Full Fathom Five: A Daughter's Search | 
| Author: Mary Lee Coe Fowler
Publisher: University Alabama Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 165885
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 312
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0817316116
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.8742092
EAN: 9780817316112
ASIN: 0817316116
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: NEW FAST SHIPPING, NORMAL SHELF WEAR
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
Beautifully Written and Exceptionally Well-Researched July 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Whether your reading interest lies primarily with memoir, history, or investigative journalism, Full Fathom Five: A Daughter's Search by Mary Lee Coe Fowler will satisfy. Fowler's research is masterful, her writing consistently clear and direct, as she navigates the reader through complex details about submarine operations. The author's personal journey toward understanding her father's choices and his sense of duty is deeply moving, never descending to the sentimental. When, following her interviews with some of her father's old friends and shipmates, Fowler suspects their memories of "Red" Coe may be somewhat glorified, she is scrupulous in balancing these reports with more objective sources. This book is an outstanding addition to the vast library of World War II literature, certainly because of the merits described above, but also because Fowler has provided the world with an intimate window on the men who served in the branch of service most ignored by other writers.
gifted storyteller June 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
After all this time and so much that has been written and filmed about WWII, how could there be more to tell? But, Mary Lee has done it. In a very well-crafted way, she has brought together disparate elements of this WWII story and turned it into a captivating, can't-put-it-down read. This personal journey to find the father and the family she never knew reads like a novel, a romance, and a mystery.
This is a real story but more than a personal narrative or memoir, it is a story on many levels; war and remembrance, the life of a naval submarine officer, and a daughter's journey to find the truth about what happened to the father she never knew because he died before she was born. To pull this all together and reach the end of her journey, Mary Lee used every available source to gather information. A painstaking task of dedication and fortitude.
Like many other war orphans her mother never spoke of him so Mary Lee didn't ask her questions about him. The questions would haunt her into middle age when she was finally ready to confront them. For herself, and a place to start, she needed to know about her parents before he died; about their youth, how they met, their early life together. Weaving the personal with the history and development of the submarine service, naval strategy, and with the cooperation of the former enemy, the Japanese, who provided vital clues and records, Mary Lee found out what happened to her father. Putting together the book revealed the man, the father, the hero.
The author's candor and insight about her discoveries give the reader insight into what it is like to lose someone you love in war. A devastating, life-changing loss that families have been facing every day for the last five years
A UNIQUE and WONDERFUL BOOK! June 29, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Although this is about a submariner Commander father, who was lost several months before his daughter's birth, the author's arresting account of bringing her father's character, devotion to duty, and his love of family back to real life, could apply to many "orphans," children of World War II who have experienced similar emotional detachments and eventual reconnections through persistent, arduous researches.
The writing is First-Class, and should endure among the great biographical accounts of lost service personnel during "the Greatest War".
Heartbreaking but also heartwarming June 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a teen growing up in the '50's, I read every book I could on the Navy, and over the years have read many more. I had read many books on the "Silent Service", yet none captured the essence of the "crew" as did Full Fathom Five. This book was truly heartbreaking but also heartwarming.
She writes of growing up never really knowing her father . . . of being denied that knowledge by a cold, distant mother and an abusive alcoholic stepfather. When, after her mother's death, she discovered clues to her father and started a journey to learn of this and what he was. And, of how she had been shaped by this man.
Through her extensive research and interviews with old shipmates of her father, she is able to find the essence of him. She also comes to understand the essence of her mother and why she may have been the way she was.
The loss of her father and his crew and of her growing up not knowing him was heartbreaking, but the story of his courage and of her (and her siblings) journey getting to know him was truly heartwarming.
On a personal level I gained a knowledge of the men from the Navy generation just ahead of mine. Although I long stood in awe of them, through her book, I came to understand something of the "toughness" they often exhibited while attempting to train my generation of sailor. Were it not for them I would have never experienced my life long dream of a career in the Navy.
A Submarine Story with a Difference June 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
"Full Fathom Five" is a submarine story with a difference. Rather than a narative of facts and events, this story comes from the heart. It is the story of a daughter's search to know the father who was lost at sea before she was born. Through exhaustive research and conversations with those who knew him, she broke through barriers of silence, family grief and public preconceptions to discover a distinguished submarine captain and a father to be proud of. As the story of United States submarines "S39", "Skipjack" and "Cisco" during World War Two, "Full Fathom Five" will stand up to scrutiny by the most expert submarine sailor. But more than this, Ms Coe Fowler has brought the strands of three stories together into a single, well crafted narative. She has blended her own journey of discovery with the stories of her two parents. In so doing she has not only found her long lost father, but unlocked depths of her mother's life and character that she had never suspected before. This book also reveals the enduring and far reaching impact on their lives of those who lose a family member in war. "Full Fathom Five" is written with sensitivity and skill. As well as appealing to naval men and war historians, this book will be equally enjoyed by their wives and all who are interested in human journeys of discovery. "Full Fathom Five" is an engrossing narative and a most enjoyable read which I most heartily recommend.
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