Hello all
I have to say I was underwhelmed by this month’s book. Any book that promises whales in it immediately makes me think of Moby Dick and I couldn’t help but read those relevant parts and think they were slightly plagarised from Melville or maybe it is that Melville has written the definite account and nothing else will come close. This is not a comforting thought for me as I currently do rewrites on a children’s book which involves a chocolate factory.
But it wasn’t all about whales. I quite enjoyed the first two chapters but by the time the spinster Adie?(name already forgotten) turned up something went a bit wrong for me. The two main things I can pinpoint is that I struggled with were the characters and the research that underpinned. I found the characters on the whole unbelievable. The secondary story of the spinster was the most unbelievable which was a bit problematic as it was supposed to be a counterpoint and also the conduit for the telling of the rather dramatic tale of whalers/ pioneers/Maori interaction and inter racial love while kidnapped (which was a bit Ahab’s Wife even though it was supposedly based on a true story). Also having a narrative told from several people first person in the main, I didn’t find the ‘telling’ or voices to be distinct enough and once again was unconvinced even though I thought she was a reasonable writer.
I also thought that at times the research came through a little too strongly, as opposed to bringing the story alive, even though there was some interesting stuff there about early Sydney.
As a bit of an anecdote to this I reread David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas because the first section is a similar time and places to this book but also how to do multiple voices perfectly. That is a definite 5 star book and really made this book only about a two for me. And being in a David Mitchell frame of mind I vote for Ghostwritten.
A
elissa
theemc2
