Journalists are often the best writers of true adventure because they’re expert researchers who know how to write for a general audience. It’s one thing to be a top-notch researcher; it’s another thing entirely to turn notes, quotes, and dates into gripping prose. Robert Kurman has done it brilliantly with Shadow Divers, a meticulously researched work that is a blast to read. I rank this book with Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm among the best examples of true adventure writing out there. Shadow Divers tells the story of two American shipwreck divers who became obsessed with identifying a mysterious German U-boat sunk off the coast of New Jersey during World War II. Though their obsession takes a tremendous toll on their personal lives, divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler become dedicated to protecting the remains of the fallen German soldiers and tracking down relatives of the deceased. The hundreds of hours Kurman spent interviewing Chatterton and Kohler paid off by providing rich material for character studies of the two men. Their unlikely friendship and the hardships they encounter during their six-year quest to identify “U-who?” bring an emotional depth to the story that is often missing from adventure lit. Review by Kali
<a href=’http://www.powells.com/partner/34730/biblio/9780375760983?p_bt’ title=’Buy from Powell’s Books’ rel=’powells-9780375760983′><img src=’http://www.powells.com/images/partners/buy_from_powells.jpg’ border=’0′ width=’126′ height=’41′></a>
{ 0 comments }
