My Father, the Captain was a thrilling story of Jean-Michael Cousteau and his experiences with Jacques Yves Cousteau (His father). It is told from the point of view of Jean- Michael and progresses from early childhood and continues through the death of his father, Jaques. It is written by Jean-Michael Cousteau himself, providing an insider's view on his father's private life.

The book begins with the story of how Jean Michael' parents, met, and of Jaques' love for the ocean. It also tells about Jacques' early childhood, his development of underwater cameras, and how he overcame many physical obstacles. The book then progresses on to Jean-Michael's childhood during World War II when the first aqualung was developed by the Cousteaus, then on through his teenage and adult lives.

One of my favorite qotes from the book is "My father often spoke of this so-called silence. It was a silence he longed to hear." The silence that he is referring to is the silence that is heard under the sea. It is an odd experience, yet it is eerily beautiful. For hours at a time, the only sound that is heard is the sound of your breathing and of the bubbles floating past your head, tickling your cheeks. Even this sound cannot truly be classified as a sound, for it is more complex than sound. It is more of a vibration and rippling of the water than anything else. This is the sound that Jacques Cousteau is referring to.

I would definitely love to recommend this book to everyone, however, I am reluctant of doing so. I say this for several reasons. First, I know that not everyone shares my affinity for the ocean and my admiration of both Jacques and Jean-Michael Cousteau. Also, I knew even before buying this book that I would love it, just based on my love of diving and of the sea. If you share my viewpoints on this topic, I would definitely recommend it. If you don't, however, then this is not a book for you.

I found this book to be very well written, even if it did get a bit lengthy on its descriptions of events and places. However, I really appreciated that whenever a new topic was introduced that isn't common knowledge, Jean- Michael would give background information on the technologies, people, or whatever he was talking about. Though I appreciated this, my favorite thing about the book was that it had very little bias on his father. Typically, a son writing about his father would tend to glorify him. Jean- Michael presents things the way they truly happened, he tells the good, the bad, and the ugly of Jacques Cousteau. This helped to paint a fuller picture of Jacques, not just the positive aspects of his life. I believe that this is good because too many books now present their characters of infallible, like they were perfect people, this upsets expectations for real life and doesn't show that these were people just like everyone else. They had faults and ugly moments just like the rest of us.