A Judgment Upon The Man
Several years ago, my sister recommended Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund, but I never got around to reading it until I found myself on an ocean voyage. I was actually glad I’d read Moby Dick because it helped me to appreciate some of the references.
Ahab’s Wife has all the fun and action and suspense that appeals to our lust for instant gratification. There’s sex and cross dressing and cannibalism and suicide and madness. What more could you want? You get to find out everything that happens in Melville’s book, without actually reading it, and you get to have fun along the way.
When you read an old book like Moby Dick, you should try not judge it on modern day standards. For instance, there’s a lot of detailed description, and you have to realize these people had no television. And Ishmael was a total racist in Melville’s book, but he was a product of his times. And Melville was seemingly into guys, so he didn’t have a whole lot of women in his book, even if he couldn’t talk about being into guys.
Naslund gave Melville no mercy. She answered all his flaws by doing the exact opposite. No women? We’ll focus on the women. Racism? We’ll help runaway slaves. No action? We’ll be all action. Can’t talk about the man sex? Well, we’re gonna talk about it.
I don’t know — it was fun. It just seemed a little judgmental to me. But who am I to judge?