Dean Adams, author of “Four Thousand Hooks, A True Story of Fishing & Coming of Age on the High Seas of Alaska,” (University of Washington Press, 2012) will be at the Tumwater Timberland Library on Monday, November 5 at 6 p.m. to talk about his experiences and new book. Adams will sign books after the presentation. Copies will be available for purchase.
As Four Thousand Hooks opens, an Alaskan fishing schooner is sinking. It is the summer of 1972, and the 16-year-old narrator is at the helm. Backtracking from this gripping prologue, Adams tells how he came to be a crew member on the Grant and unfolds a tale of adventure that reads like a novel – with drama, conflict, and portrayals of halibut fishing, his ragtag shipmates, maritime Alaska, and the ambiguities of family life.
At sea, the Grant’s crew teach Dean the daily tasks of baiting thousands of longline hooks and handling the catch, and on shore they lead him through the seedy bars and guilty pleasures of Kodiak. Exhausted by 20-hour workdays and awed by the ocean’s raw power, he observes examples of human courage and vulnerability and emerges with a deeper knowledge of himself and the world.
Adams went on to become the captain of his own commercial fishing vessel and obtained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Fisheries Science from the University of Washington. He retired from Alaska commercial fishing in 2007 and is working on his second book. His website is www.fourthousandhooks.com.
The Tumwater Timberland Library is at 7023 New Market Street. For more information, contact the library at (360) 943-7790 or go to www.TRL.org.
“I relived my own past reading Four Thousand Hooks. The way Adams describes seeing things for the first time through the eyes of a greenhorn crew member—the sights and smells, what it’s like to really feel work and exhaustion, being on your own as a young man in Alaska—brought back memories I didn’t know I had.” –Sig Hansen, Captain of the Northwestern as seen on television’sDeadliest Catch.
