Before the murder of journalist Kim Wall by inventor Peter Madsen hit international headlines, few had heard of the world of amateur submarines, a small but obsessive group chasing the chance to go ever deeper.
Like the author, I am very claustrophobic, and deeply suspicious of deep water, so of course the stories of spelunkers and divers fascinate me. And while I remember following the story of Kim Wall’s murder as it unfolded in the news, I didn’t follow it all the way until the end, and I know nothing about the wider community of submarine enthusiasts and how this story fit into it, so I was excited to dive in.
The author divides his attention between the crime and the community fairly evenly, showing how the problems that Madsen had with women and violence were intertwined with his enthusiasm for diving, where a man can command all he surveys and leave the strictures of society up on the surface. Frank’s uneasiness with his subject matter creates an interesting push and pull in his writing, especially as he’s not at all afraid to show exactly how out of his depth he is.
Though it’s a short book, Frank’s wide view means I feel that I learned a lot about many different aspects of the amateur submarine community, from the history to the social dynamics to possible issues with sexism. He also truly tries to get to know the story of Kim Wall, and his admiration of her as a person and a journalist shines through.
However, while the writing was lyrical, I did think it became a bit overwrought at times. There are some genuinely beautiful passages, sure. But he also attempts to emulate Kim Wall’s style of including vivid, off-kilter details to her reporting, but less successfully I thought, especially in long passages detailing the minutiae of locations or moments – it rather threw off the pacing of the read and left me out at sea. The case is the same with barely tangential passages about barely involved personages, which are maybe meant to add color but just left me cold.
Please disregard the number of submarine puns in this review – I really couldn’t help myself!
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.