The Fourth Fisherman, by Joe Kissack

You may vaguely recall the stories a few years ago about some Mexican fisherman who drifted across the Pacific for months, ending up 5500 miles from home.  The story of their survival made them into celebrities for a brief time, but came and went from the attention of Americans, like last year's rescued Chilean coal miners.  Their story did not, however, escape the attention of Joe Kissack, a former TV executive whose life was falling apart.  The Fourth Fisherman tells the fishermen's story, but mostly turns out to be the story of Kissack's struggles with addiction and workaholism, and his pursuit of the rights to tell the story of the three fisherman.

I like a good survival story as much as the next guy.  The three fisherman struck a chord with Joe because of the fact that they said they read the Bible continually throughout their 9 month voyage and said they relied on their faith in God to help them survive.  The facts of their survival are provided, with a bit of descriptive color, but I didn't get a real sense of the passage of time.  They drifted a long, long way.

The four fisherman. (Three plus Joe.)

Their survival story ended up taking second fiddle to Joe's story.  And his story sort of annoyed me.  It's not his fault.  I just get sort of tired of this type of story: the self-absorbed, materialistic businessman, making a ton of money, begins to get stressed out and reassesses his life.  He quits his job to pursue his dream.  That's what Joe does, spending years of his life and all of his savings to meet the three fishermen and tell their story.  After spending all his money, selling his lake house and his wife's Lexus (feel sorry for him yet?) he's not much closer to getting a movie made.

Ultimately, we have here a pretty nice story about some fishermen who got lost at sea, and the impact they had on an American struggling in life.  I like the way one lady summarized his story after Joe spoke at her church.  The fishermen looked lost, floating in the middle of the ocean, while Joe had everything, but Joe was the lost one.  "The fishermen were not lost at all--they had God."  Maybe Joe will reach his goal of making a movie about the Tres Pescadores.  I'll watch it.  In the meantime, while I'm happy he got his life straightened out, I'm not that happy with this book.

This book is to be released on March 13, 2012.  I received a complementary pre-release review copy from WaterBrook Multnomah.  Thanks!

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