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Summary: The Best Book I've Read In My Entire Life!
Review: I could go on forever... this is the most beautiful, engrosing, enlightening, interesting, surprising, and even educational book I have ever read. You must read this!
Rating: 
Summary: Did anybody find this book similar to
Review: Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible, in that the books start out beautifully. The first half to two-thirds are well thought out and written, but in the end the author trails on and on and can't seem to wrap it up? What's the problem with a sad ending. We're grown-ups, we can deal with a novel that doesn't end with Happily Ever After. Authors, rather than boring us to death, have some guts and just end the damn book.
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Summary: Really 2.75 stars).. a legend in her own mind
Review: In this 663 page novel, we find that the legendary Capt. Ahab, of MOBY DICK fame, has taken a wife. Using liberal creative license, the protagonist, Una Spenser, has varied adventures. Naslund's prose is filled with imagery, both visual and non-visual, often dwelling extensively on Una's pedantic ruminations. During her travels while Ahab is at sea, Mrs. Ahab widens her social horizons, discoursing with intellectuals and writers as well as common folk. Intellectual fervor reaches a high point in the 18th C., and Una places herself, as a woman, directly in the center of what is considered exclusively male territory. Una has always possessed this independence of spirit, and some of her formative years are spent with relatives who are lighthouse custodians. From then on, she is in love with the sea, attracted to its dangers. It becomes a central theme in her story, as her adventures at sea affect the rest of her life; her first experience with the opposite sex is in the form of two young men who come from the sea. Naslund's heroine often seems less role-model than drama queen, a manipulative woman who flaunts her intellectual aptitude, yet never ceases to use womanly wiles to her advantage. The hubris of the younger Una is understandable, but reeks of arrogance as she matures. While historically accurate, some of Una's travails are extremely suspect, given the amount of detail given to each moment, save the most life-changing, which is strangely lacking in specifics. In addition, Una's Oedipal attraction to Capt. Ahab is a considerable stretch. Classic though MOBY DICK may be,I recall tortuous hours spent over Melville's book. Not to be outdone, AHAB'S WIFE is certainly as weighty and wordy a tome. 200 fewer pages would have made a livlier read.
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Summary: Incredible!
Review: I thought this book was astounding! In it's scope, and in it's ability to utterly draw the reader in... One question, though - where the heck did a previous writer get the notion she had a "tryst" with Frederick Douglass?????????
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Summary: The Horror! The Horror!
Review: The grostesque offspring of looney feminism and a trashy romance novel. The novel begins with the heroine, Una, lying in bliss with Ahab in the grass. Sorry- has anyone who has read Moby Dick really imagined him as the sort of chap to do such a thing? The author is entitled to taking her own spin on things, however... why must the novel be so politicized? Naslund grafts attacks on every modern social bugbear into the novel. Racism? Una fights racism and has a tryst with great black leader, Frederick Douglas. Sexism? She passes herself off as a male sailor and does just as good as the guy, thank you very much. Traditional gender roles? Heck no- Una runs away and takes up all sorts of masculine activities! Please- tell me a story, don't beat me over the head with nearly 700 pages of overheated, preachy prose.
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Summary: Great book but could've had a better editor
Review: This book grabs you from the beginning, but there were many parts that were not needed. The editor could've done a much better job, but you fell in love w/Una and her friends and watched their lives pass you by. Una is a very powerful woman ahead of her times. You will feel compelled to call to her and help guide her. You will need tissues. If you enjoy this book pick up Pope Joan.
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Summary: It Had Great Promise but falls flat on delivery
Review: I bought the book simply because I've read Melville and also most recently the Red Tent and thought "hey this sounds as if it would be really interesting and would be along the same idea as the Red Tent". Unfortunately, the author fails to deliver a 'full-fleshed heroine' as the jacket promises. Instead you receive a detailed account of whaling and then historic leaps, contrived meetings (the heroine conveinently meets Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James (as a mere child) Maria Mitchel and her father). Naslund fails to rely on her own ability to render the characters and relies heavily upon the contrived meetings of these historic personsages. She also introduces characters and has them reappear without any real purpose to the point of the story. One gets the basic premise - to thine own self be true. How could you not? It is only repeated - to the point of becoming nausating-to the reader. Una, the heroine, is her own self. All the other characters recognize this and of course tell her how wonderful it is that she is not tied down to beliefs of the time. Of course you can almost guess the ending - when it finally comes after 600 pages. Her interlude with Ahab is pitful. You never get a sense of them as a couple it is simply passed over. Una's response to Ahab's mania and to her first husband's madness is never fully addressed. She is never bothered by anything. She seems to be the Pooh, as in the Tao of Pooh, Una simply just is. No fretting or bellyaching for her. Towards the end Naslund does redeem herself with the introduction of Ishmael but it is too little too late. Her sequence from the Essex is also very amatuer. Isn't enough that Una stowes away as a cabin boy, must she also eat another sailor in order to live? Naslund was going purely for the drama, and shock value here. As I hail from Nantucket, I was not at all impressed by this work and would not recommend it unless you had not a clue about the Essex tragedy, Nantucket, the Whaling era or Melville. I was very disappointed. It had promise, it just did not deliver. I finished the book merely so I could write this review.
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Summary: Moby, where were you?
Review: We read this for our book club this month after doing the backgound of seeing the old movie, Moby Dick. I kept looking for Moby Dick and hoping he would end it all a lot sooner than 700 pages. Una's story was too involved to hold my interest for long periods of time. I would have enjoyed reading it as several shorter novels that didn't have me going here and there, back and forth. For those of you who are committed to whaling and interwining stories, this is an author whose novel you might enjoy.
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Summary: A novel of epic proportion but does it hold your attention?
Review: Another question comes to mind, how long is long? This novel was very long and at points quite tedious. I stuck with it for two-thirds of the way and then had to come up for air. Perhaps I'm not the best person to review it, but to those who follow my reviews I feel compelled to let you know what I think. The story is one of interest but I found that the author took too long to tell it. I personally come from the area of Massachusetts that is mentioned in the book and I have to admit I enjoyed much of the imformation imparted. I grew up near a historical whaling town and was amazed at what I learned from this book but it wasn't enough to keep me hanging on. Perhaps I'll try her next book. Kelsana 4/04/01
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Summary: Once Upon a Whaling Ship
Review: My first thought was that this was to be a woman's book. Was I wrong! Of course, I never dreamed that Una, a young woman in the 19th Century, would prove to be an adventuress who finds answers to her curiosities by living them out. For this reason, I would highly recommend this book to able readers who are young as well as old(er). The book is written extremely well, combining dialogue and description of another Century in a believable and fascinating style. Una's adventures describe solitary and simple living,the courage of whale boat crews, and the frightening experience of childbirth in the wilderness. If that isn't enough excitement, there are a few other events to keep you interested. Enjoy!
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