This book became my addition for quite some time. Even though I read it some 2 years ago, it took residence in my being and here I am still thinking of it fondly enough to write my review!

I am fascinated by Naslund's ability to select a seemingly insignificant reference in the classic, Moby Dick, and give it breath. The sensory experience of the printed word was at times emotionally wrenching and at times dread dull, as you might expect when sitting down to listen to the life story of a legend. Her account was as brutally honest as a personal diary and I suspect any reader would identify not so much with the actions but with the deeply private inner experience recorded here.

The rich, sensory narrative bound the gap between "historical" and "fiction" in such a way that I could feel the spray from the ocean, smell the crisp cool air, feel the fear, anger, and joy, and ache with loss.

Approach this book with an open mind and allow it to speak to you, "wherever" you are, oft forgotten life lessons are offered for private reflection here.

A beautifully written historical fiction. I've never read a book from history that made me wish to be a woman in that time period, but Sena Jeter Naslund has achieved this. Like a quilt, Naslund worked several stitches at a time, never doubled the thread, and worked through three layers of narrative. The historical underpinning, the warm personable characters, and the overarching story full of pictures and meaning. I have read Moby Dick, and I must say I liked Una's tale better than Ishmael's.

I really hated this book, its only redeeming quality might have been the fun I had bashing it at a book club meeting. It was improbable, contrived and needed some serious editing. I agree with all the morals expressed in the book, but even that sympathy was ruined by the didactic, overly comprehensive presentation of said morals. Yuck. I want the part of my life back that I spent reading this back.

The Star-Gazer is a gorgeous read, richly satisfying and one that I am very sorry to close. Naslund has illustrated, in Una, a real American heroine. From her childhood machinations of the lighthouse Giant to her days high in the crow's nest of a ship, to the Eastern towns she visits and the fascinating characters she meets, Una was a protagonist I was thrilled to follow at every turn.

Sena Jeter Naslund has such a remarkable gift for lyricism in her prose: visualizing each scene was so natural, the surroundings so rich and visceral, that she draws her readers into the story by way of vivid description AND heartrending plot. She's truly one of the greatest novelists I've ever encountered, and I cannot wait to read her other works.

I read Moby Dick a long time ago, with mixed feelings. Having this book as a resource, and such a marvelous good time becoming engrossed, I now wish to read Melville's original again. Una's first sight of the white whale, the "innocent" vision she perceived in the icy waters, brought tears to my eyes because I knew what was to come. This is a perfect companion novel to Moby Dick, and, I enjoyed her side of the story much more.

Please, please read this book. This is a book for American women who yearn for an adventure of their own. Una, my heroine, I consider her a treasured friend. Thank you, Ms. Naslund, for this gem of a book. I absolutely adored reading it. I'm going to read it again!

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But, oh dear, it was so bad in so many ways. I’m guessing the author did some research and then didn't know what to do with any of it. It certainly was not a successful literary incorporation of historical occurrence with fiction. Our heroine’s life involved living in: backwater Kentucky; a lighthouse on the Ohio; as a cook then cabin boy then a crow’s nest looker-outer; and finally she ends up in Nantucket, or she familiarly calls it, ‘sconset.
I envision the author reading a book about the parts of a boat/ship, a whaler with oars and stuff and a crow’s nest platform thingy. Then she read a book about who was alive during the era of the story, and by gosh if she didn't incorporate just about every single one of them into the story! And she didn’t just give these historical icons a mention, but she actually met them. What are the odds?
If she didn’t actually meet them, she knew first hand someone who had. The odds of meeting Emerson, Whitman, Carlyle, Fredrick Douglas, an Indian, a slave and Margaret Fuller are totally absurd. Essentially the only persons not in her acquaintance were Beau Brummel, Florence Nightingale, and Charles Darwin. Oh wait. I think Darwin might have known someone she knew. Yeah. I'm pretty sure of it.
Then, not finished, she introduces a dwarf, a gay judge, a slave and a whaling captain, Ahab, the book's title character, who finally came into play 3/4 of the way through this overly long tome!
The book may have been better if Naslund had cut the size down to half, left out all of the famous somebodies, had made Ahab out to be something other than the lunatic he is in ‘Moby Dick’/ oh, and had kept her clothes on while on the beach with a complete stranger in the final pages.
What a colossal waste of time. With so many books to read, why, oh why, did I keep reading this waste? Answer: I do not know. Maybe because I was held captive by a bunch of head hunters and had already read the writing in the sand. I would not recommend it.

I COULD NOT STAND this book - it was torture for me to get through. There was SO MUCH uneccesary in it - it made me not care about ANY of it. She touched on just about every issue you can imagine: cannibalism, incest, homosexuality,death,insanity,women'rights,slavery,religion - you name it, it was in here.I was SOOO annoyed with this woman!!!! I am convinced she read Moby Dick one night, went to sleep and had one of those crazy meandering dreams where things she saw on the news and famous people from the past drifted in and out and she woke up the next morning and wrote EVERY SILLY DETAIL down and somehow either an editor never actually read it or if one did it was their first book and they were afraid to get the red pen out! MAYBE if the 700 pages would heve been cut in half this actually would have been a good story. So,my favorite read so far this year (Abundance) and my least favorite - this erratic self serving novel are both by the same author!

I'm an English major who never read Moby Dick, but I did recognize the iconic characters on the periphery of Una's (Ahab's wife) epic. And what a story it is! Written in the vernacular of Herman Melville and Ralph Waldo Emerson, I learned much about 19th century Nantucket, whaling, and typical hardships of that time. Historic characters believably showed up in this novel, but Una was always central. I made a friend in her.

