Scan barcode
scottapeshot's review
4.0
A Bizarre, yet perfect piece of summer reading. The (English speaking) world's most louche and (my choice for the) most exacting contemporary aesthete gets a holiday on the most horrible cruise possible. And what does he do? He acts like a perfect pig and tells us precisely why. Not a heavy read, but with wonderfully heavy implications and humor. Thanks Geoff, you excellent twat.
almartin's review against another edition
2.0
to borrow from another reviewer, Another Great Day... is exactly as good as a book written by a narrator with
I somehow hitched myself to the Geoff Dyer wagon after Zona, even though in retrospect I never actually read Zona -- it just sort of pervaded 2012, that rare book that somehow floods various channels (friends, book reviews, etc.) and makes itself known. the weird Stalker + live commentary thing he did was definitely the kicker.
Anyways so I think I remain in on Geoff Dyer, man of letters, but Another Great Day didn't do a lot for me. I can echo the other reviews here - Dyer is a remarkably unsympathetic narrator. Cantankerous; selfish; full of complaints about food and noise and sleeping quarters. That's not really the point, though - that was DFW's approach towards cruise ships, and that equation netted a pretty brilliant essay.
The flaw here is Dyer's... glibness? His unwillingness to fully submit to life on an aircraft carrier makes him a poor correspondent; two moments stand out.
Perhaps I am picking at nits, but Another Great Day never really delivers because Dwyer promises an insider story of a city on the water that really never experiences, because he never immerses and never commits.
poor memory, poor note-taking, and indifferent attitude toward details like names and rankscould be. which is to say, entirely in the eye of the beholder, and to this beholder, mostly disappointing.
I somehow hitched myself to the Geoff Dyer wagon after Zona, even though in retrospect I never actually read Zona -- it just sort of pervaded 2012, that rare book that somehow floods various channels (friends, book reviews, etc.) and makes itself known. the weird Stalker + live commentary thing he did was definitely the kicker.
Anyways so I think I remain in on Geoff Dyer, man of letters, but Another Great Day didn't do a lot for me. I can echo the other reviews here - Dyer is a remarkably unsympathetic narrator. Cantankerous; selfish; full of complaints about food and noise and sleeping quarters. That's not really the point, though - that was DFW's approach towards cruise ships, and that equation netted a pretty brilliant essay.
The flaw here is Dyer's... glibness? His unwillingness to fully submit to life on an aircraft carrier makes him a poor correspondent; two moments stand out.
My untrained ear was having trouble keeping up with Dicola's explanation of what the various parts of the cat[apult] were called. These, let's say, were failures at the level of the noun. They were exceeded by systematic failures at the level of the verb: what these nouns--these various parts--did. (35)Superb turn of phrase, to be sure, but do not pass go and do not collect £200; it's a dodge, and I frankly don't buy it. Try harder. Ask questions. Use your words. Give me an analogy, or describe what it evokes.
Dessert arrived--a chocolate thingy--and then everyone signed the menus and posed for pictures. (175)'chocolate thingy' here, especially in the context of the final chapter (homesickness & eagerness to leave) all but screams "I'm throwing in the towel".
Perhaps I am picking at nits, but Another Great Day never really delivers because Dwyer promises an insider story of a city on the water that really never experiences, because he never immerses and never commits.
dayyynuh's review
4.0
Love the short chapters and how they provided a snippet of an experience or thought. The author is definitely a character whose blunt opinions made me laugh.
monsoon's review against another edition
4.0
This showcases the merit of long form essays. Insightful and voyeuristic.
kristengbaker's review against another edition
3.0
This book started out slowly for me, but I did end up enjoying it. I wanted to read it to get an inside view of life on an aircraft carrier. This book was an inside view of Dyer's 2 weeks on an aircraft carrier and while he interviews many people on the carrier, you mainly get his perspective on his experience. I wish you could give 1/2 stars, because I'd give it 3 1/2.
adt's review against another edition
4.0
A funny book with stealth insights and profound observations on important topics. Chapter 38 is a prime example of the author's ability to balance humor of the scatological and self deprecating styles with thoughtful observations on his own life and our own common human examinations of everything from duty to religion to discipline and routine; the list goes on and on. Over all, this is a non-jingoistic tribute to those he observed for two weeks. His respect is palpable, not sugarcoated, for those who spend so much of their lives in a pressure cooker of long hours, doing their best to avoid the few mistakes that are so terribly unforgiving. I was especially delighted to have this book read to me by someone with a British accent. Couldn't have been better!
maraviajera's review against another edition
2.0
I wish he spent more time describing the ship, and less time wading through his overwhelming narcissism. I frankly started just skipping the pages where he discussed how hard it was for him to be on the ship (for 2 weeks, alone in a state room).
Also, I understand he is British, but there is a tone to his portrayal of the Americans on the ship that is anthropological, like he has encountered a strange subculture that baffles him. (These people follow a strange sport (football), work out as if they're actually training for something, line dance when there is country music playing, and are all very patriotic. Shocking!!)
I would absolutely read another account of life on an aircraft carrier but I won't read anything else this strange dude has written.
Also, I understand he is British, but there is a tone to his portrayal of the Americans on the ship that is anthropological, like he has encountered a strange subculture that baffles him. (These people follow a strange sport (football), work out as if they're actually training for something, line dance when there is country music playing, and are all very patriotic. Shocking!!)
