book is about the people - captains and crew, mobsters and fixers, bluebloods and dope addicts. This is not a book about commercial fishing, watch Most Dangerous Catch if you want to get off on guys killing themselves in orange Grundens. This is about fishermen trying to sink old boats for the insurance money, about captains pissed off at the scientists, madmen who snort coke and meth to stay awake during killer blizzards, not because they want to have a party.This is a weird subculture that Mark Kurlansky comes close to describing in his recent tome about Gloucester, The Last Fish Tale, but doesn't because Nugent just flat out takes a novelist's liberty and invents his characters into something more real than any diligent reporter could objectively describe. I'm sure he'll take some heat for fictionalizing, but it doesn't matter. The details are real. The speech patterns are dead on. This is southeastern Massachusetts long after the circus left town, a broken down, depressed, grey and brown place that got the stuffing kicked out of it by the Great Depression, roused itself for a little while in the 60s, and is now floating face down.My only bone to pick with the book is one of the last chapters, about the Petticoat Society, where Nugent tries to tell the history of the Quaker whalers through the eyes of a society of women who hold the true power while their men are away at sea. The scrimshaw phallus story is heh-heh, humorous, and not the first time I've heard it told (the first being in Forbes FYI in the 90s).How good of a writer? I'll buy Nugent's other stuff.

Hard to believe that the main character in this book was one of the richest places on the planet 200 years ago...literally and figuratively. All one can do is lament for the way things once were and I'm only talking about 30 years ago. Having lived in southern New England for the majority of my life I have seen the sweeping changes that have occurred in this time period to this area(due mostly to corporate greed and federal and state government incompetence)and Rory Nugent has deftly captured a time of an empire on the decline through the eyes and ears of a people struggling to make it in a city and industry of a bygone era. My hats off to you Mr. Nugent. I hope Hollywood comes calling because this would make a hell of an HBO miniseries.

I'm not a writer, not a critic, not some long-winded master of words.I think this book is about America-- well, where it was and what has happened. Not in a "gee, it was better back then" way. But more like, hey, that's life. And the author uses the old New England city of New Bedford as the center of the world.The people/characters sure are unique. Destined to be hard, nuts, broken, shady. The whole way of life if just special-- sometimes funny and other times awful.This may sound stupid or a reach but i think this book could one day be viewed as a true American Classic.If you like: New England life, fishing, capitalism, sociology and unique stories ... this is a book for you.

The author does a superb job of capturing the evolution of the community in a New England fishing town that has been battered by global economic and environmental forces. The capacity of Human beings to reinvent themselves and to keep striving is in evidence throughout, and makes the case for the most smug amongst us that change is the only constant, and if you ain't adapting, you are withering away. Great stuff!

It was a struggle to finish this book. The characters are one dimensional. The prose is poorly written. There is no real plot. I understand this is a work of fiction, but there are so many small and large factual errors in the description of the setting that those errors become distracting. (Juvenile bluefish are referred to as snappers, not shiners; no one on the NB waterfront refers to cash as cheese, there is no pier 1, the statistics on the gay population are laughable, the portrayal of the role of women in the Quaker dominated whaling society of the mid nineteenth century is grossly exaggerated, etc, etc, etc.) If you are going to create a work of fiction and claim it to be a portrayal of a real pace, it helps to get your facts straight. I can't imagine how this author spent 17 years in New Bedford and still knows so little about the town.

Lively stories centered around the characters encountered down at the Docks in New Bedford. Captures the vernacular and rhythm of their lives.

This book a fine addition to New England history. Rory Nugent shows us men who work in harsh rough seas, under regs that hurt more than they help. A great book about tough guys doing a tough job - and loving it! Nugent's book is alive with fascinating characters doing whatever it takes.Reading this will lure you to New Bedford.

Living in New Bedford I related to this story. Learnt a few things that I wasn't aware of. A book to read again.

J'aime le style et les histoires diverses et variées que l'on y trouve. Mais je suis peut-être partial Rory étant un vieil ami. Mais connaissant bien New Bedford je peux apprécier la justesse de sa description de l'atmosphère de la ville.Trés bon suivi de la commande et livraison rapide.