Call me back, Ishmael

AHAB's WIFE (or, THE STAR-GAZER)

by Sena Jeter Naslund

William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1999

In September 1999, Sena Jeter Naslund received great acclaim for her rare vision of women of 19th century New England whaling communities, placing a minor character from Herman Melville's Moby Dick in the forefront of her novel. Her book, Ahab's Wife (or the Star-Gazer), has won acclaim from the New York Times and has been recommended by The Book Of The Month club.

Naslund, a professor at the University of Louisville, appeared last Thursday at the University Book Store to sign the new paperback version of Ahab's Wife, as well as lecture on why she chose to write a companion story to one of the great American novels.

Naslund spoke with The Daily about the meaning and ideas behind Ahab's Wife.

The product of two years worth of research, Naslund's work features carefully constructed, vibrant characters that are both historically accurate and convincingly human. The narrative is laced with classical quotes and references to Melville's original. Despite its historic and literary detail, the story is totally comprehensible by anyone who has even a little familiarity with Melville's work.

Naslund described how she became passionate about writing the novel during a trip to Connecticut. "It was not a matter so much of my choice as it was the story choosing me. While in New England, I had received a vision of a woman staring at the sea from her upper balcony. Her voice spoke to me the words which would become the beginning of my book, 'Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last.'"

While Moby Dick focused intensely upon the brotherly camaraderie of a doomed whaling crew, the original novel only briefly acknowledged how one man's quest for vengeance drove him to leave his family physically, and figuratively, behind. While the original did not even mention Ahab's wife by name, Naslund has created a unique heroine who must transcend the loss of her soulmate and struggle against the darkness that dragged her husband into madness and death.

As a young woman, Una suffers tragically in the same manner as Ahab. Bored with the mundane life of living with relatives at an isolated lighthouse, Una pretends to be a man and joins a whaling ship. In the middle of the South Pacific, an angered whale rams the ship and forces the crew to be set adrift. She and a few survivors resort to cannibalism in order to survive.

"I wanted Una to be a morally complex person. I think too many times fiction writers tend to make characters overwhelmingly good or evil," said Naslund.

"I focused on the cannibalism, as it is a terrible act done for the sake of survival, much like war. Some people survive these circumstances with their sanity while others do not. I wanted to suggest a hopeful way of coping with trauma, even if the trauma was created by one's own actions."

At first Ahab is drawn to Una for her strength in the face of tremendous loss. They marry and conceive a child, but then disaster strikes. Ahab loses his leg to the white whale and Una loses both her unborn baby and her mother while her husband is at sea.

Both lovers are forced ask differing philosophical questions and make different decisions about their suffering. "Ahab can be likened to a post-traumatic victim, as he cannot move beyond his loss," Naslund said.

"Una, when her life is swept away from her, tries to build something new. That is essentially the difference which makes her a survivor while Ahab becomes a tragic hero."

A connection with other people helps sustain Una through her dark period. She comes back to the family she abandoned before going to sea. She also sustains herself by making friends with unlikely people, including an escaped slave named Susan and the well-known feminist Maria Mitchell. Una learns to accept her losses and yet stay connected to her loved ones, while Ahab wars with his family, his friends and nature itself.

"The theme of this book, whether we consider it the omnipresence of God or the nature of the universe, is that we are connected to something bigger than ourselves."

During her interview, Naslund mentioned her fear of "sending a minnow of a story after Moby Dick." Ahab's Wife is indeed a worthy homage to Melville's work.