Book Review: Dead Wake, The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Dead Wake by Erik Larson is a narrative nonfiction book recounting the final, fateful voyage of the massive Cunard ship Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat (U-20) in May 1915 during World War I.
 
    But Dead Wake isn’t just about the sinking of Lusitania, although it is that. It’s also the story of many of the people involved in the tragedy, including victims and survivors. In fact, we experience the sinking through the eyes of many of the participants, as they book their tickets, make their journeys to New York, board the ship and marvel at its luxuries. We even hear their idle chatter as the discuss the chances of a ship like Lusitania being torpedoed during their crossing. Imagine that!   

    And from the German side, we meet the U-Boat captain, the crew, learn about their life on a submarine, the controversies within the German government and military apparatus regarding the use of submarines against shipping. As an aside, I found that learning about warfare on one of the early World War I submarines was a fantastic bonus.

    But back to the point. It’s quite interesting in a work of history to meet regular passengers. Obviously, President Wilson figured into Dead Wake, as did Winston Churchill. These men were giants of the time and would be involved in ways essential to the retelling of the story.  But meeting some of the men, women and children who sailed on the Lusitania really brought home a sense of the tragedy and put a human face on loss as well as some of the miracles of survival.

    These different perspectives, different stories, were told in a rotating fashion which was compelling and interesting. Basically, the narrative continually flipped back and forth between Lusitania and U-20. I felt that the way Larson rotated the narrative between Lusitania and U-20 really added to the sense of impending doom and tragedy to come.

    Larson also goes into the period after Lusitania was sunk as the panels of inquiry were struck and the judges were called in to lay blame on those culpable for the sinking. But don’t worry, some of the most compelling parts of Dead Wake followed the part of the book about the sinking.

    One part of the book that I didn’t quite understand was the ongoing narrative of Wilson’s love interest and his personal life generally. It wasn’t a bad thing, but I just didn’t get why that much of the book was turned over to his walks with his some to be second wife.

    There were also some really interesting anecdotes that were totally unexpected. For example, a bookseller from Boston had brought a number of rare items, including a first edition copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, aboard Lusitania. This copy had a number of Dicken's annotations because he had used it for reference purposes in a legal battle against people that had basically stolen the content, early breachers of copyright if you will.  The bookseller actually got the copy to a lifeboat, but when that lifeboat also sank (as many did) this priceless edition was lost.   

    Generally, I really enjoyed Dead Wake and absolutely recommend it to anyone who is interested in popular nonfiction or history. 

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