Pirate's Passage
William Gilkerson
Memoir/Historical Fiction (it is based on his childhood, but some parts are fiction)
Just Right
pg. 269
1. Right now in my book, Jim and Captain Johnson are in Boston, trying to sell their pewter wares they found in Jim's cellar. They have pretty much taken on aliases, they are all dressed up in fancy clothes, trying to make them seem like some one a dealer would like to buy antiques from. Both are speaking with a British accent, the captain's is real, but Jim's is fake. So far they have sealed a deal with their first dealer, which they have called "Mr. Bow-Tie". The money they are collecting they will send back to their inn in Nova Scotia. They need that money to make repairs on the inn, or else the Board of Public Health will deem the house unfit for serving food and will close it down. Their inn is not actually dirty, it is just the family that wants to buy the inn, the Moehners had probably bribed these officials into doing what they are doing now.
2. So far I am really enjoying this book. It is quite different from anything that I have read before. It is really interesting to see what Gilkerson is going to throw at you next. It is not really the plot that makes this book interesting, but all the little things that happen, and all the mini-adventures the captain and Jim get themselves into. I do not know how much of this story is actually true, I suspect that very little of it is actually true, so Gilkerson has not limited himself to sticking with the facts. At the beginning of this book, I thought it was all real, and I thought that all these things were too amazing for someone to do, and I thing that some of that is still stuck in me, which is why I like it so much.
3. A theme that I have noticed in this last section of the book is quite a lot of cunning. The captain was able to talk himself into leaving his boat that he and Jim had sailed from Nova Scotia to Boston, right on the wharf next to the USS Constitution! He pretty much forced the antique dealer to buy his pewter, but not buy force, but with his words. In fact, throughout the entire book, the captain has seemed to make everyone see his way, and do what he wanted them to. And it has really shown in this section, he has manipulated everyone, even Jim, by making him talk with an English accent.
4. My favorite character would have to be Captain Johnson. This is mainly because of the reasons stated above. But he is such a rich character, the story is not so much about Jim, but about the captain. There would be no story without him, he spices up every one's life and makes the story more interesting. He is the leader of this story and everyone seems to follow him wherever he goes. Jim does not have a father, and Johnson seems to fill that role. But he goes beyond that, not only is he a father, but a very close friend. Gilkerson holds him in a very high regard and I think that is why he is my favorite.
5. My least favorite character in this section of the book would have to be Mr Bow-Tie. To confess, there is a shortage of characters in this section, and there is not any one that I despise more than any other, but Mr Bow-Tie is close enough. It seemed as if he was quite snobbish, and I really do not like people who are snobbish. I thought that Jim and the captain were only getting dressed up to see Mr Bow-Tie, so that made me think of him as snobbish as well. He also did not want to buy their pewter, and so that is somewhat annoying and could mess up their plans. So although I do not despise him, Mr Bow-Tie is my least favorite of about three characters.
6. I think that because I am close to the end of the book, things will start to wrap up quickly. the captain and Jim will probably end up selling all their pewter, but maybe not all at full price, since there is so much of it. Then the will wire home the money they got from selling the pewter and they will save the day. Jim's mother will be able to pay the contractors to do the renovations. Jim will then sail home with Captain Johnson. Unfortunately the captain will have to leave to go and do whatever he had in mind in the first place.
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