BOOK REVIEW | With Barely Two Nickels to Rub Together: Blue Collar Boatbuilders Gold Beach, Oregon

To declare a bias, I first met the author in at a FishExpo in Seattle nearly forty years ago. We got on well and have remained vaguely in touch since. Like me, he is a former journalist who became a businessman. Co-incidentally, we have both, in later life, become authors.

So, I liked his book very much. It is truly a “labour of love”. It describes the Oregon-based Freeman family, their company, its people and its industry brilliantly because he knew them all well. He worked with them, as their partner and in their industry for forty years. Had he lacked that background, it is very unlikely he could have described them so effectively. Most importantly, he loved the people and the industry.

As well as being a brilliant personal history of a family who started with nothing but energy, ambition and superb practical skills, it is a first rate business case study. It would be a great text for Harvard and other business schools.

Describing the ups and downs of a family company against the background of an industry that has simultaneously experienced many turbulent highs and lows, it also provides a very valuable history of the very important, and sometimes rich, Pacific Northwest fishing industry of the United States and Canada. This is a fascinating and very useful aspect of the work showing, as it does, how badly governments can affect industries.

The book is very richly illustrated and beautifully presented. Its only failing is that it is very big and heavy. Reading it is physically tiring.

I salute and congratulate Bo Shindler on his magnificent effort with this very valuable book.

Author: Bo Shindler

Available from Rogue Reef Publishing, Gold Beach, Oregon, USA.

Web: www.straightforwardstories.com.