Contender for my favorite book of the year and one that I'll definitely continue thinking about. David (aka Dead Man) is such a great character and the voice is just perfect. To say this was immersive, I had submarine dreams while reading this! You'll be rooting for Dead Man the whole way.

"Alright. Alright. Alright." The submarine captain's voice bears an eerie resemblance to Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused. The men quote the movie after every announcement, an ongoing joke -- one of many -- that set the contours of life in the "big steel tube of dumb." We join David, called "Dead Man" (for no really good reason, actually) as he and his shipmates try to deal with extreme boredom, closeness, stink, and the constant threat of death. Set in three parts, the first part of the book shapes an understanding of what service life may be like, something Dead Man laments early on that he can't communicate to others. In this book, he deals with a friend's attempted suicide and the suspicion that another friend is a spy for the Chinese. In book 2, he returns to life as a civie, still hearing the voice of his dead friend -- his constant "cheerleader" who is haunting Dead Man for the sole purpose of getting him to go to college. In book 3, we see Dead Man/David starting to adjust to college life. These latter two books explore how the 5 years in the Navy has made it difficult for David to adjust to life outside. "All veterans can hope for is that someday we won't be living in the half worlds any longer, and we'll be in one world, but so far, every day that I'm here in college, I'm reminded of how I'm straddling both worlds and doing a piss-poor job of it at that."

The title of this book is spot on. Things that were funny on a submarine are not really funny at all. I struggled greatly with the toxic masculinity in this book, with its misogyny, fatphobia, ableism, and homophobia. While there could be an argument for some of these jokes on a submarine, which I imagine is rampant with these issues, even his sister, when he was home, made fun of people with autism. There is an argument presented in this book for the use of this technique, which essentially suggests that it is what men on submarines need to do to cope with the possibility of death. That is part of straddling those two worlds that he needs to deal with (which doesn't explain the sister). However, it was grating to me and makes me more hesitant to recommend this book to others, even though I substantially enjoyed it due to the unique setting and feeling like I gained some understanding of some of the struggles veterans face -- not to mention what life on a sub may be like. If you can get past the use of this language, you leave feeling that you know David and his struggles, and care about him. Despite the toxic masculinity language, his actions are those of a good guy overall and one that you want to see win.