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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
tense
fast-paced
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
sad
medium-paced
This book, while a very fast read, stood out to me for a lot of reasons - all good ones - but mainly the fact that for being filled with more first person accounts of the sinking than I've ever encountered in one place.
Compared to the highly romanticized stories of the sinking we find nowadays, it makes me wonder if the style in which this book were written lies in the possibility of the sinking of Titanic being too soon, the wounds still too fresh and too scarring, to allow emotions and feelings to surface.
Just the possibility of that makes this book all the better and all the more poignant.
Compared to the highly romanticized stories of the sinking we find nowadays, it makes me wonder if the style in which this book were written lies in the possibility of the sinking of Titanic being too soon, the wounds still too fresh and too scarring, to allow emotions and feelings to surface.
Just the possibility of that makes this book all the better and all the more poignant.
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Nonfiction often ages poorly, especially on such a well-studied topic as this, as new information comes out or interpretations change or become outdated. Not so here. Save for some occasional minor editorializing that reveals some of the author's outdated attitudes (e.g. towards women), I would never have guessed this book was over 60 years old.
The style is almost novelistic, jumping between several POV characters in various areas of the ship, including officers, crew, and passengers of all classes. The timeline is clear but not rigidly chronological, weaving the separate threads together to create a nearly seamless whole. The author includes careful details such as the items various people chose to bring along or leave behind as they abandoned their cabins, and includes comments from people on board that really help you imagine what it might have been like in such a situation. At the same time, you can tell he's being careful not to take too much artistic license; he notes in the Acknowledgements section that the narrative includes no reconstructed conversations or imagined thoughts, only details reported by people who were actually there. He mentions several survivors he interviewed directly, and also clearly relied heavily on the published testimony from the subsequent investigations to piece together accounts of those survivors no longer living at the time of writing.
The prose is descriptive and engaging, and at less than 250 pages, I flew through the whole thing in a single day. Definitely recommended if you're in the mood for some gripping nonfiction.
The style is almost novelistic, jumping between several POV characters in various areas of the ship, including officers, crew, and passengers of all classes. The timeline is clear but not rigidly chronological, weaving the separate threads together to create a nearly seamless whole. The author includes careful details such as the items various people chose to bring along or leave behind as they abandoned their cabins, and includes comments from people on board that really help you imagine what it might have been like in such a situation. At the same time, you can tell he's being careful not to take too much artistic license; he notes in the Acknowledgements section that the narrative includes no reconstructed conversations or imagined thoughts, only details reported by people who were actually there. He mentions several survivors he interviewed directly, and also clearly relied heavily on the published testimony from the subsequent investigations to piece together accounts of those survivors no longer living at the time of writing.
The prose is descriptive and engaging, and at less than 250 pages, I flew through the whole thing in a single day. Definitely recommended if you're in the mood for some gripping nonfiction.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Felt a bit outdated but it was still an ok read. Makes me want to find another book on the Titanic to read.
For good shipwreck stories, suggest Dead Wake (Lusitania) or Endurance (Endurance, Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition ship).
Spoilers: the Titanic sinks.
For good shipwreck stories, suggest Dead Wake (Lusitania) or Endurance (Endurance, Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition ship).
Spoilers: the Titanic sinks.