Rating: 
Summary: disappointed potential
Review: The print reviews I read ranked this book so high that I was hoping for a great book. In fact the writing is so good, and the premise also so good, that it could have been a great book. But the author's agenda comes through so strongly that the book is not believable and not ultimately satisfying. I read it all the way through in a week, but the English professor friend I lent it to (a feminist who loves Moby Dick) only got a third of the way through before returning it with the same sense of disappointment I had felt and the same reasons. (Since the book's amorality actually gets stronger the more you read, it's probably good she didn't finish it.)The author is so indoctrinated with late-twentieth-century beliefs (or rather lack of belief) that she plops a heroine with a twentieth-century mindset into a twentieth-century set of family and friends. Thus, all the heroes in the book are postmodernists with no real belief in God and a very weak sense of morality, but a strong sense that slavery and racism are wrong and feminism is right. Yes, slavery is wrong--but it's hard to believe characters in that day would find it more evil than cannibalism, incestuous longings, adultery, living together outside of marriage, divorce, and homosexuality. All of these are seen as forgivable or not even needing forgiveness, and Christians are usually seen as stupid or villainous. (True Christianity, by the way, recognizes evil, as this book doesn't really do, but it offers forgiveness of the moral slime each of us is guilty of and capable of, which is much better than the sense that morality doesn't really matter.) In summary, unless you are VERY interested in Moby Dick or you believe today's culture is morally superior to Melville's, you'll probably be quite disappointed in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Ties That Free
Review: In this profound work of the imagination, S. J. Naslund has created one of the most fascinating works of fiction I have ever read. Not since childhood when I spent hours curled up in a chair absorbed in the fictional worlds of Hawthorne, Steinbeck, Hemingway, and, of course, Melville, have I so lost myself to a story. For the last three weeks, I have grabbed every spare moment to visit with Una Spencer, who uses her wits and her imagination to overcome tragedy time and time again. The chapters on stargazing and needlework alone are a masterwork--parallel to the rope coiling and sea-watching in _Moby Dick_. At last, I have finished the story, but Una lives on in my mind. I will look for her on the beach the next time I visit Nantucket! Thank you, Ms. Naslund, for pursuing this heroic character till she captured you.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant diversion
Review: I enjoyed this book despite some serious flaws. The language is rich in texture and visuals; Naslund's turn of phrase is frequently a work of art. The writing alone is worth the price of book. The story is entertaining enough to keep the reader's attention to the end. However, for me, the flaws seriously diminished the value of the book overall. It could have been improved significantly with tighter historical research. I had the distinct impression that Naslund did as much research as needed to support her plot, but she failed to really explore social and cultural mores, opting instead to stay in the shallows; that was disappointing. This book would have been a great vehicle for really exploring 19th century social relationships. When I checked the acknowledgments, I didn't see any historians credited for their research. For an example of better research and a real sense of period, check out Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. The heroine, Una, was fairly shallow--sort of a 20th century woman in Victorian Barbie doll clothes. As passionate as she implies she is, I didn't really sense true depth of emotion. The words were there and they were often really good, but they just didn't translate into passion. As a result, I wasn't able to empathize with Una at all. Occasionally, I found the descriptions and the actions of and between certain characters disjointed--the cause and effect connections don't always synchronize with each other and it can be disconcerting. Still, Naslund grabs your attention in the first few pages and proceeds to tell an entertaining story. And that's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. . .
Rating:
Summary: A Quilter Responds
Review: As a reader and a quilter I finished Ahab's Wife with similar feelings: satisfaction, accomplishment, and a reassuring connection with tradition. This book is as modern as today's news with its frank discussions of religion, sex and homosexuality, racism, the environment, insanity, feminism, the march of technology, and, of course, love. Yet, Ms. Naslund's elegantly simple language and strong character development carry us back to the time whaling was an essential industry and America was on the brink of civil war. To those who contend that Herman Melville should not be tampered with, I would ask how they define a classic. What these well intentioned but unimaginative folk are saying is that classics are so fragile, they will be damaged by interpretation, examination, and the addition of new chapters to the story. (I, for one, am very curious about the adult Huck Finn.) A quilter takes a centuries old pattern and uses contemporary fabrics and techniques to make a new quilt. This process does not diminish the old. On the contrary, it makes both richer and more cherished. Sena Jeter Naslund offers readers the opportunity to rediscover Moby Dick, if they choose, and introduces us to a fascinating, spunky, and compelling new character and a romantic story any reader can get wonderfully lost in. I thank her.
Rating: 
Summary: Good in a pleasing sort of way
Review: A wonderful Book into a woman's point of view. The soul behind Ahab but it doesn't stop there. Ahab's Wife is a great introduction to Moby Dick if you haven't read it already (shame on you) and a great book with a strong female lead. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: A real 20th century find for experiencing the 19th century
Review: Ahab's Wife is a truly beautiful work of fiction. I was transported to the world of Una Spenser as she traveled forward in her life. The book is rich with lush detail and emotion. No wonder "Time Magazine", in the December 20 issue, has chosen it as one of the top 5 novels of the year!
Rating:
Summary: Beyond the whale
Review: "Don't you buy it -- don't you read it when it does come out, because it is by no means a sort of book for you," Herman Melville wrote of Moby-Dick to a female acquaintance. " What is it," Ahab had cried in his last moments of reason before his chase of the White Whale, "what is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding and jamming myself on all the time?" Melville devoted a scant 10 sentences to Ahab's wife in his chronicle of an obsessive pursuit. From this spare rib, Sena Jeter Naslund in Ahab's Wife, fashions not only a woman but an entire world and in so doing revises literature. "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last," Una Spenser begins her story lying on her back on a Nantucket beach after Ahab's death, watching the clouds go by. One of them, she thinks, looks a bit like Ahab's face. She waves goodbye. In Una's life story, Ahab is but one player among many, and not necessarily the most important one.He was a decent person, good in bed even ... until that whale came along! In beautifully structured 19th-century-style prose, with divisions into many little Melville-ian chapters, this book is proof that the pursuit of happiness can be more rewarding than that of a whale.
Rating: 
Summary: Melville? You've got to be kidding!
Review: Comparing this work to Melville's is borderline sacrilege
Rating:
Summary: Mrs. A and the time machine
Review: I am surprised by the unflagging praise for this book. Although the language and description is well-crafted, I found the character of Una, and references from her point of view, jarringly twentieth-century. I refer not to her spirit, adventurousness, and desire to follow a different drummer, but to her "modern" political correctness in all things, admiration of the "athletic" (did they have aerobics during whaling days?), and lack of an 1800's viewpoint in any discernable way.
Rating:
Summary: Tedious
Review: After reading the ecstatic reviews of this book, I dutifully slogged through the first hundred pages of disjointed and melodramatic events, hoping in vain that some thread of plot or some interesting characters would turn up, but finally took out the toothpicks that were holding my eyes open and went to bed. Instead of reading the remaining 568 pages, I plan to make better use of my time by rereading Moby-Dick.
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