|
Cayman Cowboys by Eric Douglas
Cayman Cowboys by Eric Douglas
There have been a few attempts to produce the Great Diving Novel, none of them notably successful. I fear that Cayman Cowboys by Eric Douglas won't be on the Pulitzer Prize list either.
It's a gently predictable thriller about corrupt, physically unappealing developers and politicians pitted against tall, handsome, environmentally minded divers in the Caribbean (most of the plot is in fact divulged in the back-page blurb).
A very easy read, I appreciated having lots of diving content written by someone who knows what he's talking about. Mr Douglas is a journalist and diving instructor and works as DAN's Training Director. He is also clearly very familiar with the Cayman Islands, US divers' favourite playground.
If you can't fault his factual grasp, you can question his insistence on under-rating his readers. Eric Douglas clearly suffers from EEC - Explain Everything Compulsion.
His characters' appearance, background, motivation and shoe size is invariably provided in detail as soon as we meet them. And they frequently take time out to lecture each other and total strangers on anything from basic rebreather theory to the geology of the Cayman Islands.
Perhaps one reason why the Great Diving Novel has never been written is that if the mainstream audience doesn't grasp the technical aspects (what oxygen toxicity is, for instance), it won't really follow the finer points of the plot. But you really can't ram this stuff down people's throats.
By all means read this book, as it's a bit of underwater fun, but be prepared to feel like a special needs reader.
Steve Weinman
|
Cayman Cowboys by Eric Douglas (Publish America ISBN 1413757820). Softback, 212pp, $19.95
|
|
|
Archive | 
