This book was brilliant, beautiful, moving and many other good things! It is definitely not for everyone as it contained quite a bit of flowery (for lack of a better description) language describing everything. This is something that I love and truly savor but realize that this bit of 'extra' is not something that all people appreciate.

It is not only a tribute to Moby Dick by Herman Melville but also a lovely stand-alone novel about a fascinating woman who lived in interesting times. Of course, I highly recommend that you read Moby Dick prior to reading this book because of the many references and background information but this one is great on its own.

Excerpt:
When my hands were little, and my mother was teaching me to sew, she placed her hands over mine. She put her middle finger, encased in a pitted silver thimble, at the end of the needle and pushed for me. This finger, with the thimble, is a little engine, she said. It makes the needle go.

I thought of the miles and miles of thread that her thimble had pulled through cloth. What song had the needle sung to the fibers of the fabric? When she quilted, the needle passed through three layers: the pieced top, the inner batting, and the sturdy muslin underlayer. If all the thread from all her quilts were measured, would it stretch a thousand miles? Had her needle trudged, as a man’s foot might trudge, over a journey of a thousand miles?

She sat still, I thought, and yet she traveled. And when one stitches, the mind travels, not the way men do, with ax and oxen through the wilderness, but surely our traveling counted too, as motion. And I thought of the patience of the stitches. Writing a book, I thought, which men often do, but women only rarely, has the posture of sewing. One hand leads, and the other hand helps. And books, like quilts, are made, one word at a time, one stitch at a time.

I did not know how long I had stayed aloft {at the top of a lighthouse}, nursing my right hand and musing, but with that last thought, I unfolded myself and stood up; felt ready to go down. I spiraled slowly down the steps, the soft way a milkweed seed sometimes twirls to earth. I wanted time for any vague thought to come to mind that mind should want. No new ones came, but the pace seemed a meditative winding, and what I was winding was like yarn on an oblong skein, softly enfolding a quiet center that was myself.

Could this be… the best book I’ve ever read??

This book is loaded with quotes from Wordsworth, Emerson, Byron, Frederick Douglas, Shakespeare, and biblical references. And for the first five hundred pages I really enjoyed this book, but then it went on for another two hundred pages and it felt like it would never end...and when I say never I mean never. So much so, that I can't even write a two paragraph review. It's a miracle, I even finished this book.

This was a strange read for me, in a good way. I started reading it years ago and really disliked it. I put it back on the shelf unfinished, and never really intended to give it another try, but for some reason, I never gave it away. So, this year I picked it up, starting reading it again, loved every page. I have no idea what the problem was the first time, but I'm glad I gave it another chance.

“Captain Ahab was not my first husband nor my last.”

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 words. The book is massive, complex, written as a companion, a tribute, an argument, a twentieth-century female response to a nineteenth-century male book. It’s couched in the Moby-Dick style, from the choppy chapters to the capital R Romantic school of writing and its dedication to individual power in the face of society, to natural ideals, to characters who are both individuals and avatars.

As derivative fiction, this is brilliant. From that first sentence, this book plants its feet solidly bestride the old classic and takes a broader view from a new height. Una’s story encompasses Ahab’s and surpasses it; it must to draw a complete portrait of the unusual woman who would capture driven Ahab’s love. Obviously, I find fanfiction on this scale absolutely delightful.

I admire the hell out of this book: the scope, the layered, image-saturated prose, the philosophy and the art of it. And Una is a powerful narrator and person – agnostic, abolitionist, thinker, mother, sailor, seamstress, lover. She dresses as a boy and goes to sea, and finds herself in the path of a number of famous people like Margaret Fuller and Maria Mitchell and, glancingly, Henry James. It’s a broad and faithful portrait of the times and of the style, but laying some of it out here, perhaps you see the problem. I feel as if this is sometimes a book before it is a story, if that makes sense. Una is extraordinary in ways that, yes, some women of the 1840’s probably were, but this book is as much about holding up the prism of Una against the nineteenth century as it is about holding her up for her own sake. But I can’t really put the teeth into this to make it criticism, because even it is faithful to the style, and Naslund is absolutely deliberate and controlled in what she is doing:

"In the quest of writing, the heart can speed up with anticipation as, indeed, during the very chase of whales. I can swear it, having done both, and I will tell you though other writers may not. My heart is beating fast. I am in pursuit, I want my victory that you should see and hear and, above all, feel the reality behind these words. For they are but a mask. The mask that conceals, not a mask that I would have you strike through as mere appearance or worse, deceitful appearance. Words need not be that kind of mask, but a mask such as the ancient Greek actors wore. A mask that expresses rather than conceals the inner drama. But do you know me? Una? You have shipped long with me in the boat that is this book."

