Quote:
Originally Posted by Egan
...the same reason I like Das Boot so much...an honest description of life aboard the boats where long periods of drudgery and filth are broken by bursts of intense fear and horror...
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Das Boot by Lothar-Günther Buchheim (Audiobook)
Just finished a second listening of Das Boot audiobook which I found as gut-wrenching, riveting, and claustrophobic as the film. The reader, with his lightly German-accented-English makes you forget he is reciting as he draws you in as the newspaperman on board, reporting the "true facts" of life on a U-boot during WW2. Like the best of its ilk, it includes all we saw in the movie (sound effects, music, etc.), and much much more, yet without detracting from the over-all impression garnered from seeing it played out on celluloid, which is not often the case, sadly, with many a book transferred to the screen.
Right off the bat, describing the opening scene with the skipper, the chief, and the newsman, it is readily apparent why Wolfgang Petersen choose to present this on film; the book reads with such vivid images that you can almost touch, every description, every scene, even the technical aspects of operating a sub underday in war time with all that entails, your stomach turns, tightens as bulbs pops, and pipes burst during a particularly nasty depth charge...
Even if you're not particularly into the book thing, bound or on tape, I think it would well be worth the effort to give it a shot.
Again, let me say, as a lover of all things submarine, this is truly one of the most satisfying, rewarding experiences I've had as a sub-buff.