A CREW OF ONE: The Odyssey of a Solo Marlin Fisherman

Bentos's legendary solo deep sea fishing voyages are an unprecedented accomplishment in what is normally a group sport. The trajectory of his memoir will be familiar to readers of the "angling is my life" subgenre: the first fish becomes destiny; recreation becomes obsession; the good life boils down to a contest with one fish. In Bentos's case, that first catfish, hooked on a family picnic in Uruguay in 1945, progressed to a solo quest in a 35-foot boat fishing for 200-plus-pound game fish, the equivalent, in terms of possibilities for catastrophic failure, of a one-astronaut Apollo launch. Bentos not only survives 30 nautical miles at sea, he consistently wins marlin fishing tournaments out of Ocean City, Md. For the core market of East Coast offshore anglers, Bentos peppers the text with his secrets of deep sea fishing rigs, trolling techniques and observations of marlin behavior. Despite a lifetime of colorful successes in business and as a radio personality on Voice of America, Bentos remains at heart a modest man of the sea, and his is not a quest that will capture audiences outside the upscale game-fishing fraternity. Though he's a competent writer, his book doesn't have the drama of sailing adventures like The Proving Ground, nor is it especially long on artistry. But the big game anglers will bite hard on Bentos's remarkable story, perhaps further proving Izaak Walton's contention that real anglers "are born so." (May)