Date: 28 February 2016
Location: Essie
As is usually the case when you go to Essie’s house, we had a wonderful meal. She had prepared meatballs and pasta, and of course all of the Bookers brought some really fine food to go with it.
The book, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, is the story of the sinking of the cruise liner by a German submarine in May 1915. Most of us had thought that this act was a direct cause of the US entering into WW I, but actually two years passed before we entered the conflict.
Larsen tells the story by switching between many of the people involved. America is at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense. Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.
All of us women enjoyed learning about the different characters that Larsen describes in the book, and the men apparently enjoyed learning about the mechanics of the ship and the U boat.
All in all, I think that most everyone enjoyed the book.
— Linda F.