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TAR HEEL LITERATURE:
HATTERAS BLUES: A STORY FROM THE EDGE OF AMERICA

Hatteras Blues: A Story from the Edge of America
by Tom Carlson, The University of North Carolina Press. 2005, 236 pages, paperback, $27.50. Available at major bookstores.

This is a book about the “blues” in coastal North Carolina, and they come in many forms on these beautifully written pages. Whether it’s a feisty game fish caught off the rough surf of Hatteras, a charter and commercial fishing business (and lifestyle) that more modern boats are leaving in their wakes, or the agonizingly slow death of the author’s wife, this book succeeds in covering blues from many angles--without leaving you feeling blue on the last page.

Carlson obviously has a deep love for Hatteras Village and its fishing heritage. He focuses on the Foster family business, which started when young Ernal Foster spent his life savings of $800 to build a juniper-hulled fishing boat in 1937, giving birth to what would eventually become the multi-million-dollar charter fishing industry that exists on the Outer Banks today. Along with a fascinating history that includes a world record blue marlin catch, Carlson focuses on Ernal’s son, Captain Ernie Foster, who continues to struggle to keep the Foster family fishing business alive while huge houses, boats, and hurricanes have their way on Hatteras.

Carlson lovingly details this coastal history and current circumstances, all while living through his wife’s long battle with multiple sclerosis. Pictures interspersed throughout the text--both historical and current--place names with faces (and fish).

In his preface, Carlson writes, “I have tried to keep my presence in the story to a minimum, but I am in it because it would be dishonest to pass myself off as an objective, disinterested observer. I wasn’t. The story of these people unexpectedly but indelibly became my story. I believe, too, that the story of the Foster family and the people of Hatteras Village is, in many ways, the story of us all.” Readers will be glad Carlson chose to tell this tale of the blues, what some call progress, and how and why we should all continue living life on the edge.