Things That Are Funny on a Submarine but not Really

Murphy (The Call) serves up a mordant comedy about a young U.S. Navy sailor’s coming-of-age during and after his service. David “Dead Man” Sterling is a radioman onboard a fast attack sub patrolling the waters off the coast of China. In this high-pressure environment, Dead Man is forced to deal with Doc, a lifer who has it in for him because he’s been emailing Doc’s girlfriend. Other colorful characters include the sub’s captain, a Texan whose voice reminds the crew of Matthew McConaughey’s character Wooderson in Dazed and Confused, prompting them to reply to commands with Wooderson’s catchphrase, “Alright, alright, alright”; and Tintin, whom Dead Man suspects of being a Chinese spy. Deciding not to reenlist, Dead Man returns home, enrolls in college, and majors in writing, but finds life stateside altered by Covid restrictions and Black Lives Matter protests. Nevertheless, he makes new friends at school, gets high marks for his writing, and meets a girl who seems interested in him. But a visit from a former crewmate threatens to undo all of this as he forcefully tries to convince Dead Man to reenlist. Dead Man makes for a likable hero, and the shipboard scenes are realistically salty and claustrophobic. The result is quite possibly the best novel about the peacetime Navy since Darryl Ponicsan’s The Last Detail. (Nov.)