Lee Irby teaches history at Eckerd College and lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. He is the author of the historical mysteries 7,000 Clams and The Up and Up.Irby's new novel is Unreliable.
Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply:
I’m reading a massive study of the Gulf of Mexico, entitled The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea by Jack E. Davis because (1) he is one of my best friends and an incredible historian and (2) this work is monumentally important and explores a subject we think we know but really don’t, the Gulf of Mexico. I’m surrounded by this body of water and yet I understood little of its unique history. Davis has a way of taking a topic and finding the most compelling way to examine it--often through personal stories, but he has also mastered the ecology, geology, andLearn more about Unreliable.biology of the entire Gulf coast, from South Padre to Key West. He is just as conversant about the mound-building Calusa as he is the advent of commercial fishing. But Jack Davis isn’t your average academic--he sold suits at Sears and spent time in the Navy, and so he possesses a view of life forged from the kelsen of experience. I know how much effort he put into this--not just the research but the prose itself. I consider him to be one of our finest writers; he truly labors over each word like a poet, though this work exceeds 600 pages. This book has truly enriched my own interactions with the water I have swam in and paddled over for 25 years. It’s an epic in the best sense, audacious in scope and generous in spirit, authored by a historian at the pinnacle of his powers.
My Book, The Movie: Unreliable.
The Page 69 Test: Unreliable.
--Marshal Zeringue
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