The storm was monumentally devastating...but it needn't have been. Eric Larson's account of the hurricane that devastated the offshore Texas town of Galveston is well done and quite readable. Like any drama, it is most appealing when the rubber hits the road, or in this case during the actual destruction of Galveston. Larson's recreations of the first person experiences of the storm are done in riveting fashion. Some of the images planted in my mind's eye will stay with me always. The blow by blow descriptions of the storm, the inhabitants of Galveston and the swirling water and debris wrench the heart. The storm is tracked across the Atlantic though when the technical structure of the storm is discussed, it bogged down the narrative. I became frustrated that I didn't understand the mechanics as well as I wanted to--a lot of information was crammed into a small space and not allowed to breath. The unfolding of the politics of weather forecasting, however, was done quite well. The mixture of insight and misinformation that informs any new field of knowledge contributed to American forecasters leaving Galveston unprepared. The title of the book refers to a regional weather man almost swallowed by the storm who should have known better but allowed his superiors to hold sway over his common sense. Exactly why it is considered his storm is only driven home at the end. What should have been a stronger central theme was played with but never driven home until the end of the book. There were some secondary characters introduced unnecessarily to heighten the tragedy of the storm--they diluted and confused the action. On the whole, quite enjoyable as history and mass tragedy but a misstep in really delivering the person of Isaac behind the title.