Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)

Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)
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A True Reading Pleasure!!

Ahab's fictional wife's philosphical musings and deep inner life

Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund

Comments about "Ahab's Wife"

AHAB'S WIFE--WHAT A FABULOUS BOOK

Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)
Sena Jeter Naslund
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060838744
Release Date: 2005-08-02

Amazon.com

It has been said that one can see farther only by standing on the shoulders of giants. Ahab's Wife, Sena Naslund's epic work of historical fiction, honors that aphorism, using Herman Melville's Moby-Dick 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.

Una, named for the heroine of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, 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:

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.

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. --Ted Leventhal

Book Description

From the opening line -- "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last" -- you will know that you are in the hands of a master storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an enthralling and compellingly readable saga, spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. At once a family drama, a romantic adventure, and a portrait of a real and loving marriage, Ahab's Wife gives new perspective on the American experience.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Download Description

E-Book extras: ONE: An Interview with Sena Jeter Naslund: "The Ship of My Book"; TWO: Author's Note: "The Surprise and Pleasure of It"; THREE: Reading Group Guide: Discussion Points. The famous international bestseller is now a special-features-packed e-book. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an entirely new universe - an epic-scale, enthralling, and deliciously readable saga, spanning the full, rich, eventful, and dramatic life of one Una Spenser, for whom "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last." Illustrated throughout by world-renowned artist Christopher Wormell.

Customer Reviews:

A True Reading Pleasure!!.......2007-10-02

Terrific writing, stunningly embellished with vivid descriptions and details, but easy to read. Subject matter is fascinating!

Ahab's fictional wife's philosphical musings and deep inner life.......2007-09-20

Ahab's Fictional Wife's Philosphical Musings and Deep Inner Life is a title that aptly describes this endless novel. The segments that were plot-driven, such as Una's adventures as a sailor and the mental illness of her first husband, were wonderful. Ahab, until now merely an icon, was infused with genuine humanity, and the story of their marriage was so well done. Life on Nantucket and the experience of sea captains' wives are vividly drawn. Naslund is a very good writer. It was all the stuff in between (Una's odes to her sewing needle, her effusive love affair with the seas, her genius despite her poor education, to offer just a few out of dozens of examples) that brings my rating down to 3 stars. Maybe this new writer was given a new editor. Someone should have blue pencilled about 200 pages of filler. Certainly Abundance is a much tauter production. This book might have been equally good.

Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund.......2007-09-19

Ahab's Wife serves admirably as a companion book to Melville's Moby-Dick and having read both, I think I can safely say that if Herman Melville were to read Ahab's Wife, he would be more than happy with the duty and accuracy Naslund devotes to the period, the prose, and its homage to Melville's opus.

This is the life story of Una, the wife of Ahab - the peg-legged determined-bordering-on-insane captain of the Pequod in search of his white whale. The cover of the book depicts a Puritan-clothed woman on a harsh beach looking out into a rough sea, while further down the beach lies the broken hulk of an old ship. It creates images and ideas of a worrying woman left at home for years at a time to tend to house and children, while her husband is out braving the sea, fighting giants monsters in his man's world. One would think this a book about her everyday actions, her chores, her repetitive characteristics, and while this is part of the book, there is so much more going on in Una's life with her triumphs and tribulations, her loves and deaths, her dangerous adventures, and her happy times at home. This is what makes Ahab's Wife a welcome companion to Moby-Dick, for while Ahab's is a story of adventure and danger, Una's is just as much so.

The book begins, as all life stories should, with a birth, only Una's mother is all alone in a cabin and naturally it is a birth that almost kills her. Una's life is a harsh one in Kentucky and before she is ten, her mother sends her away to her aunt's. Una's father is a devout Christian, while Una is an atheist from a young age, choosing not to blindly believe in what her father tells her to believe. Her mother fearing for her life, sends her to the distant coast of New England to live with her aunt and uncle in a lighthouse. And so begins the next chapter in her life, with a different family, in a different place. With the arrival of two men who come to upgrade the lighthouse, she falls in love with both of them - even though she is still young - knowing that one will be her husband one day. At the age of eighteen, she leaves the island and the lighthouse for the mainland of Boston and then Nantucket getting by on simple work until she finds the same two men whom she loves on a whaling ship. Disguising herself as a young boy she joins the crew and experiences the whaling life of her future husband. It is here that she first sees The Pequod and meets Ahab, who by then is an old man but still respectable and honorable. Ahab is the one to marry Una to Kit when her existence on the ship, love for that man, and her femininity are all revealed.

A whale stoves in the ship and Una spends many days on a small boat with the remaining crew reduced to cannibalism - harking to the story of Moby-Dick as well as the story of the whale ship Essex, which was the impetus for Melville's story. It is on the return journey to Nantucket that the other love of her life dies tragically and her husband Kit essentially goes insane. Upon returning to land and leaving her husband due to his condition, Una's life slows down and her relationship with Ahab begins until their marriage and happiness together. It is here that the story of Moby-Dick truly begins and the reader gets to meet the familiar characters of the classic book. But while Ahab spends years away from home, Una's life goes on with the birth of a child and the struggles of her life. It is upon the return and meeting of Ishmael that Una learns of the doomed story of Ahab, his white whale, and his death.

