Hi everyone. Today I’m reviewing Things That Are Funny on a Submarine But Not Really. I love the title. It’s by Yannick Murphy and that’s a she and she does one hell of a job in this book of giving you a sense of what life might be like on a submarine. Things that are funny, but not really. And it’s a very, very interesting read. As I was doing a review on Storygraph, I thought about the way the book, the pacing of the book and I thought it really has a kind of a slow pace, but I found you’re drawn into it inexorably though. It’s like, you got to keep reading this. Even though it feels like things are happening slowly, but then that would be life on a submarine, right? It’s like you get into this routine.
So anyway, but mysterious things happen. Stuff happens that eventually leads to a death. I won’t go into detail. I will just say that the language in this book reminded me so much of firefighters. So much. It made me wonder if Yannick Murphy knows firefighters or if she just knows people in the military and they all talk like this. Firefighters, police, military, they have a language all their own and I love it. And just an attitude all their own. And I just love that too. But I guess the thing about this book is that it’s very funny and it’s thought-provoking. And it’s just a great, great story.
All sorts of themes come up in this book. I’m reminded of themes like the difficulty of adjusting from military life to civilian life. I mean, this protagonist clearly has PTSD, especially toward the end. It’s called out a lot. And I just thought that that was just a great thing to do. I mean, it is a very real problem. Sometimes I wonder if we are all suffering a little bit from PTSD due to the strain the internet and its various wonders is putting on us. I know it’s putting some strain on me right now. Anyway, having said that, Things That Are Funny on a Submarine, But Not Really also made me think of themes of community. Here’s a man who was in a community, in a big steel tube of dumb. With these guys, they all share something. It’s like a community can be a submarine or a college or a workplace.
And that made me think of all the communities I’ve been a part of. I’ve been part of the legal community. I’ve been part of the college community a few times. I’ve been part of the library community, the journalism community, the author community, and now the screenwriting and filmmaking community.
Which community do I serve best? Wow. Trying to think about that sometimes gets a little bit much, especially with all of the communities out there being formed right now and saying, “Join us. We have things that can help you as a [fill in the blank].” Well, what if you’re multi-hyphenate? Which community are you in then? Where do you place most of your effort? You know something? Sometimes it’s best simply not to have ambitions, but simply to seek out that which is most appealing and which helps you the most. It’s not a matter of comfort. It’s a matter of desire. I don’t write because it’s easy. I don’t do anything because it’s easy. I do something when it truly makes me feel alive. Right now, the internet is not doing that for me. Also, when I was thinking about, there’s an issue of treason that comes up in here.
That’s all I’ll say. What would constitute treason, I wonder, to the indie author community? That’s it. That’s all I’ll say. The end. Be seeing you.
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