Rating: 
Summary: I am so glad that I'm done with this utterly boring book.
Review: I don't even know where to start, but I guess I'll first mention that Michael Capuzzo is the King of Digression. I've read non-fiction books where the writer briefly discusses something off-topic for a while, but those digressions seemed to actually contribute something to the background or the story. This is not the case with Capuzzo's writing in this book. He continually tries to illustrate what life was like back in 1916 and create the setting, but it's way, way out of balance -- there's just way too much creation of the situation, with so little of the actual situation to bolster it. I only need to think of his description of the Vansant family or the Engleside Hotel (and there are tons of other examples in the book, like Stanley Fisher or Hermann Oelrichs or Dr. Lucas) to remember occasions where he spent page after page talking about a person's background, and then they're only in the action for but a second! I realize that there might be some difficulty in including a lot of action when the events took place way back in 1916, but that doesn't change the fact that a great deal of text should have been slashed.That reminds me -- the book is not excellently written or edited. For example, in the chapter "To Find Prey", the following sentence is found: "Invisible lateral lines running down the length of its body recorded changing water pressure." (1.) Lines running down the length of its body are called LONGITUDINAL lines, not lateral lines. Don't use terms you don't know the meaning of. (2.) Even if the author was correct in his use of the term "lateral", the sentence would be totally redundant! In addition, Capuzzo spends quite a few pages discussing the shark like it's a machine that has been technologically equipped specifically to be a predator (which it has), but he keeps coming back to the same metaphor, over and over again! Learn a new trick already! Later in that same chapter is another error in writing: he discusses two long distance swimmers that went way out in the ocean for separate swims, and when they came back, people on the shore told the swimmers that they had been followed by a shark. But Capuzzo makes no mention whatsoever of HOW the people on the shore knew that they had been followed! Inconsistencies like this make the book confusing and irritating. You know that when you continually look to see how many pages you have left to go before the book is done, you don't like it. I was really disappointed with this book, and I found Capuzzo's writing style thoroughly boring. He writes like he's writing a term paper. I believe that he may have been going for the same writing style as in the book "The Perfect Storm", but if so, it falls short because there's just too little text in "Close To Shore" in which something actually HAPPENS, to keep the reader interested.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: This book was a better shark book than Jaws. Parts of the story actually gave me goosebumps. This was a real page turner, I read it in one day. Everything you ever wanted to know or did not want to know about sharks. Very scary!!!
Rating:
Summary: A precursor to JAWS
Review: Michael Capuzzo crafts a harrowing factual account of a series of great white shark attacks off the Jersey shore in 1916 that resulted in four fatalities. In what is considered the Edwardian age, America is at the precipice of entering World War One. In the final summer prior to involvement in this conflict, people in all walks of life flock to the beaches for diversion. Ocean swimming has only recently become popular. The array of knowledge about sharks at this time is severely limited. Amazingly, the most celebrated zoologists of the time do not consider sharks to be threatening to man and certainly not man eaters. Medicine, at the time, has not advanced to the point of being able to treat injuries commonly suffered in shark attacks. When Capuzzo talks about an age of innocence he isn't kidding. Due to a unique set of circumstances a great white strays far away from its usual feeding grounds to terrorize unsuspecting swimmers bathing off Long Beach Island, New Jersey. The ferocity of the attacks paralyzes the economy of the whole Atlantic seaboard as nobody will go to the beach. The whole country, including President Woodrow Wilson who summers on the Jersey shore, is gripped by this unprecedented series of attacks. The book is part action adventure and part national geographic. Chapters as seen through the eyes of he shark are both very revealing and extremely creative. Peter Benchley used this episode to create his classic novel Jaws.
Rating:
Summary: I'll Never Go Near The Water Again.......
Review: I've been entranced by sharks ever since I saw Jaws on TV when I was 8. I haven't been in the ocean since then. Apparently staying out of the ocean isn't enough.... Close To Shore tells the story of a Great White shark that held the Jersey shore in a grip of terror in the Summer of 1916. After claiming 2 victims from the Ocean, the shark made a change of venue, moving from the ocean to Matawan Creek. I thought that the book started out kind of slow; Capuzzo richly chronicles every aspect of life in the Summer of 1916- It's a fabulous history lesson, but I was eager for the Shark to take center stage. Once that happens, the book becomes impossible to put down. As the bibliograpy section in the back shows, Capuzzo REALLY did his homework- the shark and her victims are vividly portrayed, and the attacks are horrific. (One of the victims is savaged while trying to recover the body of a young boy that the shark had been feeding on.) The heroism that some of the real-life "characters" exhibit is amazing, and Capuzzo does them full justice by portraying them as PEOPLE, not just lunch Close To Shore is an amazing read, and an amazing history lesson.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to hold attention, but lots of detail
Review: I am a fan of shark stories and history as well. I purchased this book despite the mixed reviews. I have to agree with the reviews. The author obviously wants to set the tone and atmosphere of 1916 New Jersey. But, I would've prefered about 75 less pages to read to get to the first shark attack. The author is rambling on and on about all these historic details. I think it is overkill. I would've liked to see some pictures too. But, I guess that is what our imaginations are for. In the author's defense, he worked hard to research these details. I commend him for that.
