The Nautical Chart

The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte, Margaret

I found this book very boring. If you don't have some knowledge of the Spanish language, it tends to confuse you. It's a very slow-moving book. I didn't even finish it. In my opinion the author paid more attention to describing the landscape of where the characters were than to the characters themselves.

The Nautical Chart: NOT THE BOOK FOR ME!

The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte starts off with a man named Coy who is banished from his ship and left on land. He awaits a decision of whether or not he will be allowed back on his ship. While awaiting this decision, he is at an auction in Barcelona. He sees this very attractive woman who bids nonstop on this one possession. But while bidding, Coy notices that a man seems to be fighting over it with her, they go back and forth for a while. Until, she undoubtedly wins and the possession, that is an Atlas made by Urrutia Salcedo becomes hers. After the auction ends Coy walks outside and sees that the woman that won the Atlas and the man that also wanted it were fighting outside. Coy rushes over to see if he can help but this man seems furious to Coy and in the end Coy walks away with this newly acquainted woman named Tanger Soto. Tanger is a very strong and mysterious woman. She could make anyone fall for her lies. Coy becomes infatuated with Tanger, but Tanger is only interested in one thing finding the sunken ship The Dei Gloria. The Atlas that was won in Barcelona was one clue among many that could lead towards this unfound ship. Tanger asks for Coys help, because she knows that he is able to read nautical charts and is very good at sea. Although she does mention to Coy that helping her could be dangerous, but Coy doesn't mind as long as he is with Tanger. The reason that Tanger says there could be danger is because the man that she was fighting with at the auction is after the same ship that she is and he could become very dangerous. Throughout this book there are many twists and turns that lead to some very serious situations but for some reason "I sometimes got confused because the author tends to write in circles." Meaning like he would talk about what was happening between Tanger and Coy and then all of a sudden it would be talking about Coy and his old adventures out at sea. " I did not like the book also, because it progressed very slowly through the plot line." By reading this book I learned that sometimes you shouldn't trust a person even if you think your falling in love with that person. I would probably recommend this book more to men rather than women because it deals with ships and a lot of stuff that doesn't pertain to women.

The Nautical Chart is a boring book.

The main character in The Nautical Chart is a quiet sailor named Coy. Coy¿s sailing license has been suspended because the ship he was sailing on hit a rock on his watch. While at an auction in Barcelona, Coy meets a woman named Tanger. She works for the Museo Naval in Madrid. A few weeks later Coy goes to see Tanger in Madrid and he finds out that she is searching for a ship that sunk in 1767, named the Dei Gloria. Tanger tells Coy that she wants to recover the ship for historical purposes only, but he believes she has another motive that she is keeping hidden. However, Coy agrees to help Tanger search for the Dei Gloria and also gets his friend, El Piloto, to sail with them and lend them his boat. Coy also meets a dangerous treasure hunter named Nino Palermo, who is also trying to find the Dei Gloria and will stop at nothing to get there before Tanger. I did not like this book because I found that most of it was very boring. I thought that the beginning was very redundant when describing Coy and his personality. One part of the description of him was a paragraph almost two pages long. In the paragraph it repeated over and over again how Coy felt about the sea and being a sailor. It said things like ¿he viewed life on land as unreliable and lamentable¿his one desire was to stay as far away [from land] as necessary¿he was one of those men who was happiest ten miles away form the nearest shore¿the sea is clean¿the sea is a solution¿. The author repeated things like this over and over again in different words making it very boring and repetitive. Another reason I didn¿t like the book was because it would get exciting and then boring for long stretches soon after that. For example, when Coy, Tanger, and El Piloto think they¿ve found the area where the ship should be it seems like the book is coming to the climax. However, they don¿t find the Dei Gloria there and there are another 25 pages or so of the three of them consulting maps and professors before it even starts to get interesting again. Things like this made the story seem like it was being dragged out. I also did not like the authors writing style when it came to dialogues. A lot of the time, instead of using quotation marks the author would explain what a character was saying. Sometimes I would have to stop and think for a few moments just to figure out what someone was saying or who was speaking. For example, when Coy first meets Tanger he asks her if she wants to get a drink with him, but instead of just writing the question in quotations, the author wrote: ¿He spoke with the spontaneous shyness that was his usual way with people¿he spoke, touched his nose, and spoke again¿and then stood there waiting.¿ I didn¿t even realize that he had asked her out until she said yes and they went to a bar. Many conversations were written this way and were confusing and hard to follow. I also found that Coy read too much into some gestures or things that people said. For example, near the beginning of the story Tanger and Coy go to see a professor to ask him about the Dei Gloria. The professor is talking to Tanger but every so often he turns to look at Coy. The author goes on for a whole paragraph about how Coy interprets the gesture. It says that the gesture says ¿I don¿t know your role in this story friend, but I suppose it wont bother you if I talk to her a while.¿ The paragraph goes on to say similar things about what Coy thinks the gesture means. This quickly got boring when it was done again and again with different actions and conversations and it too made the story seem like it was being dragged out. One lesson I learned from this book is that you should be careful who you trust. Coy throws caution to the winds and trusts Tanger without thinking too much about the outcome. He ends up getting himself into many dangerous situations such as when he gets into a fight with Nino Palermo and two of his bodyguards, and he is nearly killed. I would not recommend this book

