Off the TBR List: The Wager by David Grann

I’m a little late to the game with this one.

I bought David Grann’s “The Wager” for my dad, after suggesting it would be a good choice for his book club, based on what I had heard of the group, and wanting to assure he did not pick a snoozer or a bomb. (We’ve got reputations to uphold.) Grann’s telling of a shipwrecked mid-1700s British warship, The Wager, got all the accolades last year, so I figured it was a good bet.

I also wanted to read it and thought the copy would make its way back to me — alas, my dad called my bluff and kept it, so it was placed on my mental To Be Read pile where I forgot about it until I saw a copy at the library’s used book store. $7! A steal!

Though I trend toward fiction, I really do enjoy nonfiction when the story is an engaging one, and “The Wager” did not disappoint. The tale of David Cheap’s ascension from first lieutenant under Commodore Anson to captain of his own ship in Anson’s squadron, which was sent on orders to intercept a Spanish galleon and essentially loot it, turns from swashbuckling men at sea to a fight for survival from the near get go.

It’s clear from the prologue there are castaways and survivors that make it back to England, so no spoiler there — and Grann sets up readers nicely with deep dives into the people you need to pay the most attention to while reading. In this case, the cast of characters includes the aforementioned Anson and Cheap, along with shipmates John Byron (related to Lord Byron, yes), John Bulkeley, John Cummins, Henry Cozens and John King to name a few.

Readers are invested in these men right out of the gate — and Grann wastes little time getting straight to the action on the open seas, detailing a fleet that dwindles rather quickly once weather and scurvy set in.

Now, let me preface this next thought by explaining I saw “Gladiator II” last night and while of course the gore was ramped up significantly, one can’t help wonder how realistic that was for the time these characters are set in. So when Grann is writing about what can only be described as utter despair on these boats and the land they were cast upon, it is no small miracle anyone survived. I can’t fast 12 hours for a lab test without complaining. I simply do not comprehend the depths of maladies these men endured. So it’s understandable, then, that maybe a few of them go crazy. (Also? I would not last a day without fresh fruit.)

You don’t need to love history or war tales or honestly even boats to appreciate the mayhem in “The Wager.” Grann is a celebrated investigative reporter and his streak continues here. I can only hope Martin Scorcese and Leonardo Dicaprio are able at some point to give this book the same love as they did for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” (Rumored, yes, but who for the love of Reddit knows these days.)

If you haven’t picked this one up yet, it’s worth your time — a quick-ish read and with a huge chunk of sourcing notes at the back, you can skip those and still feel pretty accomplished.