Rating:
Summary: Death by Adjective Attack
Review: This book is perhaps the most over-written book in recent memory. Capuzzo mars a story that is compelling on its own by reaching way too far - padding the tale with extraneous, awkward, inappropriate social history and detail that contributes little to the inherent drama. And sentence after sentence after sentence after sentence goes on and on and on and on as if he were being paid by the word and evey noun deserved not one, but two or three adjectives - his thesaurus function must be worn out on his laptop. I was really looking forward to this book and enjoyed it after the first 100 pages, when the writer finally got out of the way and let the facts of the story tell itself. But the first hundred pages were absolutely excruciating. Great writing is transparent; there is far too much murk in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing
Review: Superbly written account of the 1916 New Jersey shark attacks.Goes way beyond the usual basic facts and sensational nonsense of most "Shark Books". Provides a fascinating profile of the victims, their families and how these attacks impacted on American society at the time. The author creates some amazing "Atmosphere" and has a great feel for the era he is describing. Much of the book is written from the shark's perspective which proves to be a powerful and effective idea.The final chapters in which the shark makes it's way up the Matawan is a writing tour de force. Australians such as yours truly would find the American authorities lack of information about sharks attacks in 1916 to be positively unbelievable as many attacks had been witnessed and well documented in this country as far back as the 1790s.The only disappointing aspect of "Close to Shore" is the complete lack of photos . This may have been due to reasons beyond the author's control or perhaps it was nothing more than a stylistic preference. Still, the book is thoroughly engrossing and well worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: Great way to learn about the 1916 attacks
Review: In July 1916, five swimmers along the New Jersey coastline were mauled in a series of shark attacks. Four of the swimmers died of their injuries. These attacks terrorized the Atlantic coast and spawned one of the most famous horror movies of all time, Jaws. Michael Capuzzo ties together historical vignettes of the time with detailed sketches of the victims and their families to make the attacks come alive. Using a narrative style possibly better suited for fiction, _Close to Shore_ provides a good overview of the attacks before moving on to Capuzzo's thesis regarding the attacks. Tying together modern shark research with his own research into the 1916 attacks, Capuzzo presents a compelling thesis to explain the attacks. If you're interested in sharks in general, or the 1916 attacks specifically, you should find this book well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Lurking With Intent
Review: Michael Capuzzo's narrative style is so good it should be studied by anyone who writes non-fiction. In Close to Shore he imparts to his readers both a gruesomely detailed and yet not entirely unsympathetic catalogue of the life, times and crimes of great white sharks. For instance, they're trainably smart, but far too savage to ever star in any aquatic show; they always have a plan of attack, and never engage in their deadly undersea muggings unless they are absolutely certain they have the advantage, which is why they prefer victims who are in distress. Simultaneously Capuzzo relates a fascinating portrait of America in that last pre-World War One summer of 1916. An America without air-conditioning, cars with tops, television, computers, adequate emergency medicine, or even window screens. Nevertheless, an America which will very likely make you nostalgic for what was and won't be again. The technique of weaving back and forth between the human victims and the shark heightens the suspense and momentum so that when the attacks occur you're familiar enough with both the killer and the victims to feel fear and sympathy for all concerned. Conceived in a ritual so brutal that the female is left as slashed and bloodied as an attack victim, the "pups" she carries start their murderous careers immediately: they cannibalize their own fertilized and unfertilized siblings in utero! Then there is the hasty, pitiless birth. The pups emerge swimming fast and always away from the mother because her instincts tell her to eat anything within range even her own young. The great white's world is programmed from conception to death for one grim purpose: to fill that enormous gaping maw, preferably with fat blubbery sea mammals, but beware on rare occasions, in a severe pinch, human mammals may be substituted. The villain here was a surprisingly small (eight feet, three hundred pound) juvenile--no more than eight years old--whose behavior was aberrant, which is important to bear in mind. Despite centuries of bad press and outright lies, not all great whites are relentless man eaters lurking close to shore in three-feet of surf. A contemporary commentator likens this one to a serial killer. (One of the more appealing aspects of 1916 was that neither that term, nor serial killers themselves, had yet made an appearance on the American scene.) Most likely this chap was still wet behind the ears--or even insane--and unfortunate enough to have been pulled out of the usual great white hunting grounds by a strong current, whereupon he became disoriented and hungry enough to fatally attack swimmers on the New Jersey coast. He then proceeded madly on, to so unlikely a body of water as Mattawan Creek, where the deadly carnage he inflicted bordered on the surreal. But when you start to hate the shark remember he was "just following orders." Whatever immortal hand or eye dared frame this brute's fearful symmetry is a far more frightening entity: Nature, red in tooth and claw.
One more thing, never swim with a dog.
Rating:
Summary: Too Scattered and Unfocused
Review: Michael Capuzzo sets out to write a period piece on a series of shark attacks off the New Jersey shore in 1916. But by trying to do too much, he fails to do any of them well. Okay, we "get" the changes society was undergoing in 1916. And we get the comparatively primitive state of marine biology at the time.
The author fails to incorporate this social history into the events he describes. Capuzzo can't decide whether to regale the reader with details of life in pre-WWI America, or give the hard facts about the actual events.
In addition, his efforts to describe what the specific animal thought or felt at the time of the attacks simply doesn't work. In this book Capuzzo notes that these events served as the model from which Peter Benchley based his novel "Jaws." It becomes obvious that "Jaws", in turn, served as a basis for "Close to Shore."
Overall, my general impression was that the author: 1) learned a bit about life in New Jersey, 2) stumbled across some interesting material on shark attacks, 3) discovered the specific attacks off New Jersey...
and decided to simply throw it all together into a single book. Finally, the editor left in too much extraneous information. There is an entire to chapter on the theory of rogue sharks that was put forth in the 1940's and 50's. At the end of the chapter the author points out that the theory was not published until 30 years after these attacks, and that since it was published the theory has been refuted by contemporary marine biology... okay, so this theory played no role in the authorities response to these attacks because it was not yet published... and now this same theory is rejected by current science as being, well, wrong. SO WHY DID YOU WASTE MY TIME INCLUDING IT?! This is a question the publisher and editor should be asked. I wanted to like this book but was unable to do so.
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