What a find!
I finally got around to reading this familiar sounding title . . . what a wonderful, wonderful sea/war story.
I've read many maritime novels over the years and this one is as good or better than any of them, standing easily in company with the Caine Mutiny, Mutiny on the Bounty, the Edward Beach submarine novels, and so on.
This one is quite British, and tells its WWII story from the perspective of North Atlantic convoy escort duty. Sounds boring in concept, but a page turner as presented by author Nicolas Monsarrat. This tale follows captain and crew through the war and two commands: a small corvette, and then a frigate.
The people studies - the interactions, internal struggles, fears, loves - are as interesting as the seagoing warfare itself. Very well constructed and wholly believable. And this corner of the war was a whole new experience for me, seen from the viewpoint of the escort sailors and officers, battling the German U-boat wolfpacks.
Monsarrat gives us boredom and terror, great leaders and tyrants, victory and submission, all well told. I will never forget the account of the night of shipwrecked men freezing to death in the waters off Iceland.
So many aspects I could share, but I won't ruin it for you. Read this one!
Still perfect 40 years on
I first read this book nearly 40 years ago and remember then finishing it in a single day - well perhaps two. It has to be the consummate novel of war. It oozes truthfulness, at least by my perception, and therefore stands as a history of a desperate, desperate time. By the second year of the Battle of the Atlantic things looked truly grim and it is a testament to Churchill, I suppose, and to the extraordinary courage of these men, so vividly portrayed, that Great Britain prevailed. I cannot imagine living through such experiences which just seemed to go on and on. The novel's style remains strangely undated. It could have been written yesterday.
I recommend Cruel Sea without reservation.
A classic of literature
Still in print almost 60 years after its first publication. Reads like it was written yesterday. I can't imagine a single line that could be improved.
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