I do think that this book can stand alone, both from Moby-Dick and from literary and social history, though maybe not as much as the author wishes. But knowledge of both adds and explains a whole lot – I rather suspect that the casual reader, who did not know that Moby-Dick was dedicated to Melville’s good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, would find Una’s encounter with a strange veiled man on her walk to see her friend Margaret Fuller nearly inexplicable. This book puts the literary back in literary fiction, and I think it would be helped a great deal by a proper introduction and overview of the relevant historical and literary movements. And even with a solid grounding in the period, like I have, it’s still hard to fathom why in the world Naslund made a few particular stylistic choices (when you don’t really know until page six hundred why the absolute first person narration was briefly broken by a small chapter in script format at page three hundred, maybe there’s some rethinking that should happen).

Still, this is damn impressive for its vision, its thought, its very existence. It’s about the woman standing at home on the widow’s walk, about how she is not passive, about how as time passes she stops looking out to sea and starts looking up at the stars. It’s fanfiction to a particular work, to a place and a time, to the female experience, to history itself. And yes, if you couldn’t tell, it raised more intellectual admiration in me than emotional resonance, but to be fair, this really isn’t my favorite genre. This is exactly the sort of thing you will like, if you like that sort of thing, which I leave each of you to judge for yourself.

I bought this book in an airport because my Kindle was out of battery, and I truly enjoyed it. I had many of the same issues with the book that other reviewers did, particularly the random encounters with historical figures, and Una's attempts at philosophical discourse with them, which I found a bit forced (I have to confess to a bit of "speed-reading" during those segments). However I felt that parts of the book illuminated for me some of the mysteries and dark places in Moby Dick, posing an interesting theory for what was really fueling Ahab's obsession with the white whale. It might offend purists who prefer to read Moby Dick at a more epic, symbolic level but I found the "dismasting" of Ahab by the whale to be a pretty convincing reason for Ahab's despair and obsession with revenge. Moby Dick is a very male story, and the "backstory" of Una and Ahab and their relationship managed to humanize Captain Ahab, at least for me. I just read Moby Dick for the first time two years ago, and I do believe that Ahab's Wife is benefitting in my mind from some borrowed resonance, but I thought it was a worthy read.

Inspired from a small passage in  Moby Dick this elegant prose, captivating narrative and the never extinguishing flame to seek contentment sum up this long tale. Fascinating sporadic entrances of delightful characters engage the reader but the book could have been condensed as the protagonist's deep and comprehensive musings left me debilitated towards the end.

I loved the build-up of this novel - knowing that Una will eventually marry Ahab, but not knowing how that will come about made for a great sense of anticipation. The story of her childhood and growing up was also fascinating, particularly the parts of the story set at the lighthouse. However, once Big Things Happen and Una meets Ahab, I lost a little of that sense of anticipation and lost a little interest, even though I still thought the characters and plot were compelling. I just wasn't as hooked anymore, and that was a little disappointing. I also felt a little hit over the head with the Moby Dick allusions - which would probably fly right past someone who hadn't read Melville's novel (and you can definitely read this one without knowing anything about Moby Dick). For some reason the Ishmael bits were Just Too Much. Overall, though, a very engrossing piece of historical fiction with plenty of plot and interesting characters.

Blech.
1: Una : hate her. Is she God's gift to man, woman, and child? Gag me with a spoon. Pretty much every man she meets proposes to her : one immediately after meeting her! Wrong. Also, her viewpoint. She is WAYYYY overly tolerant. I don't buy it. She loves slaves, dwarves, gay men, everyone, in fact, except Christians. She despises them. Also, how is it that nearly everyone in the book is so smart?
2: Una + Ahab : not buying it. Shortest courtship on earth. I'm still not sure how it even happened, it was so quick. And after her experience at sea, tell me, why would she choose a seaman? And speaking of the "experience," it doesn't work that one guy kills himself, the other goes mad, and she's just fine. She rarely considers it. Nope. Not buying it.
3: Blatant Plagiarism : Runaway Slave Woman Crosses Ohio River On Ice Floes anyone? How about Woman Who Just Gave Birth And Lost Child Nurses Sickly Adult? Perfect Woman Rides On Donkey? (But no, that woman loved Jesus.) I think there were more, too. That minister she met in the woods sounded awful familiar. Which leads me to....
4: Anti Christian. WOW! and totally unconvincing for that time period. She should have set it in the present. Her hatred of Christianity is so obvious she may as well have entitled the book "I Hate Christians " especially since the actual title doesn't really fit the book anyway. She was Ahab's wife very briefly and never felt like his true wife to me anyway. It's almost like that was an afterthought. She's just not convincing to me as anyone's wife. She loves herself way too much for that.

I could say a lot more but it would all be bad, like what was so dang special about that place on the sea????? Didn't she spend 4 years living on a lighthouse island, then multiple years at sea, then marry a sea captain and live on Nantucket? I am baffled by that one. Ugh!! And her mom. She just abandons her forever? At least until she shows up at her door, pregnant. Then they seem to feel they have always had the perfect mother-daughter experience. Yuck!

I went from really loving this book, to hating it, to thinking it was just okay.

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 grows up at the lighthouse with her younger cousin Frannie. This part was sweet and reminded me of some of my own childhood experiences.

