War Beneath the Waves

I miss my book reviews, even though I can't read all the bestsellers anymore, so here's a new section: Treasure Hunt. Books that I picked up at Borders' liquidation sales, or that I found cheap at used book stores. I've got quite a pile of these I've been meaning to go through anyway.

So first up is War Beneath the Waves, by Don Keith. It's a nonfiction book about a submarine crew in WWII, who suffered one of the worst depth-charge attacks anyone has ever survived – even though the top three officers were incapacitated early in the attack.

The story is interesting, the point – that such heroism deserves to be told and recognized – is appreciated, but somehow the editor in me is as fascinated as the historian. It's trying to figure out what went wrong.

I enjoyed this book. I really did. And any one section of it was an easy read, well-explained and plainly worded. The problem comes in the structure of the book as a whole. This was very obviously not written all in one go – or if it was, then the editor messed up badly. I could almost see it as a series of essays that were patched together, except that I don't know why anyone would write single essays on the events.

Terms and backgrounds are explained, re-explained, and re-explained again. Each time in slightly different wording, with a slightly different focus on the details. Each time as if the author thinks you've never heard it before. But the worst part, I think, is the timeline. This is not a linear story.

At first it seems to be following the man who will take command of the sub when no one else is available – Charlie Rush. But it keeps jumping. The main storyline meets someone important or interesting, and suddenly it's jumped back and is telling you their history. He gets assigned to a base or ship, and you get its history. These are all fascinating tangents – but they start to overlap after a while, and worse, you lose track of when you are in relation to the (supposed) main event of the book. The actual depth-charge attack consists of about four chapters, the central one only ten pages long – in a book with fourteen chapters, a prologue, and an epilogue.

It would probably make a great movie.

*************************************

Crystal Ball