Every Man for Himself

Seemed an odd approach to reliving the disaster. Not reading it straight through but picking up and down, I did have a hard time keeping the characters straight. Perhaps it was a glimpse of a moment in time. In that case, it was interesting.

The elitist are not only noticeable today, but on the "Titanic." Not a particularly good read, but being a fan of Mark Knopfler and having seen him perform "Tracker," enchanced the book.

Crisp, interesting writing style, strong character development, fascinating subject. Although we readers know what's about to happen in the Titanic, no one could predict what was going to happen to the characters and how their real character would develop. Excellent read.

I kept waiting for the "meat" in this one but it never came. Too much fluff and character development, IMO, and not enough depth in detailing the actual tragedy and presumed actions of the victims.I expected more.

With the centennial of the Titanic disaster now approaching, Europa Editions has re-published Beryl Bainbridge's 1996 novel Every Man for Himself, the Whitbread Award-winning novel of the ship's doomed voyage, a concise and "awe-full" story of life and death, primarily among the first class passengers, most of them super-rich industrialists and their heirs. A nephew of J. P. Morgan, recently graduated from Harvard, tells the story, providing a new, first person vision of the ship's lively social life from April 12 through the ship's demise on April 15. Fictional characters who feel real mix with real characters whose presence on the ship is well documented, as Bainbridge recreates the giddy excesses and the sense of entitlement exhibited by the top deck passengers.The speaker, an orphan, has been raised by his aunt and his cousin, but he has always thought that he was special. "I don't care to be misunderstood," he avers, "I'm not talking about intellect or being singled out for great honours, simply that I was destined to be a participant rather than a spectator of singular events," a statement that reveals more about his attitudes than he probably intends. After prep school and Harvard, and an active social life befitting a member of J. Pierpont Morgan's family, he worked for Thomas Andrews, the naval architect in charge of the plans for the Titanic, and indirectly for his cousin J. P. "Jack" Morgan, one of the owners of the White Star line which commissioned the ship. Though his contribution was small, young Morgan, interested in the Titanic, makes the trip with friends, enjoying all the well described amenities of the first class passengers.Bainbridge's trademark wit and her perfect, pointed descriptions keep the novel moving, and as the passengers engage in their own personal mini-dramas, Bainbridge provides sly descriptions of these characters, providing color and a cinematic quality to the scenes. A woman arrives at dinner, escorted by "a pink porpoise of a man." The "unsinkable Molly Brown," described here simply as "Mrs. James Brown," wears a gigantic hat "on whose brim languished an entire stuffed bird." Morgan describes dancing with one woman as being "like holding cut glass...she made him feel he left finger marks." The speaker notes that Chairman Bruce Ismay of the White Star line, was "unlike most Englishmen, he lacked apathy."When the ship hits the iceberg, it is regarded primarily as a momentary interruption, perhaps even a hoax. Ultimately, the passengers and their responses to the emergency become the main story, and readers will be appalled by the loss of lives which might have been saved, even at that late hour, had more care been taken to save more of those "below decks." Bainbridge creates no scapegoats, however, and says barely a word about the behavior of the captain, Edward J. Smith or J. Bruce Ismay, the highest ranking White Star official aboard. Bainbridge's contribution is a worthy and beautifully written novel- witty, insightful, and consummately ironic. Ultimately, a few of her elite passengers may sense, if not believe, that "there was something dishonourable in survival." Mary Whipple The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress