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.
(Kirkus Reviews)
"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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