The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab - Gideon Defoe
'The truth of the matter,' the Pirate Captain found himself saying, 'is that the treasure chests aren't on my boat. Because they're buried on one of the Cayman Islands. For tax purposes.'
This is actually the second book in a series (after The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, which I saw in a bookstore but haven't read yet) by Gideon Defoe, who (according to the author bio), "like all the English, ... lives with his butler in a castle and spends most of his time having jousts." That, and the above quote from the book, should give you an idea of the type of humor in this book. If you're looking for realistic, "Master and Commander"-type swashbuckling adventuring, this is not the place to find it. It's not even really "Pirates of the Caribbean" tongue-in-cheek humor. It's more like something from Monty Python, with a completely incompetent Pirate Captain (who does, however, have a luxurious well-conditioned beard), Vegas shows, a Prize Ham in a glass case, and (of course) the hunt for a great white whale.
The book is full of silliness, part of which is the helpful footnotes which tend to be little bits of true trivia that seem even more absurd by juxtaposition with the ridiculous plot. In this particular story, the Pirate Captain buys the most expensive ship from Cutlass Liz (trying to impress her), and then attempts to get the 6000 doubloons to pay for it, eventually attempting to hunt down the elusive Moby Dick to get Ahab's promised reward. None of the pirates on this ship have names, except for Jennifer, the lone lady pirate. Everyone else is "the pirate with the scarf," or "the pirate with gout," or "the pirate in green."
It's a pretty small book, about 150 pages, and makes for a quick read in between more serious fare. If you like wacky British humor and Pirates (!) then this is definitely for you. I'm planning to go back and find the first one myself.
Fed to jonathan's brain | June 07, 2006
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