Dull, Dull, Dull!!

Reverte has written the novel that all of his previous, stilted efforts promised. Yes, this is boring beyond anything in this genre. In the past he has been somewhat able to overcome stilted dialogue and weakly drawn characters with terrific plots that move forward briskly. However, The Nautical Chart, moves more slowly than a row boat crossing the Atlantic. It is well past the midpoint of the book that our heroes finally take to the sea. The 250+ pages leading to this could easily have been condensed to under 50 as there is no interest developed in the socalled mystery of the sunken ship they are seeking or in the half realized pending romance that is beyond logic. Coy must be the biggest sap walking the docks to follow Tanger in her quest. More than this, Coy seems to find the need to touch his nose every 15 pages or so. What was that all about?? Perhaps the translation is flawed and somewhere here there is a treasure chest of a story but I doubt it. In previous efforts such as The Seville Communion and The Club Dumas Reverte has kept the pages turning despite serious drawbacks in his writing style. As prose this is hign school creative writing level. As suspense it is sleep inducing. Intellectual only for those who have difficulty pronouncing the word and believe the cover jacket blurbs!! Instead of wasting your time and money her why not seek out Michael Dibdin's prolific series featuring his Italian policeman Aurelio Zen. Not so pretentious and much better paced.

mais non!

This novel is anything but dull. Yes, translation may be an issue, but this story has a generous plot and character depth and the ending is surprising. Reverte, as in Flanders, can lag a bit in the middle of the novel but really doesn't here.

Adventure novel with superior characterizations, details, and plot

Plumbing both the depth of the seas and of his characters, Arturo Pérez-Reverte brings us this terrific adventure book. In doing so, he reaches beyond his own classic intellectual adventures, The Fencing Master, and The Club Dumas now to produce what is rightly a grand novel. Senorita Tánger Soto is a dangerous, beautiful woman: Coy, a sailor and amateur diver. After encountering her at an auction, Coy correctly senses both the pleasures and the perils that lie in her wake.Both of them, and the quiet Senor El Piloto, make up an unlikely intrepid trio, who set out to search for the Dei Gloria ¿ sunk off Spanish waters in 1767, at a place identified on an old chart. Coy falls in love with Tánger, who responds only physically ¿ not emotionally. Has he any reason to trust this woman? Of course, many twists and adventures lie ahead, and many pages later the author wittily bring in the narrater of the story --but Perez Reverte wastes not, and the narrater plays an important, though brief role. Pérez-Reverte references Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville and others in this tension filled, superior novel. So, stick an knife in your shark-hide belt, settle down in your favorite den and prepare for unforgettable adventure.

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