The Deep

By Peter Benchley

In 1976, Columbia Pictures was overjoyed with the success of their previous year’s film Jaws—a summer blockbuster adapted from the 1974 Peter Benchley novel by the same name. The Hollywood production company was so eager to adapt the next Benchley oceanographic thriller that they purchased the rights to adapt his next novel before it was even published. It would be one of Robert Shaw’s last films and would take audiences off dry land and into the sea. Just as Benchley’s spellbinding fiction would for millions of readers.

That novel (and its adaptation) was The Deep.

I always find it interesting when Hollywood jumps the gun and decides to take a gamble on adapting any novel before it’s published. But in the case of The Deep, what’s not to love? Beginning with a naval ship that sinks in 1943 off the coast of Bermuda with a mysterious cargo, Benchley quickly introduces us to a couple on their honeymoon—Gail and David Sanders—who get way more than they bargained for when they discover there’s more than one secret worth killing over. And the thrill ride just gets better from there, plunging the reader deep into a world of superstition, dangerous criminals, and corruption. Refusing to let them surface until the very last sentence on the final page.

But just as the ocean is rich with treasures, Benchley’s ability to master suspense is not the only thing awaiting the reader in The Deep. Along with his gripping tangles with danger, Benchley manages to tell an even deeper story, using the setting of Bermuda. He weaves in a multitude of cultural and historical facts that the setting itself becomes yet another character. And then he pits it against the rest of his cast, until the reader is forced to ask himself, “What would you do in a no-win situation?” Encouraging the reader to consider their own will to do what is right when the going gets tough.

Perhaps the most compelling character besides Bermuda is my favorite character—Romer Treece, as he embodies the gray area of right and wrong. Benchley characterizes him as something of a treasure hunter, but later into the novel, he’s discovered to be much more than that. His resolute moral backbone shows the reader that, even when the odds are against you, you still have a duty to stand for what is right in the face of injustice. No matter if that means standing alone or doing wrong in the name of right. This is intermixed with a subtle thematic pattern, where Benchley reminds us that our own convictions of right and wrong make us who we are—and they run deep within ourselves.

Sadly, Benchley’s thematic patterning is also his Achilles heel when it comes to this novel. The thematic patterning is so subtle that the reader has to dig deep to discover the wealth of its pages and pay close attention to it. Perhaps this is why the few reviews I’ve managed to find on the web are unfavorable (as the reader did not see what Benchley did) and Doubleday only gave this novel roughly six printings. I feel if Benchley had drawn the theme a tiny bit more forward that it could have had a wider resonance, thus making its point that much clearer.

Regardless, The Deep stands as a novel that is, I feel, better than Jaws because it demonstrates the practice of careful thought and craft. And as if learning from every fault in his previous novel, its pages show the mark of a gifted writer. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend doing so for anyone interested in how to articulate a place as a character and subtly interweave theme into a genre fiction. Or to anyone who wants to read a hell of a story.