Across the Bar: Jonathan Raban (author)

[Bruce Bateau]

Jonathan Raban, the English, Seattle-based writer who sailed the Inside Passage, motored down the Mississippi, and wrote several books about boats passed away this week. I liked his writing and his wit. I'd always hoped to meet him or hear him read. I guess I missed that chance.

When I heard he died, I was reminded that his words that I liked the best were introductions.

In 2001, International Marine publishers had the wisdom to hire Mr. Raban to write introductions to at least six classic sailing books in The Sailor’s Classics series, ranging from 40,000 miles in a Canoe to Gipsy Moth Circles the World. But to call his writing a mere introduction belittles the craftsmanship shown as he weaves literary review, history and seamanship into each piece of writing. Raban is no talking head, but an older sibling you look up to; one who helps you find the most fascinating, subtle, and unexpected moments in a book.

For example, in the introduction to the tale of Miles and Beryl Smeeton’s disastrous trip through the Southern Ocean, Once is Enough, Raban points out domestic matters aboard their ship. You might expect an introduction to cover the history of the boat’s route or dimensions, but when he describes, “the splendor of bacon-and-egg breakfasts, the helmsman’s rendition of the theme song from Carmen Jones, the disposal of cat litter,” and most charmingly to me, “Beryl’s ‘slightly musty’ smell as she awakens to receive a New Year’s kiss,” I feel as though I’m transported into the cabin. By calling out such sensory details, Raban makes me look forward to what I will find in the book and sets the scene so well, that I’m ready to soak in the characters and scene instead of figuring out where I am when I start turning the first pages.

I think the books are all out of print, but they are sometimes available used over at Better World Books. He also put together an impressive compendium of the history of writing about the sea and boats call the Oxford Book of the Sea.

What's your favorite writing from Mr. Raban?

[WI-Tom]

I like Coasting: A Private Voyage (maybe his first book?), the story of a gradually pieced-together circumnavigation of the UK. More an exploration of his relationship with his father and his own lack of ambition/direction (hence "coasting") than a sea story, but plenty of boats and sailing and motoring and being at anchor. He understands very well that to have an audience outside the narrow confines of sailing itself, you have to write more about the personal than the technical. Far more.

I especially like that in this book, Raban encounters Paul Theroux, who is walking around England for his own book (another good one) Kingdom by the Sea. Reading the different tellings of the Raban-Theroux encounter is entertaining, and shows how fictional (in the sense of crafted and selective, not in the sense of "made up") good narrative nonfiction is.

He's a quiet, contemplative, and (it seems to me) not terribly happy persona in his books.

Tom

[AJZimm]

The only book of his that I ever read was Passage to Juneau.

It was a long time ago but I remember I wasn't impressed by it. I think, if I recall correctly, that his described experience didn't accord with any of mine on the same stretch of coast - it just didn't seem like he was talking about the place I knew. It put me off his books and I have never read another. Perhaps I should give him a second chance.

[Larrycheek]

Raban was a brilliant writer. No one I can think of has ever been better at vividly original metaphoric descriptions, especially those involving boats and the sea. I dissected the luminous paragraph quoted in the NYT obit beginning "I am afraid of the sea ..." for years in my university writing class lectures. Here's another favorite, from "Coasting," his memoir about circumnavigating England:

"The engine, the engine. Its thump and clatter, all mixed up with the smell of diesel oil and the continuous slight motion of the sea, is so regular and monotonous that you keep on hearing voices in it. Sometimes, when the revs are low, there's a man under the boards reciting poems that you vaguely remember in a resonant bass. Sometimes the noise rises to the bright nonsense of a cocktail party in the flat downstairs. At present, though, you're stuck with your usual cruising companion at sixteen hundred revs, an indignant old fool grumbling in the cellar."

Alex, give "Coasting" a try, and then maybe return to "Passage to Juneau." I consider the latter a masterpiece, but it is controversial. I assigned "Passage to Juneau" as class reading for several years. A consistent one-third of my students hated it; two-thirds loved it. Nobody was neutral or undecided.

[John Meachen]

I was a fan of his writing,even if the subject matter was sometimes a little depressing and I would place Passage to Juneau in that category.It helped to understand that as the voyage progressed,his relationship was breaking down.

I would say I enjoyed Old Glory the best of his output and it gives an impression of the American interior landscape and people as seen through British eyes as he made his way from Minneapolis to the Gulf of Mexico in a small boat.

I haven't yet read his account of the region where the worst of the dust bowl era agricultural disaster struck and perhaps its time I did.

[Woxbox]

I wholeheartedly agree with all of the above. I, too, enjoyed "Old Glory" most, but throughout his work he was real craftsman and his books always a great pleasure.

[WI-Tom]

Raban was a brilliant writer. No one I can think of has ever been better at vividly original metaphoric descriptions, especially those involving boats and the sea. I dissected the luminous paragraph quoted in the NYT obit beginning "I am afraid of the sea ..." for years in my university writing class lectures. Here's another favorite, from "Coasting," his memoir about circumnavigating England:

"The engine, the engine. Its thump and clatter, all mixed up with the smell of diesel oil and the continuous slight motion of the sea, is so regular and monotonous that you keep on hearing voices in it. Sometimes, when the revs are low, there's a man under the boards reciting poems that you vaguely remember in a resonant bass. Sometimes the noise rises to the bright nonsense of a cocktail party in the flat downstairs. At present, though, you're stuck with your usual cruising companion at sixteen hundred revs, an indignant old fool grumbling in the cellar."

Alex, give "Coasting" a try, and then maybe return to "Passage to Juneau." I consider the latter a masterpiece, but it is controversial. I assigned "Passage to Juneau" as class reading for several years. A consistent one-third of my students hated it; two-thirds loved it. Nobody was neutral or undecided.

Larry,

not sure if you're still looking in, but have you read Robert Macfarlane? The Old Ways has some sailing-centered writing in it. I much prefer Macfarlane to Raban.

Raban is a writer whose skill I recognize and whose books feel too much like wallowing in introspection and gloom to provide me much joy.

Tom

[Bruce Bateau]

I agree some of his writing is on the gloomy side. I don't even know if his books really qualify as sea writing, so much as mood writing. From the NY Times obituary, "Mr. Raban’s literary narratives of the places he visited and the people he met combined travelogue, memoir, reportage and criticism. What he was not, he insisted, was a travel writer."

[johnw]

Nice guy. He used to stop by my bookstore on occasion, signing copies of his books I had for sale, just to do something for the readers. When an author does that, I don't raise the price, I figure they're not doing it for me.

[Bobcat]

Good to hear. I heard rumblings from some people and Jonathan Raban was prickly in person.

I have enjoyed his books.