BOOK REVIEW: Ahab's Wife

Once upon a time, back in college days, I took a class in American literature. To make a long story short, it turned out to be a class on Melville’s Moby-Dick. By the end of the semester, I had promised myself never to kill another whale. Of course, as I matured I learned that Melville may have written the Great American Novel. It takes several exposures to appreciate this great book.

Flash forward several years and my favorite book group picks AHAB’S WIFE by Sena Jeter Naslund for the next meeting.

I still did not feel in the mood to go killing whales, but that is why a person belongs to a group--to try something that would normally get overlooked. Believe me, the book was a beautiful surprise.

The book captures the reader with the first line: “ Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.” Immediately, the author has you caught in Una’s story.

Most of Una’s early life is on an island with her uncle, a lighthouse keeper, his wife and their young daughter. The stairs to the light prepare Una for the life that she really wants, that of a whaler. Masquerading as a male, she ends up as a cabin boy on a ship that sinks far from land. She and her two best friends endure the open ocean on a small lifeboat and the circumstances alter their lives forever.

They are rescued by Captain Ahab and his crew. The captain officiates at the marriage between Una and one of the other survivors, but we know that there is more to come. We have read the first line in the novel.

AHAB’S WIFE is much more than a short summary could ever capture. The book is beautiful. The language is lush, almost poetic at times. We are taken to a time in history as seen through the eyes of a very strong woman. We see people, a combination of products of the author’s imagination and real people from history. So true are the author’s fictional characters, that you forget that Captain Ahab was not real.

This is a terrific book. It is a story that covers racial issues, cannibalism, warm family life, rich drama on the high seas, in fact almost everything that makes a good tale. It is a story told in an easy flowing style by an author who knows how to use language. It captures the feel of Melville’s writing but has certainly earned its own place in literature.

It is not necessary to have read Moby-Dick, but it would give a deeper appreciation of Naslund‘s talent. (The movie with Gregory Peck was well done-- and I do not say that about movies too often.)

Keep reading, and as always, let me know what you think about any of the books that I cover.