Almost 4 stars, but I don't feel like this book is for everyone. It was a well written book that was captivating and made it hard for me to put it down. I loved the language, the pacing of the story, the character's voice, the message of tolerance and humanity, the message of forgiveness, and the historical setting of Early America. My hang up was that there were some contemporary issues that exist in our time period today that seemed out of place in the 1800-1850. These issues included cohabitation versus the institution of marriage, homosexuality, the feminist movement (there seemed that there were a lot of feminist characters which I didn't mind but from other books and historical accounts I read it seemed too many in a concentrated area), and an almost atheist or very detached belief to God. My other difficulty which made me not give it 4 stars was the cannibalism that was in the story. It was very haunting. It wasn't extremely graphic, but enough was alluded and suggested to give my imagination the general idea. Consequently, you as a reader will have to decide if you are up for these topics.

This book was pretty engaging, plot-wise--the main character's life has so many random elements in it that it certainly lowers the average for the mundane across everybody else's. However, it was also pedantic, preachy, and entirely unbelievable at times. Una, the main character, can be irritating in her self-righteousness, and clearly a mouthpiece for the author to expound on her own views (I'm guessing she has something against organized religion? Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, unless you're pulling the holier-than-thou card a little too much). I suppose that authors have the right, but that makes it no less irritating in this case. Una must also possess some astounding natural pheromones, as every man seems to want her, but also an unfortunate penchant for the crazy ones.
I was also expecting it to pertain more to Moby Dick.
All in all, however, there were some great tidbits about what it was like to live at the time, and, like Moby Dick, a decent overview of whaling. It's a decent read, about a woman with a lot of personal strength...as well as an amazingly pig-headed ability to make bad decisions. But maybe I'm being judgmental, myself. :)

Opening line: Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.

Melville’s classic n  Moby Dickn contains perhaps three or four sentences that reference Ahab’s wife – “… not three-voyages wedded – a sweet, resigned girl…” – but those brief references were enough to inspire Neslund to write this tome.

Una is a marvelous character: intelligent, forthright, adventurous, eager to learn, ready to work, open to new ideas, questioning of the status quo, tenacious, principled, loyal and loving. Neslund takes her from her childhood in Kentucky, raised in a remote cabin near the Ohio River, by a God-fearing man who will beat the Lord into his daughter if necessary, and a devoted mother who will ensure her child’s safety, to her later years in Massachusetts. Along the way she encounters a wonderful cast of colorful characters – from her Aunt and Uncle, to the young men she is courted by, to the sailors / whalers she comes to admire, and the neighbors who form her “family” in Nantucket and ‘Sconset (including Mary Starbuck, wife of Ahab’s first mate).

Neslund fills the novel with details of life in 19th century America:. the difficulties of a winter in a small Kentucky cabin, the excitement (and terror) of sailing on a whaling vessel, the tragedy of slavery, the joy of intellectual pursuits, the dangers of childbirth, and the quiet peace of a happy home.

But make no mistake, the story is Una’s, first and foremost.

This had everything the author could think of in an insomniac night-- Strong women, the ocean, whales, slavery, strong atheism, menstrual cycles, homosexuality, rape, cannibalism, sodomy, dwarfs, Native Americans, and poetry all in the early 19 century... anything, just name it and she said it.
I gave it 3.5 stars because it was intellectually engaging and it flowed very well. By the time I got to page 500ish chapter 117ish I was done with the book. The story was done. Nothing else to add or to say yet the author decided she wasn't done. She could have made this an epic tale if she had a mind to do it. Naslund could have made Una into a 200 year-old woman that was beloved by all and then when she died talked about the lives of her future grand-kids and their kids. It became too much and I almost hated it. Why don't some authors know when to stop a story? The ending must be the hardest to end smoothly or right.. IDK!!

Anyway, this is the story of Una and her adventures and sorrow and heartaches. Her whole life is connected to the sea from the time she starts living at the Lighthouse. I thought Una to be strong and feminist in her way of thinking but it was almost too 21st century. Una also has a deep hate or misunderstanding of religion caused by her father. The author makes it almost a point to make Una so angry when someone brings up God to her. This was an unpleasant aspect of Una's personality because she is made to be open minded and kind and a just soul to all she meets. Then her whole demeanor changes when she gushes over boys and how they must love her and vye for her attention. Some of the details bothered me but overall it was a pretty engaging story set in the New England area. I don't know much of its history or the area so I don't know how accurate the historical fiction is here.

The author has a way with words and scenes. I would definitely try another novel by her but not over 300 pages. :)

Captain Ahab,Moby Dick, and Ishamael are three of the most well known characters in American literature. One of the things I most liked about this take on the tale was the way several real life people were included in Una Ahab's telling of the story. Four of these names were instantly recognizable to me. Three of them are writers who are required reading I'm many schools; i.e. Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. But there were three characters who whose names I didn't actually recognize, all three were close friends of Una; and there was just something about the passion in which the author described them that made we wonder. So I googled them, and it turns out yes, they were actual historical figures. Margaret Fuller the first full time American female book reviewer and strong women's rights. Maria Mitchell the first person to discover a comment using a telescope. And Phebe Folger Coleman an acclaimed poet and artist. I think it says a lot about history is taught in our schools. For far too long women have not been getting the recognition they deserve for the accomplishments they have made. I said earlier there were four names I recognized instantly. The fourth was Frederick Douglass. He had only a minor role in this novel but the accolades the author bestowed upon him make it clear of the vital and very influential role Douglass played in the fight against slavery. So how is it that the President of this nation does not know of the importance of Frederick Douglas ? Answer, he lived his entire life in that ivory tower and is totally out of touch with the People. We The People deserve better that that !