Book Review

I recently finished a book that intrigued me and had me pondering whether I should read the book this one had been inspired by.  I will, soon, but at the moment I'm still trying to digest my latest, but not only, read.

Ahab's Wife: The Stargazer was much better than I had originally thought.  Granted, I bought and started this book probably over a year ago and just now picked it back up to give it another try.  There was something about it that had intrigued me the first go around, but I hadn't had the patience.  

The author, whose name escapes me, took three quotes (long and short) from Herman Melville's Moby Dick about Captain Ahab's wife and ran with them.  Her novel threw me for a loop.  Not at all what I was expecting, this particular read took relationships between men and women from that time period, the late 1800s, and put a more modern slant on them solely through the main character's perspective and idealogy throughout her life.  The novel initially grabs your attention by tugging on your heartstrings but continues to captivate you as you see the growth of the heroine and the people around her as the author tells her history and how she came to be Captain Ahab's wife (to paraphrase) "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last."  

There's something about a strong feminine lead character.  The novel is not an easy read.  But the reader has the privilege of viewing how the character, Una, came to be Captain Ahab's wife and her strength in becoming a whaler's wife at that.  Of course, the author touches on Ahab himself but briefly and the majority of the novel is about Una's spiritual and mental acceptance of Ahab's growing obsession with Moby Dick and even demonstrates how Ahab stays with her into her next marriage.  Of course there is much more to the piece than I can put into words at this time. 

It made me think.  There are little subplots about people that touch her life and contribute to the strong woman she becomes, such as a slave girl, a midget bounty hunter, Margaret Fuller, and a scientific family in the coastal town near Nantucket that she comes to live in purely because it is a port Ahab's ship put into, as close to where she was raised as possible. An extraordinary journey put so eloquently to words.

I highly recommend the read.  It's hard, intense, but well worth the time and effort.

Does anyone out there have any recommendations for me? I'm an avid reader... I devour books if not daily then weekly and find myself in search of topics, authors that I haven't yet experienced.  Suggestions welcome!

-Carmen