Water and Light: A Diver's Journey to a Coral Reef (Southwestern Writers Collection Series)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 287 pages
• Published by: University of Texas Press 1999
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0292731205
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0292731202
• Book Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 11.4 ounces

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 terrible 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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This is the best book about scuba diving I've ever read and should be read by anyone and everyone that is interested in scuba diving. It does a fabulous job of describing the great things about scuba diving without telling you what you already know. That said, it is also a great story and would probably be enjoyed by non-scuba divers. This is a great gift idea for a diving inclined loved one. One warning... one of the reviewers recommended reading this to get your diving fix when you aren't going to be able to get underwater for a while; NOT TRUE. I found the exact opposite, this book only heightened my desire to go diving to near pathological levels! If you've read this, I'd also recommend reading Neutral Buoyancy by Tim Ecott which is another good book about diving. It has more history and straight information than this book.