Una Spenser is Ahab's wife, he of Moby Dick fame. She is also daughter, mother, niece, cousin, friend, and neighbor, determined at every turn to live an interesting life. This was not so easily done in 1830, yet, Sena Jeter Naslund has created just such a life for her protagonist-heroine.
Una journeys from Kentucky to New England on the cusp of adolescence, and then at 16 disguises herself as a boy that she may go a-whaling. Seeking adventure,Una gets far more than she bargained for when her ship is stove and she finds herself adrift in a small whaleboat day-after-unrelenting-day. Lesser "men" than she are broken by the experience, but quietly and unceremoniously, Una moves forth. Later she is Mrs. Captain, with a grand house and a small fortune at her disposal. Here, too, she manages to surround herself with interesting people and interesting passions. One has the feeling she would have liked Hetty Green, another woman made wealthy by the whale.
With Ahab's Wife, Naslund has created a masterful
story; she is a reader's writer, with prose that whirls across the
pages, tighter and tighter like the dance of a dervish. At times, one might wish the dance would end (at 668 pages, it is certainly long), or at least be re-ordered such that fewer words are spilled on, say, the stars, and more for the characters, relationships, and events that are the true strength of this story. This is a minor criticism, though, and one that should not prevent the prospective reader from cracking the cover. I had a similar criticism of To Serve Them All My Days, which weighs in at an almost-identical 676 pages, but which I also liked very, very much.
Anyone who loves a good story, particularly a story set in a long-ago time and place, will not be disappointed by what Naslund has wrought.
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