The Underwater Welder

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Science Fiction / Lemire, Jeff, Adult Graphic Novel / Underwater
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Science Fiction / Lemire, Jeff	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 1st Floor 4-week checkout	Adult Graphic Novel / Underwater	4-week checkout	Due 05-24-2024

"As an underwater welder on an oilrig off the coast of Nova Scotia, Jack Joseph is used to the immense pressures of deep-sea work. Nothing, however, could prepare him for the pressures of impending fatherhood. As Jack dives deeper and deeper, he seems to pull further and further away from his young wife and their unborn son. Then one night, deep in the icy solitude of the ocean floor, something unexplainable happens. Jack has a mysterious and supernatural encounter that will change the course of his life forever" -- from publisher's web site.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Very Lemirean. submitted by eknapp on December 18, 2013, 6:39pm Another Jeff Lemire book about making mistakes, fumbling relationships, loss and loneliness. Or maybe I should say alone-ness. Not quite the same thing.

The titular welder works on (under) an oil rig off the coast of Canada (Nova Scotia maybe). He has a lonely and hugely pregnant wife but keeps leaving her because he loves the solitude of his work. Not a happy guy, our welder. He neglects his mother and is action-packed with issues regarding his father, who disappeared when he was a kid and is presumed drowned.

Then during a dive he has a supernatural experience/medical emergency. His doctor and coworkers want him to take time to get healthy and care for his expanding family; he's convinced that there are "answers" that can't wait, out there beneath the waves. He leaves his furious wife--who promptly goes into labor, natch--to go back into the ocean. At night. In a storm. Like his missing/dead father is believed to have done. Not a terribly bright guy, our welder.

The introduction by Damon Lindelof compares The Underwater Welder to a Twilight Zone episode, and that's pretty spot on. It reminds me of the episode where a nuclear holocaust leaves a prissy misanthropist with all the time in the world to pursue his love of reading and then SPOILER ALERT he breaks his glasses and there's no one to help him. The Underwater Welder is similarly about a guy getting what he thinks he wants.