Water and Light: A Diver's Journey to a Coral Reef (Southwestern Writers Collection Series)
- Book Review,
by Stephen Harrigan, Univ of Texas Pr
From Publishers Weekly
One of the great joys of diving, writes the author, is discovering the spaciousness of the underwater world. Novelist Harrigan ( Aransas )sic gives a sparkling account of an extended visit to the Caribbean's Grand Turk Island, where he explored a coral reef and observed such colorful sea creatures as polyps, stingrays and octupuses. Entranced by the grace with which turtles glide since one can't 'fly' thru water? or stet 'flights' as poetic effect?/meant for poetic effect, but glide is good.gs through water, he muses about the species in a long essay, amusingly noting that the leatherback is the only variety without staggeringly bad breath. Harrigan also reports on his encounters with other divers, one of whom he saved from drowning, and his experience as the first paying guest at an underwater lodge in Key Largo (Debussy's La Mer was among the records in his room). As he surveys diving through the ages, the author hopes for the development of lighter gear. The book may well inspire readers to check their equipment and begin planning their next trip to a coral reef. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A leisurely tour of the coral reefs of Grand Turk Island, where novelist Harrigan (Jacob's Well, 1984) learns about nature and himself. Diving has always meant a great deal to Harrigan, but now, living far from the sea and worried that the activity is becoming nothing more than a hobby, he decides to spend an extensive period diving in the Caribbean. There, he will ``study the natural history of the coral reef, but the motivation was not as clear or, perhaps, as worthy. I wanted to be, at least for a time, my underwater self.'' He checks into a local motel on the island--a desolate and relatively unspoiled place where salt was once collected from inland pans--and begins his diving explorations. As he explores the reefs, dives down part of the great wall that edges the nearby 7,000-foot-deep channel, and chats to locals, Harrigan relates old diving adventures as far apart as Australia and Mexico. He observes the variety of fish and plant life, explains that coral is actually an animal, not a plant, and includes such diving lore as the story of the development of the aqualung--an invention that, as Jacques Cousteau wrote, meant that ``From this day forward we would swim across miles of country no man had known.'' Catching conches for his dinner, Harrigan laments the decline of the sea-turtle, ``a great being, venerable, unknowable,'' and admits to being angry with dolphins because he fails to interest them. Hoping to be transformed by the reef, his underwater destiny acknowledged, he ruefully realizes how indifferent the teeming underwater world is to his presence. He is ready to go home. A graceful and low-keyed celebration of diving and the dazzling underwater world it reveals, as much for the underwater enthusiast as for the armchair traveler. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From Book News, Inc.
A graceful writer shares his three months of diving experiences off Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Book Description
''Moving, intelligent and, in the best sense, literary. . . . Stephen Harrigan is anchored in reality; he knows that the environment he's describing is in serious jeopardy. At the same time, he has made this book sparkle with his remarkable ability to discuss the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of underwater exploration without ever sounding saccharine or murky.'' --New York Times Book Review ''[Harrigan] tells us about the people who live on Grand Turk, or come there on business, and he is given to reflecting on the subtleties of the underwater experience, but his real virtue as a writer is his ability to convey, in precise, lucid, prose, the marvels of the sea bottom.'' --New Yorker ''Harrigan . . . captures the peacefulness of being rocked by salty currents, the massive beauty of the reefs, the exhilaration of the sport, and the mental scramble to retain fast-fading memories of sights almost unimaginable on land. Fellow divers will relish his camaraderie, while those who prefer staying topside will feel as though they've taken the plunge themselves.'' --Booklist This evocative account of the months Stephen Harrigan spent diving on the coral reefs off Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean was originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1992.
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