Brad Fox

Entirely unexpected, but a great ride. Rather than a straight-up history, this is an account of William Beebe and his pioneering undersea exploration and all its adjacencies—scientific, cultural, political, and philosophical. This last context runs away with all the narrative in a wonderful and weird way, using Beebe's own accounts to extrapolate what he might have been thinking about and wondering as he set himself in the greater scheme of early 20th century knowledge. It's really like show more nothing else I've read, I think, and the reproductions of watercolors of deep marine life—most of which were done from Beebe's verbal descriptions—are just gorgeous.

Apropos of nothing, this is possibly the heaviest book for its size I've ever encountered. It's the thick, glossy pages, but it surprised me every time I picked it up. show less

A mixed reading experience. I’m impressed by Fox’s writing style, poetic and dreamy yet informative. However, the format didn’t always agree with me. Its nonlinear, fragmentary organization made me lose the thread sometimes, especially since I wasn’t binge reading it. Still, a fascinating, if niche, topic written about beautifully with accompanying illustrations, including Else Bostelmann’s wonderful paintings.

What the heck is going on in this book? I think there's a lot of interesting information here, but it is totally incoherent. There are chapters about people, describing their personalities and some particular passion or activity, but no explanation of what that person has to do with anyone else in the book. I think the book is about the science of colors and how they change in the ocean? But I gave up about a quarter of the way in because it just didn't make sense.

Terrible rambling mess of a book