The book could be considered technically over at this point, but this is the story of Una, who is still very much alive. The rest of her life is spent interacting with Ishmael and even meeting and interacting with the slave who fought for his freedom, Frederick Douglass. And while she never forgets her life with Ahab, she eventually finds another husband and in the waning years of her life is happy once more.

What makes Ahab's Wife a truly impressive book is not just its intended mimicry with Moby-Dick with the crossing over characters, similar layout of the book with many chapters and illustrations, and actual scenes involving the same location in both books such as the church with the pulpit carved to imitate the bow of a ship which the same preacher from Moby-Dick climbs the ladder to the top and scream of hellfire and damnation; it is the prose and how Naslund writes that truly emulates the style of Melville, making this a truly important work of literature deserving a place in the shelves with Melville, James and Hawthorne.

For more book reviews, and other writings, go to www.alexctelander.com

Comments about "Ahab's Wife".......2007-07-26

What awesome descriptions and captivating storyline! I couldn't put this book down! It makes me want to read "Moby Dick" again! I look forward to reading Sena Jeter Naslund's other novels. If they are half as good as the story of Una, I am hooked! I found that Una is so much like my daughter, and the author never met my daughter. Of course, this made the story even more interesting to me. The personalities are so diverse and very believable. I would recommend this book to everyone.

AHAB'S WIFE--WHAT A FABULOUS BOOK.......2007-07-10

Yes, dear ladies and gentlemen, I truly loved this book, despite what some of our colleagues wrote. I usually read true crime novels and biographies, so this story was truly quite a different one to read.
Once again, just fabulous.

Bellows Falls (Joe Gunther Mysteries)
Average customer rating:

Another Good Entry in the Joe Gunther series.

Great Vacation Book

Ugh

Catch 'em

engaging mystery in a real Vermont environment
Bellows Falls (Joe Gunther Mysteries)
Archer Mayor
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0446606308

Amazon.com

Anyone who thinks life in small-town America is either idyllic or safe hasn't read Archer Mayor's series of murder mysteries set in Brattleboro, Vermont. Drugs, sex, murder--all those big-city crimes have their counterparts in the Green Mountain State, and Mayor's fictional police officer, Lieutenant Joe Gunther, is no Andy Griffith of Mayberry. In Bellows Falls, hard-boiled Gunther finds himself up to his neck in spousal abuse, sexual debauchery, teen crime, police corruption, and cold-blooded murder as he investigates a seemingly simple case of sexual harassment. Forget the cheddar cheese and maple syrup--visitors to Archer Mayor's Vermont get a close-up view of rural New England's dark side.

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Another Good Entry in the Joe Gunther series........2001-07-30

The whole thing begins simply enough. Joe Gunther is asked to help the police chief of nearby Bellows Falls investigate a sexual harrassment complaint against one of his officers by Jan Bouch. However Gunther quickly realizes that there is more to the whole thing than simple sexual harrassment when he meets Jan's con-man husband, Norm. Does Norm really run drugs as the Bellows Falls police believe and is he behind the disappearance of known drug seller Jasper Morgan?

As with all of Mr. Mayor's books the plot seems simple to begin with but as Joe Gunther peels away layer after layer we finally realize just how convoluted the whole thing is. I'm always amazed at how Mr. Mayor is able to tie it all up neatly at the end, but he does. And it always makes sense when he's finished. As always Mr. Mayor's characters are dead on. And he really seems to know what makes a small police department tick. All of the Joe Gunther books are just flat-out entertaining. These stand head-and-shoulders above much of the garbage that passes for mysteries these days. I recommend all of Mr. Mayor's books highly.

Great Vacation Book.......2000-07-27

An engaging and thoughtful crime mystery novel. Based in Vermont, it has an unusual feel. We are so used to crime settings in big cities, this has a unique outlook. Of course, small towns and small states have crimes, also. This book, set in Vermont, gets to focus in on characters and personalities. Archer writes with clarity and precision. His characters are interesting and the secondary characters have particular depth.

Having lived and gone to school in Vermont (Middlebury, for which Archer gives a nice plug in the book) the settngs and geography all ring true. Fun, light reading.

Ugh.......1999-03-14

Number Uno, I live in Bellows Falls and Mr Archer Mayor lives in Putney. So he doesn't know the first thing about what it's even _like_ to live here! The book only focused on the bad things of BF, not the good things. It made us all seem like a bunch of debauched hick drug addicts. Get a life! Not only has everyone in the state now heard of us, but the whole country! I'd rather be from Westminster any day.

Catch 'em.......1998-07-21

This, the 7th in the series is as entertaining as the first. The author has a winner in his main and secondary characters. If you like mysteries, you'll read 'em all in a hurry and wait for the next one.

engaging mystery in a real Vermont environment.......1997-12-24

Great if you like a well spun yarn with facinating characters who deal with real life problems. Great to read a book set in places you can find on the map, and recognize if you have ever been in Bellows Falls.

