A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean

How I love adventure memoirs! Amazing the way she can put us right there with her as the hurricane is upending the rowboat and she's crashing around, losing all her communications equipment, all alone in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Gripping writing. Her back story was interesting too, but my only quibble was that it interrupted the dramatic peril too often.

As with most memoirs, this one doesn’t just cover Tori’s journey across the Atlantic but flashes back through her life and her motivations for embarking on such a difficult and dangerous trip. She writes about her brother, mentally disabled and abused, the fights that she got into as a child, her entry into a more prestigious academic world and her successful attempt to embrace her own talents. Tori is a remarkable woman and in the pages of this memoir, she explains in clear, compelling language both her life and her journeys across the Atlantic Ocean.

I was fascinated by all the boat details mentioned in this book. The book has a diagram of Tori’s boat at the front and throughout she explains just what she’s doing when she rows, show more where her stuff is, how she feels in her tiny cabin, and so on. Every gory detail about the blisters on her hands, on her feet, her various aches and pains, and so on are included to really make us feel the pain she’s in. This is especially so during the hurricane; we don’t find out what’s causing all the problems at the time, but it seemed fairly obvious to me. The boat capsizes a ridiculous number of times and Tori is thrown about her little cabin. At one point, she thinks about ending it because she is in so much pain, very alone, and her demons have come out to get her. Luckily, she doesn’t, and the next day calls for rescue. I was actually relieved for her.

Tori’s emotional development is quite moving as well. Between stories of her difficult childhood and independent adolescence and early adulthood, it’s hard to believe that she opens herself up to others as much as she does by the end of her memoir. Her personal growth while she’s out alone on the boat is valuable not only to her but to us as well. She faces down her demons and wins; I would hope that most of us need not end up in a hurricane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to do the same ourselves!

I enjoyed this memoir far more than I was expecting to. It’s well written, compelling, and packs a punch for a book that’s about a woman rowing alone across the ocean. Tori has lived an exciting and eventful life and it’s extremely encouraging to read about a woman who achieves her dreams through hard work and determination. In a world consumed with celebrity memoirs, this is a breath of fresh air and certainly worth your time.

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I highly recommend this memoir by Tori McClure. Sailing solo across the Atlantic is not for the faint of heart. Tense and page-turning, the reader is with her the entire way...even through the hurricane and the rescue it precipitates. Excellent.

I'm glad I read this, though I wasn't entirely satisfied with it. Tori McClure seems to be a hard-charging person who is always searching for the next challenge she can obliterate. She is very impatient with people who ask her why she wanted to row across the Atlantic -- and I kept wanting to ask her why that is such a frustrating question. It is a very sensible question, because not only did she put herself in serious jeopardy, she caused family and friends a lot of anxiety. But nevertheless, she did do it and is an impressive woman (I wish she had spent less time trying to impress the reader -- but I think she has issues of trying to prove herself). At times, the trip did seem magical when dolphins or whales came to visit, and it must show more be something to know that you can put your mind to doing something so enormously challenging. Also, I was glad to see that she refused to activate her EPIRB (the distress signal) until after the storm she was in subsided, so she would not put rescuers in danger. Coming from a Coast Guard family, I appreciated that because so many people do stupid things and then the rescuers are forced to jeopardize themselves. She avoided some issues that I think are relevant, like her family dynamics growing up, probably because of their sensitivity. But she was open about other things. Overall, an interesting read. show less

I love reading about other people's adventures, especially adventures that I would never consider taking myself. And this is definitely one of those stories.

My rowing experience is limited to about five minutes on a rowing machine in the gym, so the idea of rowing across an ocean is mind-boggling. McClure does a wonderful job of making rowing accessible and interesting, even though I have no desire to take up the sport. She does a great job of describing the Pearl, and I can easily picture the boat. However, I think a few photographs of exactly how small the Pearl is would have added to the story.

I was afraid the story might be a little dry, but that was never the case. McClure's writing is very engaging and flows well. The story of show more her time in the Atlantic is interspersed with stories of her family and growing up. This is a great way to get to know her, and the stories are often tied to what she was experiencing on the ocean.

I would recommend this exciting book to those who love adventure stories like Into Thin Air. show less

Tori is a marvel and so is her book. She spoke at our Library recently and started off very quietly and with tons of humility and left us in tears by the end of her tale. Her book is wonderful. She happens to be one of the most well-rounded super achievers I have ever encountered - law degree, divinity degree, writing degree, skiied to the South Pole and was the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean solo! And she is still remarkably lovely, fascinating, and humble. She finds her peace later in life and shares her journey with the reader in a delightful manner.

I really enjoyed this book. When she started out on her journey I thought man I wish I could do something like this. Then when she was being thrown around by the hurricane I thought man I'm glad this isn't me. She did a good job. I could actually visualize her rolling around in the boat as the waves threw her around. I don't remember this actually happening in 1998 but it makes me want to learn more about Tori.