Rating: 
Summary: Exciting and revealing
Review: Una Spencer grabbed my heart from her brilliant first line and hasn't let go. Ahab's Wife is both exciting and revealing, and Naslund has given us a 19th Century woman whose adventures resonate with more than self-obsessed revenge.
Rating: 
Summary: Richly satisfying, exhilirating in its detail
Review: When I first heard about this book via my BOMC bulletin, I was instantly put off by the hype, which heralded it as everything from "the literary find of the year" to "the greatest thing since 'Gone With The Wind'. Thus was I challenged to find out the truth for myself, and it is that it falls somewhere in between. "Ahab's Wife" was better in so many ways than I was led to expect; Nusland's narrative power is so strong the reader is literally carried along, as though riding a wave in the sea. Its sense of language is wonderfully evocative of its period, and it offers a heroine as strong as any Eliot or Bronte might have turned out. Yet, despite its sweeping narrative, literary references (from Spenser's "The Faerie Queen" to Goethe's "The Sorrows of Werther"), and romantic outcome, it just misses being a great meditative twentieith century examination of a nineteenth century work, a la "The French Lieutenant's Woman". The reason I think is Nusland's style never completely loses its feel of contemporaneity, whereas Foweles' work, if presented unknown, one would swear was the work of some earlier century writer. Nevertheless "Ahab's Wife" succeeds in satisfying on a variety of levels, and is far superior to other works of this type.
Rating:
Summary: Ahab's Wife is a work of art.
Review: Ahab's Wife is a work of art with characters who emcompass the full spectrum of good and evil. While Ahab looks outward and to Moby Dick to find his truth, Una searches inward for her truth and finds a spirituality worthy of our time. Una's journey to self is genuine and spontanteous, surprising and familiar. The story is rich in details (historical and fictional) which hand you a vibrant, authentic world.
Rating:
Summary: both an intellectual tour de force and a great beach book
Review: This book is the ultimate page turner.Don`t start it unless you have nothing to do because you can`t put it down.It has depth,humor and insight. It is una`s spiritual adventure and she drags you along with her every step.It is the novel of this decade!
Rating:
Summary: A fresh flowering of New England
Review: Those who have read A HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE have probably yearned for a similar reading experience ever since they read that masterpiece. For me, AHAB'S WIFE fulfills that yearning. This ingeniously imagined book is loaded with real characters from the time of American history's greatest outpouring of literature and philosophicalthought: Emerson, Hawthorne, James, Bronson Alcott, Maria Mitchell, Frederick Douglass, and Margaret Fuller. (I don't recall that the creator of MOBY-DICK is mentioned; he was no doubt busy at his day job in New York at the time.) What we are given is a take on early nineteenth century life by one who writes of that time with such assurance and poetic beauty that one feels that Sena Jeter Naslund, too, has trafficked in the flowering of New England and she only is escaped alone to tell thee. As in Garcia-Marquez's epic, the reader--now sadder, happier, and wiser than he has any right to be--can only turn from the last page back to the first in hopes of reliving the enthralling experiences he has just experienced.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent historical fictional autobiography
Review: Una Spenser, widow of Captain Ahab, reflects back on her life. When Una was a child in Kentucky, her mother worried about her safety from the righteous retribution of her religious spouse against any real or imaginary transgression. To protect Una, she sends her daughter to live with relatives at a New England lighthouse. At her new home, Una learned to love the sea and even dressed as a young lad to join an ocean voyage. Though much younger than her husband, Una loved Ahab. However, her love for the Captain failed to deter him from his cause of destruction with the "evil" Moby Dick. After Ahab's death, Una finds solace in the Northeast intellectual community fighting to end slavery. Una is a willing player as she daringly rescues an escaped slave. Though her life has been filled with harshness, Una cherishes her only living child and actually finds renewed happiness with Ishmael. In the past couple of decades, authors and playwrights have written novels and plays centering on a minor character from a classic. Many add to the original tale by staying true to its characterization, content and style, but most fail because of the writer using too much literary license that contradicts the first story. Sena Jeter Naslund succeeds in her fictional autobiography based on a minor segment in Herman Melville's Moby Dick that refers to Ahab's spouse. The story line is a superb stand alone homage to Mr. Melville as well as a salute to the intrepid seafaring nineteenth century women. However, what makes the book a phenomenal companion to the original classic is that the characters borrowed from Moby Dick retain Mr. Melville's descriptions while starring in a fresh plot. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: A new twist on Moby Dick
Review: I am a senior Advanced Placement (AP) English student at Lubbock High and my teacher Ms. Sara Duncan had us read Moby Dick. I loved the book by Herman Melville and I think that this book is superb. Ahab's wife being mentioned only once in the book the author did not have alot to work with but in my oponion I think that she has created a work that is very memorable and will last. Anyone who has read Melville and enjoyed him in the slitest bit should read Ahab's Wife. It is well worth your time to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Absorbing, thought-provoking and exciting all at once
Review: What a pleasure it was to read this wonderful story of a young woman, Una Spenser, whose strong spirit guides her through life, extracting all the wonders to be found. Through Una, we meet many unforgettable characters, such as Susan, the runaway slave, David, the resourceful "little person", and, of course, the powerful Captain Ahab himself. Reading this book has been one of my life's treasured experiences!
Rating:
Summary: A literary tour-de-force!
Review: An exemplar of that rare-breed, the literary page-turner. One gets the sense that the author put everything she knows, has lived and experienced--and all that she is--into this book. "Ahab's Wife" is both old-fashioned and modern, and it stands--proudly and boldly--alongside Melville's masterpiece. A literary tour-de-force!
Rating:
Summary: Almost 700 pages and I did not want it to end.
Review: I am an avid reader, but I have not read a book that I have loved so much in such a long time. Well written, timeless, and completely absorbing!!!
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