“”Ahab”s Wife, or The Star-Gazer,”” by Sena Jeter Naslund. William Morrow. 666 pps., $28.
Here”s a prize catch, indeed. Only a scant few lines in Herman Melville”s “”Moby Dick”” make reference to Ahab”s wife. But writer Sena Jeter Naslund has spun those small hints into “”Ahab”s Wife,”” a bold, audacious book that”s a fitting companion to Melville”s masterpiece just as her heroine, Una, is a fitting companion to the monomaniacal sea captain.
Naslund wisely avoids mimicking Melville”s eccentric prose. “”Ahab”s Wife”” owes more in style to Charles Dickens, both in its episodic, pell-mell narrative (you”ll be kept up nights by sudden marriages and chance meetings) and Naslund”s apparently endless store of memorable characters (the dwarf bounty hunter David Poland and accomplished astronomer Maria Mitchell are just two among many).
At the center of it all is the formidable Una, a bright young girl who is beaten by her father when she refuses to embrace his new-found faith.
Una is sent to live with an aunt and uncle who operate an isolated lighthouse, where she finds open spaces and open minds. Intrigued by two young sailors who come to the island, Una decides her first love must be the sea and disguises herself as a cabin boy on a whaler. This leads to a sinking ship, cannibalism, a charming first husband who goes mad, Ahab himself, childbirth in the woods of Kentucky, helping and being helped by a slave girl on the run, and much more.
It”s a rousing tale, peppered with sly humor (Una is the first to spot the white whale, which she describes as innocent) and perhaps one too many historical figures who make quick cameos.
Naslund also strains our credulity in other ways: seemingly every man who sets eyes on Una wants her for his wife. But it”s a credit to Naslund”s skill and the complex, intriguing woman she”s created that we accept it without question until the fifth or six proposal rolls along. Small quibbles for such a full-bodied, entertaining story.
It”s certainly not the equal of “”Moby Dick”” (almost no novel is) but what might have been disastrous hubris turns out to be an unabashed delight.