Jamie M. (trihardist) reviewed on 3/15/2009

Helpful Score: 1

The story of Matthew Webb is fascinating and makes a wonderful subject for a book of this length. I do take issue, however, with some of the author's artistic choices.

The book starts slow. It took me two or three tries to read all the way through, and I skimmed most of the first two chapters. I feel that the information regarding Webb's birth, childhood, and upbringing were given too much time in the scope of the story. It's not necessary to know the details of Webb's early years to tell the story of his crossing of the English Channel, and to start the book out with these less-than-interesting minutiae bogs down the pacing early on.

The choice to approach the story as a tragedy was a good one, although I think the author was overly sympathetic to Webb's point of view. There are moments in the book when Watson's speculations (about details of an event, for example) seem overly romanticized, to the point of being hard to believe. Especially towards the end (as Webb devolves), I feel the author removes Webb's culpability for his own poor choices. Not that I necessarily wish to stand in judgment of someone who accomplished a truly fantastic feat; but I would appreciate a more balanced look at the facts.

All-in-all, I would have preferred more information about the swimming, especially the state of swimming in England at the time. I feel this would have provided better context for the significance of Webb's swimming of the English Channel. Because, after all, The Crossing is what this book is all about.

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