Book Review: Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo

Michael Capuzzo’s Close to Shore is about the shark attacks that happened over a century ago that inspired the book and later the movie Jaws. But it’s about a lot more than that.

This is a book about shark attacks, including who the victims were, who else witnessed these events, why they happened, and what the impact of those attacks were. Capuzzo does a great job making the victims into living, breathing humans – the reader truly feels a great loss during each of the attacks.

This is a book about a shark. Capuzzo imagines the great white responsible for the attacks and takes you on its journey, from its birth near Long Island (after most likely eating some of its brothers and sisters in utero) to its growth while feeding on turtles and seals in the south to its confusion in being swept up in the Gulf Stream to its hunger when it finds itself in an area with little prey other than stringy mammals. Some of the most interesting parts of the book are when Capuzzo explains how with the help of the moon and it’s relation to the sun, a ten-foot salt-water predator fish could survive a swim well upstream in the fresh-water Matawan Creek, even in places where the Creek was barely a foot deep. He also explains how painful and confusing that must have been for the shark, and what violent chances it took to ensure its survival.

This is a book about the greatest state in the country: New Jersey. While I’ll admit it’s not a common perception nowadays, it was much easier to agree with a century ago, when presidents summered by the Jersey shore and opulent hotels operated near the beach. Singers and dancers would perform in the surf to entertain the more privileged bathers. Women could be arrested for wearing bathing suits any higher than ankle-length, and some female bathers employed horse-drawn carriages for greater discretion. Further inland, New Jersey was populated by mills and factories, including one making the tile for the new New York subway system.

This is a book about knowledge. Some doctors were becoming specialists in certain areas; they were scoffed at by their mentors, who thought every doctor should be a generalist. Neither the specialists or the generalists could do anything for the parents in New York City, many of whom had children over six working in factories, who had children inflicted with sudden paralysis (polio had not yet been diagnosed). When it came to knowledge about sharks, there was a dangerous amount left to be learn. The general consensus was that no sharks in the waters above Cape Hatteras were dangerous to humans, so if you saw a fin in the water at the Jersey shore there was nothing to worry about (“general consensus” meaning the leading scientists of the time). The thought was that while sharks did have sharp teeth, their jaws were too fragile to break human skin. After the first few shark attacks in this book, officials were more likely to blame the attacks on sea turtles, swordfish, or mackerel than a shark. (Note: If it seems funny how little people know a century ago, just think of how darkly hilarious we’ll look to people a century from now)

This is a book about a world at war. Europe was aflame, with headlines in all the newspapers about battle after battle. The Lusitania had sank, but still President Wilson’s supporters campaigned for him with the saying “he kept us out of war!” (the President himself relaxed in his summer home on the Jersey shore). The American people were still against joining the war overall, but concerned about the new German U-boats, and particularly startled by the one that docked that summer in Baltimore.

This is a book about a great many things weaved into a month’s worth of events, which makes for a fantastic story and compelling reading. Highly recommended – nine out of ten hot dogs!