She meets Kit and Giles while at the lighthouse (they do some work to change out the lens) and falls for both of them but decides she will pursue Giles. She receives a letter from her mother telling her that her mother is pregnant and her father has killed himself because he couldn't bear failing another child again. Una goes inland to meet her mother but there receives another letter telling her that her mother has miscarried and returned home. Instead of going home she decides to cut her hair, sew some trowsers and become a cabin boy on the ship the Sussex.

It just so happens that it is the ship that Kit and Giles went on. She hides her identity from them but Kit discovers her after they have taken in a whale. Kit and Giles are no longer friends (you find out later Giles raped Kit) but Una brings them together. Then a whale rams the Sussex and it sinks. Three whaling boats are saved with Kit, Giles, and Una being on one of them. They get seperated from the other boats on there way to Chile, having decided not to go to the closer, canabalistic, Tahiti. Eventually their provisions run out and they draw lots. The Captains son draws but the Captain hits his son over the head and kills himself in effort to save his son. Kit, Giles, and Una eat everyone and are the only survivors. They get picked up by a passing merchant ship where Giles throws himself overboard and Kit goes mad. Kit requests that Una marry him but the captain of the boat won't do it.

They end up crossing paths with the Pequod and swap ships and head back for Nantucket (Kits hometown). Captain Ahab marries Una and Kit. Kit continues to go mad off and on. They arrive in Nantucket where they stay with Kits former girlfriend, Charlotte who is now married to Mr. Hussey. Charlotte takes care of them but Kit goes completely mad and pees in the town well for which he is arrested. He escapes jail and goes off to live with the Indians where "mad" men are accepted. Charlotte eventually leaves Mr. Hussey to go and find Kit amongst the Indians.

Ahab and Una keep running into each other. He divorces her from Kit and marries her. He has already but her a huge home completely unfurnished except the master bedroom. He leaves her to furnish it and is off whaling. The Judge lives next door and helps Una. He becomes her good friend.

She leaves Nantucket to go see her mother in Kentucky and have her baby there. While in labor her mother leaves to get the Doctor. Her carriage rolls over and she freezes to death in the cold. A runaway slave named Susan is hiding in Una's bed and helps Una deliver the baby but of course the baby dies. Una helps Susan run away. She then meets David Poland (for a second time)who was one of Susans bounty hunters and he has let Susan go but took the money that Una gave her. He takes Una back to Nantucket.

Ahab returns having had a very profitable trip and stays for a summer. Una is pregnant again and Ahab is off whaling again. Una has a son named Justice. Ahab returns after 3 years without his leg, very bitter, and seeking revenge on Moby Dick. Una cannot convince her husband to stay and so off he goes. Justice misses his father terribly. They move to 'Sconset for a simpler life. They eventually find out the the Pequod sunk and there was only one survivor. Una actually marries the surivor, Ishmael, whom she had seen on the merchant ship when she was rescued with Kit and Giles. They write there books together hers obviously Ahabs Wife and his Moby Dick.

Believe it or not I actually left out probably half of the story, death, and random characters. The author is a good writer and very creative. She had many themes which she related throughout the entire book. I just felt like she was trying to fit way to much in this book and there were to many characters and subplots that were distracting to the story.

This was a long, impressive novel with grand characters and a meandering plot that always moved in the most wonderful way. I liked the writing most of all. I highlighted whole pages, marking this up so future me could flip through it and be wowed again. I want to read more from this author. There were entire worlds within single sentences and it will be a while before I read another author with this much power behind their words.

This was not my first read from Naslund, nor will it be my last.

I loved this book! I'll address some of the other readers complaints to start.

The style of prose is, in my opinion, in keeping with the time period represented. There is significant, expressive detail, tons of imagery, so if you find that annoying, this book is not for you. You probably will also not like Steinbeck, Dickens, Wharton, Bronte....

As far as too much "stuff" included in the storyline, I would remind those folks that this is the story of many years in someone's life. I felt the various situations and events in the story - the religious exploration, homosexuality, etc. - seemed reasonable within the book's context. Those who felt Una's mindset for adventure was inappropriate for the time period might like to explore Transcendentalism more, and perhaps read some accounts of women in the Civil War, fighting alongside their husbands, posing as their brothers. It might also help to remember that in this time period, artists' colonies were thriving.

And to those who said the book should have ended after Ahab's death, I feel Naslund is merely keeping with the theme she set at the first sentence. She says that Ahab wasn't Una's first husband, nor her last. She then tells us about the character's life, and includes the mentioned husbands.

I will also say that everything in this novel was thought through. If you like digging and picking things apart, you will love this book. I don't do spoilers, but I will tell you that EVERY event in this book, every nuance of it - people's names, the colors, the letters in many of the words - Naslund has thought it all through. If there is a character, or an animal, or anything with any substance mentioned, there is a reason for it. If digging around in a book excites you, this is a great choice. If that stuff usually flies over your head and you sit wondering why this and why that (thinking to yourself, "Please just tell me the story! Get to the point!") you aren't going to like this book.

So summing up, I'd say this is a book for those who like wordy, detailed novels with a lot of imagery, and/or those who love a layer cake novel. Right up my alley!