Rating: 
Summary: Schoolhouse Rock meets Pirate Romance Novel
Review: If you were to toss Schoolhouse Rock, a pirate romance novel, the entire contents of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the longest, droning passages of Moby Dick (the ones that made you put down the book and never finish) into a blender and push the button for "grate", this book would emerge. Una, our heroine, was perky and resilient and men and women lay themselves at her feet in utter admiration throughout the book. Annoyingly, this includes famous characters from history. This stylized female heroine left no room for me, as the reader, to develop any empathy or even much interest in Una.The author is enormously talented. She demonstrates her talent over and over again but overwhelms the enjoyable passages and turns of phrase with little instructional lessons. Every metaphor or new word was invariably followed by a lesson sometimes delivered by Una herself and other times more subtly. The novel's strength is in the history lessons, not in the characters. If you read the book, read it to learn about life in the old days.
Rating: 
Summary: Over the top
Review: There are many charming stories tucked away in this very long book, but after awhile it becomes unbelieveable (even for fiction) that any character would be so calm in the face of adversity, unflinching at danger and so able to move on from one devastation after another. The writing is easily read, and draws the reader in, but the over-sappy, over-optimistic, over-done content has started to make my eyes roll... and I still have 150 pages to go! But, three stars for keeping me plodding through instead of taking it, unfinished, to the second-hand store.
Rating:
Summary: 2/3 Very Good
Review: The beginning of the book was a bit plodding, and the last 100 or so pages too easy and trite. But the middle 2/3 was powerful, engaging, and very moving. My breath was taken away at times by its sheer force. The writing style harkened back to the 19th century, which I found generally lent itself well to creating the appropriate atmosphere. I would highly recommend reading this book just to experience the power of the action and writing in the middle 2/3.
Rating:
Summary: Unremittingly optimistic
Review: The language is beautiful, the rendering of intimate moments and pleasures exquisite. And yet. The novel grates because its world is benevolent well beyond credulity. I counted exactly two (mildly) unpleasant characters in close to 700 pages, and neither of these two (men, natch) earn more than several pages between them. Our protagonist is so unflaggingly comprehending and curious and forgiving that all drama is drained from the book well before its finish. The specifics of this imagined world are so fine as to wash away much of its impossibly liberal tone, but about half way through one longs for some conflict or drama. I began to dread the narrator's encounters for fear that the next stranger would prove more benevolent than the last. If either the narrator or the author had had more complexity the other one would have been tolerable. However, when both contrive to convince us that mid-19th century America was such a benign and instructive place, the mind recoils. To live in the world Naslund describes would have been a wonderful thing. Too bad she fails so badly to convince us that such a place ever existed.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly surprised
Review: I have to say that when this book was recommended to me, I was a bit skeptical, as I had read Moby Dick, and didn't think anything could come up to the same standard. I even put it down after the first few chapters. I was then prompted to keep reading....I did and I wasn't sorry. It was fast moving with the plot ever changing. The characters were very interesting. The story was very believable as seen through the eye's of Una, the protagonist. I was saddened when I finished, and have pondered about the story and the characters ever since; a sure sign sign of a well written story.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect novel
Review: I have just recommended this book to Oprah's show, and I am hoping it will get the coverage it richly deserves. I believe the previous reviewer is a man, as it takes a woman's mind, heart, and soul to appreciate the depth and and true spirit of this book. For someone like me to comment on the author's writing skills would be an insult, as she is clearly one of the finest contemporary writers in America, and I am nothing more than an avid reader. Words should be read and reread not because they are pretentious or "preachy," but rather for the feelings they evoke if they are understood. I understood this book...as clear as a bell. I will read it again someday, soon, just so I can have the same feeling, that glorious feeling, that there is still literary life in the universe. READ THIS BOOK. And then write and thank me.
Rating:
Summary: A Feast for the Senses
Review: This book is to be savored. Naslund's delicious prose sinks into the senses and sticks to the ribs. The poetic nature of her writing mixes horrendous happenings with human elements of suffering, loving, and living in the most extreme. The story is rich on detail and character development. It's ripe with adversity and survival. It's laden with strength and determination. Finally, a book that is deserving of best-seller status.
Rating:
Summary: We are sailing, we are sailing... into a beached whale
Review: I have never read Moby Dick and thus have no preconceptions about that novel, or about Melville or, most importantly, about that old sea-dog, Captain Ahab. I must say, at times I felt like chucking this book (and Una with it) into a huge vat of whale oil and lighting the whole shabamb on fire! Who on earth is Una supposed to be? She is the strangest character I have come across for some time. Other reviewers have described some of her more preposterous adventures ranging from fighting eagles, cannibalism, attending esoteric book clubs with the famous and the gifted, slave blockading, eating guava jam, to going on furniture trips to Boston. Whew! I was, at times, shattered from the effortless effort of Una careening from crisis to lovers to domestic tedium to star gazing. But, strangely, after a while, somehow I just accepted that Una had a life which is larger than life and it all made sense somehow. Instead of detesting this book, I grew to like it more!! It is all weird and mysterious, a bit like Moby Dick the whale. As for Ahab, what a guy, a hell of a dynamo. I cannot blame Una for lovin' that man. You will be frustrated that Ahab and Una will never be reunited and their final parting seemed somewhat muted. But you will revel in their story. A fine romance, a doomed ending. A child called Justice. A dog named Alpha (??!!). This book has it all.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought the imagery and turn of phrase was well done and brought to mind 19th century writings. However, when I shortly thereafter read, "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex", I felt cheated. Una's sea voyage is almost a carbon copy of the Essex tragedy, down to some of the smallest details. It was disappointing to find such a huge part of the plot was so unoriginal and almost plagaristic.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling Read
Review: Ahab's Wife satisfies on many levels, from narrative and plot to insightful characterization and beautiful writing. The first half is the most interesting and exciting. Near the end the author seems rushed or compelled to resolve and tie up every storyline in some neat liitle way, making the last 100 pages seem tacked on only to satisfy any possible question as to what happened to everyone. Some of these resolutions seem forced to me. The reunion of Frannie, for example, covered 2 years worth of time (if not more) in only a couple of pages. (Her meeting of Hawthorne with a black veil and Henry James as a 5 year old are the biggest, misguided clunkers that made me wince) Those are minor, insignificant flaws. In toto, I loved this book, especially the first 500 pages, her time on the island, the sea and meeting Ahab are exceptionally imaginative and powerful writing. The author can describe nature, and internal realities, with such moving language. This book satisfies the reader looking for great writing and an imaginative creation of time and place!!!! BRAVA
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