WL Rating
Deep Blue Home is an intensely personal collection of essays written by someone with unconditional love for the ocean. The author, Julia Whitty, has spent the past 30 years as an environmental correspondent and documentary filmmaker, immersing herself within rugged and raw locales that give her firsthand knowledge of the plight of the world’s oceans and ecosystems. Each essay in Deep Blue Home turns an eloquent lens on a particular ocean dwelling animal and issue. Whitty’s gift for lyric prose is considerable. Like water, her words flow effortlessly, painting softly textured images of the ocean and its exotic occupants. It’s unfortunate, however, that her voice is disrupted by the taxonomy classifications and mythology references that surface like tiny roadblocks throughout the text. In my highly subjective opinion, omitting these elements would have improved the overall flow of Deep Blue Home without hindering its important messages of conservation and environmental responsibility. Regardless, Deep Blue Home is well-crafted book that should appeal to anyone who shares the author’s love for the ocean. (August 2010)
