I had picked this up at a used book store a long ways back after reading nothing but rock bios for a while - thought a little historical non-fiction could beef my brain up.
Took about a year, but I finished it yesterday and the timing of the whole submersible ship implosion while doing some tourist viewing of the sunk Titanic lined up in a pretty unsettling way for me.
As far as the book goes, this is my second from Erik Larson, the first being Devil in the White City, which was excellent as was this one. Erik Larson has an incredible skill for writing a mix of textbook material and humanizing detail that allows you to both learn and care, while organized in a way that builds suspense despite the events being common knowledge. It almost reads like historical fiction, his research is very thorough into both the people he describes and the events that happened, providing context to both that creates a rich and educational reading experience.
Worth noting:
- Woodrow Wilson spends the whole book being a total simp and an emotional sad sack.
- Winston Churchill is both admirable and contemptible in his actions, in modern times he would be seen in a much more negative light.
- While making it clear that the German U-Boat commander Walter Schweiger is a cold and calculated man focused entirely on sinking ships with little care for the human toll, even he at times is a relatable character.
While the current events aren’t totally related as instead of a torpedo submarine we are currently talking about a luxury submersible used to do sight-seeing of a passenger ship’s wreckage, the first hand accounts of the survivors of the Lusitania’s sinking paint an absolutely horrifying picture of living through a shipwreck.
I never watched Titanic (I only watch good movies, thank you) (jk) but to imagine the absolute chaos and carnage of thousands of people in the middle of a freezing ocean, getting off the boat just to still be maimed or set adrift amongst the debris and surrounded by corpses and other terrified people… it’s rough.
Good read, check it out.
Devil in the White City is also a great book, the first book of his that I've read. Story of America's first recognized serial killer, occuring in Chicago during the World's Fair. Worth checking out.
That was my first book of his I read as well, back in college when I was taking a true crime class. My school had great English electives that I kept taking for fun and it set me back a year because I didn’t have anybody smart to tell me that they didn’t get me any closer to graduating.