false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165639611m/7742.jpg 7742 16 It has been said that one can see farther only by standing on the shoulders of giants. <I>Ahab's Wife</I>, Sena Naslund's epic work of historical fiction, honors that aphorism, using Herman Melville's <I> Moby-Dick</I> as looking glass into early-19th-century America. Through the eye of an outsider, a woman, she suggests that New England life was broader and richer than Melville's manly world of men, ships, and whales. This ambitious novel pays tribute to Melville, creating heroines from his lesser characters, and to America's literary heritage in general. <p> Una, named for the heroine of Edmund Spenser's <I>Faerie Queene</I>, flees to the New England coast from Kentucky to escape her father's puritanism and to pursue a more exalted life. She gets whaling out of her system early: going to sea at 16 disguised as a boy, Una has her ship sunk by her own monstrous whale, and survives a harrowing shipwreck: <blockquote> I was so horrified by the whale's deliberate charge that I could not move. Then my own name flew up from below like a spear: "Una!" Giles' voice broke my trance, and I scrambled down the rigging. No sooner did my foot touch the deck than there was such a lurch that I fell to my face. I heard and felt the boards break below the waterline, the copper sheathing nothing but decorative foil. The whole ship shuddered. A death throe. </blockquote> The ship dies, but Una returns to land to pursue the life of the mind. The novel's opening line--"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"--also diminishes Melville's hero in the broader scheme of things. Naslund exposes the reader to the unsung, real-life heroes of Melville's world, including Margaret Fuller and her Boston salon, and Nantucket astronomer Maria Mitchell. There is a chance meeting with a veiled Nathaniel Hawthorne in the woods, and throughout the novel the story brims with references to the giants of literature: Shakespeare, Goethe, Coleridge, Keats, and Wordsworth. Although her novel runs long at nearly 700 pages, Naslund has created an imaginative, entertaining, and very impressive work. <I>--Ted Leventhal</I> 10803 1999 Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.) total:4468|5:1782|4:1555|3:769|2:235|1:127| 4468 18034 6190 884 1 10 false false Thu May 17 14:02:21 -0700 2007 Thu May 17 14:08:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 4 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Aug 22 07:06:56 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 07:14:57 -0700 2007
I liked the main character and wa...more...]]> 3 3 false false Fri Mar 07 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 12:06:47 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 07 08:02:56 -0800 2008
Word of warning; whenever you have a novel, based on an american classic (and an infamously difficult one at that) written by an e...more...]]> 3 3 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue May 22 12:00:11 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 09:15:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 5 true false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 18 10:02:32 -0700 2008 Thu May 22 07:34:46 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false true Wed May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 21 14:45:16 -0700 2008 Tue May 20 10:58:45 -0700 2008
Una is sent to live with her aunt on an island where they take care of a lighthouse. Una's mother sent her there because her father had become a religious fanatic and couldn't cope with Una's disbelief. She ...more...]]> 2 3 true false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Aug 17 06:11:07 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 06:25:42 -0700 2007
All this book does is make me want to read Moby Dick. I'm about 1/2 way through and wish I hadn't started. But I'll see it to the end.

So far, I keep asking myself, "Is it reasonable to th...more...]]> 2 2 false false Wed Aug 20 19:10:26 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 19:20:40 -0700 2008
I learned about survival of one sort or another: sustenance living on a remote farm in Kentucky; sustenance living at the site of a lighthouse...more...]]> 4 5 false false Sun May 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 13 19:54:40 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 24 17:51:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Mar 23 08:36:04 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 24 17:51:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 2 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 12:13:34 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 22 09:43:51 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 3 false false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Dec 28 09:13:06 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 09:13:48 -0800 2008
Oh come on. Of course I had to quote the first line.

This book is derived from a single, glancing reference in Moby-Dick to the beautiful young woman Captain Ahab has married. This is Una Spencer’s story, in her own wor...more...]]> 5 3 false false Thu Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 04:41:01 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 05:30:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Nov 02 06:00:46 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 07 17:54:16 -0800 2008
I am fascinated by Naslund's ability to select a seemingly insignificant reference in the classic, M...more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 27 10:16:34 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 20 11:28:41 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 12 08:57:22 -0800 2008 Fri Jun 27 09:01:17 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 09:46:57 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 09:46:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 19 08:07:30 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 07:45:24 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 08:07:30 -0700 2009
Ahab's Wife is, essentially, a look at M...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Jul 18 11:52:47 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 12:45:13 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Wed Aug 12 09:00:17 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 15:59:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=7742