Review: The Last Dive

[fookisan]

I finished "Last Dive." I thought it was pretty good. The story was riveting enough that I didn't care about the writing style. I've got Shadow Divers on order.

What bothered you about the style? My only complaint was the author sometimes repeated the same things chapters later.

fookisan

 

[fookisan]

Another interesting thing is Chatterton in the book is the same Chatterton on the Undersea detectives show on the History channel. (unless there are 2 John C's with the same credentials).

fookisan

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

What bothered you about the style? My only complaint was the author sometimes repeated the same things chapters later.

fookisan

Nothing. I enjoyed the history, as well as the details of the lives of the Ginny Springs characters, and the depth he went into, describing his own experience with getting bent and then going back to diving. All in all, I loved the book, and I'll be re-reading it again. Other people in this thread, said that the writing style was poor. It may have been... I don't know... Like I said, I was too riveted by the story to notice.

If you want an example of truly atrocious writing, get Adventure On Dolphin Island, by Ellen Prager. Holy crap... It's like it was written by a Jr. High School student. Hrmph....

 

[fookisan]

I found it an interesting read. There were several misconceptions put forward as fact, so it was not much of an educational tool for diving.

Coupled with "Deep Descent" and "Fatal Depth", I learned a bit about the mindset of that subcommunity.

Bernie's style is not great, but I have seen much worse.

What were the misconceptions? Thanks for the 2 books you recommend.

fookisan

 

[fookisan]

I really enjoyed the Last Dive but I have to agree with Almighty_wife and Coach_Izzy that it wasn't the "best written book". I found at times that Bernie Chowdhury was going on too much about himself instead of about the Rourke's. However, I still enjoyed the book ....

Yes, your complaints are valid if you want a book written from your perspective only. I find we need to allow breathing room with such creative projects as books and the like if we want something developed that appeals to the various personalties that make up the public.

Although I do not believe that 'diversity appeal' is the reason that Bernie went into such personal details in his book. Bernie not only used his writing to memorialize the diving events discussed in it. He also used the book as a vehicle for catharsis with his own issues and to come to peace with them. As I mentioned earlier, "fleas come with the dog" and seldom is anything created by imperfect humans going to be perfect. With my own judgments I look or direction and not perfection. Is the person, place or thing in question 'perfect enough' or is it 'too imperfect' and I just have to let it go?

Putting our complaints down on pen and paper first crystallizes in our heads what needs to be changed or accepted in our lives. Getting it all out and putting it all down is the first start of this recognition process that leads us to change. Without this recognition, that something is wrong in our lives, we cannot develop the desire for change. We don't even know what is wrong to change!

Writing your complaints down is the first start to making the roadmap for restructuring your life. Writing can be done in many venues from diaries or discussion boards such as these to writing books or articles. Restructuring our lives is very important if we want to get peace. Those things that cannot be restructured need to be accepted. Either way we can find peace -- by change or acceptance.

When you write, it uses a different part of the brain that mere speaking uses and I seem to get amazing results from writing as compared to just talking. Writing helps crystallize your thoughts. Just remember what the Buddhists say in the eightfold path about right actions. We have to use the right thoughts, the right actions and take the right direction with change. Just spinning our wheels in the wrong direction does little, so write about things that matter to you and your change. In short we must 'write right' for it to be of any benefit to us.


Take Care,

fookisan

 

[plankspanker]

I guess I must be the only one that liked "The Last Dive" over "Shadow Divers". As FW said I was too interested in the content to be critical of the writing style of "TLD". It's been awhile since I read "Shadow Divers" but I seem to remember it had a few paragraphs here and there that made me cringe a bit with the way he wrote it due to the flowery descriptions of some of the things he wrote about. He made the two groups of divers seem a bit cartoonish with hints of underwater knife fights for artifacts and what not. I was disappointed that they never met on the docks to have a rumble like a 50's street gang complete with choreographed dancing.
Overall it seemed that the fact "TLD" was written by a diver about his peers made it seem a little more down to earth then "SD" that was written by a writer about people he greatly admired. Not saying they weren't deserving of the admiration but I think it would make a huge difference in the tone of the writing.

 

[proyce]

I agree with Plankspanker. "The Last Dive" was written by a diver, and the writing style, was readable; and the story was riveting. "The Shadow Divers" was written by a professional writer, not a diver, and that shows in the way it doesn't really put you in the moment, which the "The Last Dive" does. The two stories were really about two different things, and they just came together at the incident that resulted in the deaths of Chris and Chrissy Rouse. If you read "The Last Dive" and have not yet read "The Shadow Divers", there is a picture in "The Shadow Divers" of Chrissy Rouse's line badly fouled in the sub.

By the way, Fookisan, the guys on "Deep Sea Detectives" are indeed John Chatterton and Richie Kohler - the same guys from "The Shadow Divers".

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Cool. I just got Shadow Divers in the mail. Just reading the flyleaf makes me want to go home from work, right now, and dig into it.

As far as The Last Dive goes: I really appreciated that it was written by another diver, and written about people that he obviously knew and cared for.

 

[H2Andy]

I guess I must be the only one that liked "The Last Dive" over "Shadow Divers".

they're both great books... Last Dive is the work of an amateur writer, and it
shows. otherwise, it's an awesome book.

i can't really like one over the other. they're both great.

 

[Sideband]

Though the content of the "Last Dive" makes for a good story, the style of writing is atrocious. Poor management of sentences and flow.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm with MOST non-fiction scuba books. The only one with writing that I could catalog as excellent would be "Shadow Divers".

Was the "Last Dive" a bad book? No, but I would not call it a good one either. Just my two bubbles.

The Last Dive was written by a diver. Shadow Divers was written by a writer.

Joe

Already been pointed out and discussed I see. Oh well. Nevermind.