Titanic Sinks! (review)

One can pretty well predict that a fleet of Titanic books will be launched to mark the hundredth year of the famed ship's sinking. Denenberg's near-centennial offering is an oversized, photo-illustrated, "special memorial edition" of a fictional periodical entitled Modern Times. The "publisher," Mary Hudson, introduces the work, explaining how articles from 1907 through 1912 have been compiled to retrace the planning, launch, and demise of the Titanic, bookending journal entries from one of their chief correspondents, S. F. Vanni, who lost his life (but most fortunately not his minute-by-minute notes) in the disaster. The fictional conceit and attractive bookmaking will make this an enticing choice, but the legions of discriminating readers who are already up on their Titanic history may be less than impressed with such tell-tale slips-ups as Vanni's forthright reference to young Mrs. Astor's pregnancy (certainly not discussed in polite company), an April 11th photo appearing in an April 8th article, and Vanni's simultaneous knowledge of events all over the ship (including steerage) as the ship went down. However, for Titanic novices and the truly Titanic obsessed, these quibbles will be swamped by the period photographs, trivia lists, fictional interviews, and "reporter" Vanni's eyewitness account.