I would absolutely read another account of life on an aircraft carrier but I won't read anything else this strange dude has written.
ericwelch's review against another edition
4.0
Dyer writes of his experience on the carrier with a mix of awe, a child-like worshipfulness, elitism, and sardonicism. A fan of flight and model airplanes since his childhood, here he is in his fifties, finally invited on a huge aircraft carrier, where he insists he has to have a cabin to himself only to discover it’s located virtually under the flight deck where the pounding of planes landing threatens to deprive him of all sleep. And then he complains about the food. He constantly refers to the photographer who accompanied him as “the snapper,” but we get no sense at all of who the “snapper” is, nor his feelings about the adventure.
There’s not much to do “after work” on an aircraft carrier, at least in Dyer’s very limited perspective. Days are long, fourteen hours is the usual, and the balance of awake time is often spent studying. Alcohol and personal affection are prohibited, so, he would have us believe, one is left with little to do but indulge in dominos. “The reality is that a carrier is as crowded as a Bombay slum, with an aircraft factory—the hangar bay—in the middle. The hangar bay is the largest internal space on the boat. It’s absolutely enormous—and barely big enough for everything going on there.”
The title, “Another Great Day at Sea,” is from the Captain’s daily exhortation to the crew. It was a constantly repeated refrain, although Dyer wonders what the Captain might have intoned had they been in the middle of a North Atlantic storm.
Unable, not permitted, to go anywhere on the ship on his own, ostensibly for his own safety’s sake, one wonders just how accurate a view Dyer got of this modern marvel with the capacity to rain down death and destruction almost anywhere on the planet. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the religiosity displayed by the officers who all enjoyed the certitude that comes from hyper-religious belief and super-patriotism. Probably a prerequisite for the job.
But at the same time, Dyer is a very good listener and he extracts some revealing personal stories from his interviews with crew members. Of course, these must never be taken as generalizations given that the George Bush carries more than 5,000 men, that’s twice the size of my closest town. Still, I very much enjoyed the book since I’m just as besotted by technology as is Dyer.
There’s not much to do “after work” on an aircraft carrier, at least in Dyer’s very limited perspective. Days are long, fourteen hours is the usual, and the balance of awake time is often spent studying. Alcohol and personal affection are prohibited, so, he would have us believe, one is left with little to do but indulge in dominos. “The reality is that a carrier is as crowded as a Bombay slum, with an aircraft factory—the hangar bay—in the middle. The hangar bay is the largest internal space on the boat. It’s absolutely enormous—and barely big enough for everything going on there.”
The title, “Another Great Day at Sea,” is from the Captain’s daily exhortation to the crew. It was a constantly repeated refrain, although Dyer wonders what the Captain might have intoned had they been in the middle of a North Atlantic storm.
Unable, not permitted, to go anywhere on the ship on his own, ostensibly for his own safety’s sake, one wonders just how accurate a view Dyer got of this modern marvel with the capacity to rain down death and destruction almost anywhere on the planet. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by the religiosity displayed by the officers who all enjoyed the certitude that comes from hyper-religious belief and super-patriotism. Probably a prerequisite for the job.
But at the same time, Dyer is a very good listener and he extracts some revealing personal stories from his interviews with crew members. Of course, these must never be taken as generalizations given that the George Bush carries more than 5,000 men, that’s twice the size of my closest town. Still, I very much enjoyed the book since I’m just as besotted by technology as is Dyer.
oldpondnewfrog's review
3.0
I like Geoff's suggestions for naming aircraft carriers. "Why not name an aircraft carrier after Whitman? And why stop at Walt? Why not re-brand all the carriers and give them the names of poets? Show me one good reason why the USS Ronald Reagan shouldn't be called the USS Emily Dickinson."
(What else have we named wrong? Not trees, which are, for the most part, possessed of perfect names, though for some reason trees was my first thought. Apple OS X versions, like OS X El Because I could not stop for death? Or the all-new 2016 Nissan Goldengrove unleaving? Nothing as perfect as aircraft carriers.)
He's also hilarious, or else just infectiously delighted with his own dementedness. Like with "Beachbelly." Or, here, he's chatting with the Schwarzeneggeresque gym guard (or coach or something):
I think my favorite phrase in the book was "the shaven-headed duty officer." What mouthfeel.
(What else have we named wrong? Not trees, which are, for the most part, possessed of perfect names, though for some reason trees was my first thought. Apple OS X versions, like OS X El Because I could not stop for death? Or the all-new 2016 Nissan Goldengrove unleaving? Nothing as perfect as aircraft carriers.)
He's also hilarious, or else just infectiously delighted with his own dementedness. Like with "Beachbelly." Or, here, he's chatting with the Schwarzeneggeresque gym guard (or coach or something):
I didn't know what to say but, feeling I ought to ask a question, said:And good people observation/characterization: "Waiters in American restaurants always employ the first person singular when announcing and describing the day's specials. 'I have a lamb casserole with a radish reduction,' they will say, as though this interesting-sounding confection has been summoned into existence by his or her descriptive efforts alone. In Charles's [the officer in charge of the food supply chain] case this grammatical habit took on gargantuan proportions. 'I aim to eat my way through everything on the boat,' he said."
"How big can a human arm become before it stops being a limb and morphs into something else?"
"Excuse me?" he said, and so I changed my tune and came up with a different question, still physical, but less meta.
"I said, 'Are you the fittest person on the boat?'" I said.
"Lot of people fitter than me."
"Lot of people fatter than me," I quipped back. Then, fearing the conversation was taking on a slightly unhinged quality, I asked him about the food.
I think my favorite phrase in the book was "the shaven-headed duty officer." What mouthfeel.
mlytylr's review
4.0
if you're wondering how this became a book, the author wonders it too. i think i had residual goodwill for this author because of zona, but it's also interesting to read what a non-american thinks when he gets up close to the americanest americans
More...