Thought I'd put in another recommendation for Beryl Bainbridge's
Every Man for Himself. Bob's comment regarding the book not being about Titanic per se, even though set on Titanic, is spot on. I collect Titanic fiction and it's still my firm favourite. However, if this were a 'desert island' fiction situation, it would be Bainbridge's novel on Scott's last expedition (
The Birthday Boys) that would be marooned with me.
Michail has mentioned another favourite: Erik Fosnes Hansen's
Psalm at Journey's End, the personal journeys of an imagined band rather than the real Wallace Hartley and colleagues. Lately I've enjoyed Joan Clark's
Latitudes of Melt, the story of a woman growing up and growing old in Newfoundland. The story starts with a baby girl found on an ice floe by Newfoundland fishermen, and each stage of the novel there on has a particular Titanic reference point - the rediscovery of Aurora's lost family connections, then her children's gravitation to Titanic through oral history and engineering (including a trip in a submersible). Not so much Titanic fiction as fiction with Titanic connections. In contrast, maritime novelist Alexander Fullerton's recent
Wave Cry, about the bereaved Titanic survivor Eileen Maguire's intended revenge on JB Ismay was an unexpected disappointment (even though it provides one of the most interesting and sympathetic treatments of Ismay I've read in fiction).
Cussler's book is a hoot, but not really a favourite. I think it an OTT ripping yarn even within its genre and more of a cold war curio than anything else. There are elements that I find off putting, but it's hard not to regard it with some affection - a view borne out by the responses to the Titanic fiction survey I ran elsewhere a while back. Thinking of hoots of reads, there's not much comedy involving Titanic, or at least not intentional comedy. Senan Molony's
A Garbled Titantic, a Goon-esque break neck run through Titanic's story (shades of
1066 and All That or
The Ascent of Rum Doodle) is the notable exception. Although, as I've written before, readers who are easily offended will not be disappointed.
Randy's post mentioning Barbara Cartland has stirred another thought: amongst her hundreds of romances, surely there must be a mention of Titanic? As well as Titanic fiction, I also collect references to Titanic in fiction.
(For one of the previous discussions of 'best' rather than 'worst' Titanic fiction, anyone interested could also check out
Best Titanic Fiction.)