Around Bellows Falls (VT) (Images of America)

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Around Bellows Falls (VT) (Images of America)
Anne L. Collins , Virginia Lisai , and Louise Luring
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With more than two hundred vintage photographs, Around Bellows Falls: Rockingham, Westminster, and Saxtons River explores the fascinating history of these southern Vermont communities. Located along the Connecticut River, Rockinghamóthe township that includes both Bellows Falls and Saxtons Riverówas chartered in 1752. Westminster, one of Vermontís oldest towns, was granted in 1736 as Township No. 1. ÝÝAround Bellows Falls: Rockingham, Westminster, and Saxtons River chronicles the history of these communities up to the mid-twentieth century with photographs of historic homes, businesses, people, and well-known landmarks. In addition to views of the fantastic beauty of the area, this volume includes photographs of Vermontís oldest public building, the Rockingham Meetinghouse (built in 1787), and the Bellows Falls home of Hetty Green, the infamous ìwitch of Wall Street.î Westminsterís Cumberland County Court was the location of not only the Westminster Massacre but also the meeting that declared Vermont as a free and independent republic in 1777. Also included are vintage photographs of the scenic village of Saxtons River (named on the National Register of Historic Places), which once had a strong mill industry that took advantage of three falls along the river. ÝÝ

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Behind the Iron Horse The People Who Made the Trains Run in the Bellows Falls, Vermont, Area (1941-1980)
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Behind the iron horse: The people who made the trains run in the Bellows Falls, Vermont, area (1941-1980)
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Bellows Falls, Saxtons River and Westminster: A History in Postcards paints a lively portrait of three of Vermont s most beloved communities along the Connecticut River. Postcards are a delightful medium that, through the years, have become historic ephemera. In this charming volume, historian and author Anne Collins has captured the spirit of Vermont through postcards all celebrating the heritage of Bellows Falls and its environs. Historic homes, fascinating people and the pastoral beauty of days gone by, all are here, along with an intriguing and informative history of the region.

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Here, collected in one volume, are tales and legends that range from the misty dawn of Gaelic history and the triumph of St. Patrick to the Ireland of the present day—tales as beautiful, mystical, and enchanting as the ancient land itself.

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Really long, but worth it!.......2002-09-25

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The Fairy Tale Omnibus (Piccolo Picture Classics)

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The Fairy Tale Omnibus (Piccolo Picture Classics)
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DOREEN BAXTER
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Lucy Kincaid
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Best fairy tale book ever.......2005-07-12

This is the book of fairy tales that I had as a kid, so I'm sure I'm biased, but it's really fantastic. The illustrations are magical and really well done- not cartoonish at all, with rich colors and lots of detail. And besides the classics it's got some great stories that I haven't seen anywhere else.

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Victor's quest (Omnibus ripper)
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The Fairy Tale Omnibus
Collins
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Parenting Well When You're Depressed: A Complete Resource for Maintaining a Healthy Family
Average customer rating:

Great resource for parents and service providers

Bi-Polar But Not A Parent

Essential! Only one of its kind!

Parenting Well When You're Depressed: A Complete Resource for Maintaining a Healthy Family
Alexis D. Henry , Jonathan C. Clayfield , and Susan M. Phillips
Manufacturer: New Harbinger Publications
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Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

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ASIN: 1572242515

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Parents with depression may feel depleted by the burden of coping with their disorder and unprepared for the challenge of providing a healthy environment for their children. This guide, based on more than ten years of study of depressed parents and their families, offers strategies, action plans, and resources to help depressed parents provide for their children's healthy development.

Customer Reviews:

Great resource for parents and service providers.......2002-05-18

I found this book to be an excellent resource for my practice as a mental health attorney. This book is written in an easy to read format with helpful pointers for parents with depression and those who work with these parents and families. In addition to its useful hints, the book also lets parents with depression and other mental health issues realize that they are not alone. I highly recommend this book to parents, families, and mental health providers.

Bi-Polar But Not A Parent.......2001-10-23

I found this book to be extremly helpful and insightful. I am not a parent but do have a bi-polar mental illness.
The book has shown me a way to better manage my illness. Most of the chapters deal with subjects such as how to put together a self-care plan,a crisis plan (such as going into the hospital),how to make better use of finances as well as the importance of keeping a balanced life.
I believe very strongly that not only parents with a mental illness but parents without a mental illness and childless couples with or without an illness can also benefit from reading this book.
This is a must read book for anyone who wants to improve any area of their life.

Essential! Only one of its kind!.......2001-08-03

I recently received a copy of this book from one of the authors. It is not only extraordinary in its focus and scope, but exceptional in that it addresses such issues at all. The challenges of parenting are well known, but undertaking them while experiencing depression is hardly ever discussed - despite the fact that depression is one of the most common health complaints in our nation. Learning to cope with the negative emotions, and still be the best parent you can, involves recognizing behaviors and developing skills - and this book shows you how. I highly recommend this to any parent who feels the burdens of their life are impinging on their ability to parent. If you think you might need help, this is a good place to start.

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