Trin's Reviews > Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis

I got this for free and somehow didn't realize it was from 2002, leading to some initial confusion when dates from the '90s were referenced as "five years ago" (that's only how it works in my brain!) and I was hit with make-it-hip-for-the-kids references to Myst. (The American legislative process is in fact compared to that game twice.)

It then became extremely weird to see various relics of late '90s rah-rah America unquestionably presented -- lobbyists discussed positively! The kid leading the exoneration effort is a proud Young Republican and we're just not looking at that! Joe Scarborough and Newt Gingrich presented in a favorable light! (Amazing moral high ground in seeing a good publicity opportunity in a 12-year-old kid who was obsessed with the Navy, guys.)

Anyway, I read this because 1) free and 2) I'm obsessed with Jaws (this book misquotes the film and I should take another star off for that tbh). Nelson does do a captivating job telling the story of the USS Indianapolis' sinking, with first person surviver stories -- a subject I knew a bit about; and also of the unjust scapegoating and court martial by the U.S. Navy of the Indianapolis' captain, which may have led to his suicide. This I did not know about at all.

I did not need to know that Nelson thought that the survivors' "silver-haired wive [were] all better looking than their men."

Cool opinion! Maybe '90s nostalgia is overrated.