Book Review: The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey
The Underworld has many positive attributes: it is fascinating, it is well researched, and it is very well-written. However, what shines through and illuminates it more than any of these is this: the author is clearly in love with her subject. Susan Casey loves the ocean, and when she writes about it her love is manifest. The thrills she feels as she roams the seas, explores the deep, views sea creatures she has never seen before, and shares stories of the lives of others who are as enthralled with the sea as she is are palpable. There is much joy and an overwhelming sense of wonder in this book.
Thus as I read on I was overcome with a sense of grief at an opportunity lost. You see, a few weeks before I began reading this book I found out that Casey was going to appear at a bookstore here in Seattle for an author’s event. The book was already on my radar, and reading the book soon was in my plans, so I marked the day on my calendar. However, when the day of the event came I was especially tired; it was scheduled for fairly late in the evening, and because I don’t own a car I would have had to spend considerable time taking a bus and the light rail. My exhaustion caused me to back out. But then soon afterwards I started reading the book, encountered Casey’s enthusiasm and fervor for the sea and its mysteries, and I realized – alas, too late – that I had missed a profound experience. I would have liked to have heard her expound on her adventures and maybe I would have even asked her a few questions.
At least, though, we all have the book, and ultimately the book is enough. Many of us are enraptured by the thought of space travel, and yet, as Casey points out, we have here with us on Earth the vast environment of the ocean that is for the most part still unexplored. It is full of marvelous landscapes, hidden treasures, and bizarre alien creatures, and the discoveries to be made in its depths are virtually limitless.
Casey takes us on a literary journey back in time to the first attempts to explore under the sea, and then tells of contemporary efforts, some of which she witnesses firsthand, to descend to the lowest depths. She writes of teams who locate and study shipwrecks and of commercial companies that seek to despoil the seafloor and lay waste to its ecology for profit. She also has a few opportunities to personally accompany submersible pilots to the deep parts of the ocean, and when she writes of these experiences she refers to them as some of the highlights of her life. Her ecstasy during these deep-sea voyages is infectious. Once, when I was a child, I too had that sense of wonder, and I briefly considered oceanography as a career. Reading Casey’s book brought back that enthusiasm to discover the ocean’s secrets. If I had multiple lifetimes, I’d want to explore the ocean in at least one of them. Since I have chosen another path in this one, though, I am profoundly appreciative to Casey for allowing me, at least for a time, to share her world.
