Moby Dick

Synopsis: When Ishmael sets sail on the whaling ship Pequod one cold Christmas Day, he has no idea of the horrors awaiting him out on the vast and merciless ocean. The ship's strange captain, Ahab, is in the grip of an obsession to hunt down the famous white whale, Moby Dick, and will stop at nothing on his quest to annihilate his nemesis.

Review: I'm not an avid seafarer, I've been known to go a bit green around the gills on the Isle of Wight ferry, but I do love reading books about the sea and I think you have to be a bit of an enthusiast to get the most out of this story, perhaps not quite as fanatical as Captain Ahab but definitely interested in all things nautical and whaling in particular because the book goes into such minute descriptions that anyone not interested will just find it boring, wordy and hard work. It's true that the actual story could be told in half the amount of pages maybe less but I enjoyed all the detail and relished the lulls as well as the peaks. Sometimes it felt more like a reference book but just as you're getting bogged down with all the facts and figures you are pulled back into the pitch and toss of the story once more. The chapters, on the whole, are extremely short (sometimes less than a page long) and this helps you to feel you're progressing.

It's a large book but absolutely compelling, there are long chapters on cetology and descriptions of the crew and ship (so detailed that you feel he has included every plank and nail,) but I didn't find myself wandering at any point, I was genuinely interested in all the minutiae. It's not an easy read though and is probably not for those who like their adventure stories to rattle along, you probably could skip all the chapters about whaling lore and read a sort of potted version. Occasionally the writing leaps into madness and you just hang on for dear life, Ahab himself spouts all sorts of maniacal rhetoric and the thoughts and remarks of the crew are given in one long continuous stream.

As most people know (from it's famous first line) this is a story told from the perspective of Ishmael, but strangely Ishmael is the character that we get to know the least .. probably because he is observing others and relating all to us. There are fascinating descriptions of the others though, in particular Queequeg (the cannibal harpooneer and 'infernal head peddler') with his yellow purplish skin tattoed with blackish squares, his small scalp-knot twisted upon his forehead, his legs which were marked as if 'a parcel of dark green frogs were running up the trunks of young palms' and his tomahawk clenched between his teeth and Ahab with his whalebone leg, broad form seemingly made of solid bronze and facial scar that disappears into his clothing which 'resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts it down, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom, ere running off into the soil, living the tree still greenly alive, but branded.'

Ishmael, seeking adventure and needing some money thinks he will 'sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hat's off - then, I account it high time to get to sea.' This time he has a notion to go whaling and so betakes himself to Nantucket to sign up as a member of the crew for the whaling ship the Pequod. What he doesn't realise at this point is that the captain of the Pequod is a man who has been driven to madness and beyond by his desire for revenge on the white whale Moby Dick.

I was especially excited to read the climax and abolish once and for all awful images of Gregory Peck clonking about on deck, waging war on a huge piece of fibreglass (I just couldn't suspend disbelief enough.) An added benefit of this beautiful Vintage edition is the inclusion of an extract from Owen Chase's 'Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex', a true account which, if anything, I found even more fascinating than that of Moby Dick.

I loved it, I felt like I was drenched with salt and greasy with spermaceti by the time I'd finished and knew enough to be able to pass muster as a harpooneer if ever I could be prevailed upon to do anything as barbaric as hunt whales (which I never could .. first there's the seasickness and then there's the squeamishness .. I can't even despatch a flower munching garden slug.) Actually the whales were the one's that had my deepest sympathies, in that respect Moby Dick is a bit of a hero ... he is not going to have any truck with these murderous seamen and he's definitely the one calling the shots and wearing the trousers.

I found it really enthralling but it's a book that should come with a warning, if you're easily bored or like stories with a lot of pace and action, this probably isn't for you. It wasn't successful in it's day and that's probably because it's considered by some to be long winded (but as you can tell by this review ... long winded isn't a problem for me ) It's not a relaxing read but I found the effort well worth it, I read some of the best passages I've ever read .. I think I would have given him 10 out of 10 just for writing a line such as ... 'whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul' .. bliss! (and now someone will tell me that Shakespeare first wrote that )

The Sea, The Sea

Synopsis: When Charles Arrowby retires from his glittering career in the London theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage. His equilibrium is further disturbed when his friends all decide to come and keep him company and Charles finds his seaside idyll severely threatened by his obsessions.

Review: I really enjoyed this book, it's beautifully atmospheric and lyrical. I think it's probably going to set me off on an Iris Murdoch obsession .. in fact it already has ... whilst reading it I also managed to fit in Iris's only short story Something Special and am currently reading her husband John Bayley's beautiful Iris memoirs, I've also recently bought The Black Prince so she's becoming a bit of a project. The central character of The Sea, The Sea is Charles Arrowby, an ageing theatrical celebrity, and it has to be said he's completely unlikeable, although my opinion of him shifted quite a bit during the story I never found myself liking him at any point. At the start of the story you find yourself fairly in tune with him .. you can understand why anyone would want to take themselves off to a remote location by the sea to commune with nature and get away from it all .. Charles's wish is to find himself somewhere where he has nothing else to do but 'learn to be good' and this seems admirable, perhaps he is tired of the adulation and fame and yearns for the simple life. He has plans to write a diary/journal/autobiography .. perhaps novel .. he can never quite pin it down and changes his mind constantly. Perhaps it's just as well that I started the novel by being fairly well disposed towards him because he soon tests that to the limit.

The house that Charles buys is called 'Shruff End', it perches on a small promontory and is exposed, isolated, damp and possibly haunted. The locals are fairly hostile, they seem less than impressed with their new celebrity neighbour and the sea (very much a central character in the book) and it's environs also turn out to be unpredictable and unaccommodating. Charles is spooked by all sorts of imaginary faces at windows and bumps in the night and things come to a bit of a head when whilst sitting with his notebook staring out to see he momentarily see's a monster rising from the waves. Are these things just hallucinations or are they portents of things to come?

'I can describe this in no other way. Out of a perfectly calm empty sea, at a distance of perhaos a quarter of a mile (or less), I saw an immense creature break the surface and arch itself upward. At first it looked like a black snake, then a long thickening body with a ridgy spiny back followed the elongated neck. There was something which might have been a flipper or perhaps a fin. I could not see the whole of the creature, but the remainder of it's body, or perhaps a long tail, disturbed the foaming water round the base of what had now risen from the sea to a height of (as it seemed) twenty or thirty feet. The creature then coiled itself so that the long neck circled twice, bringing the now conspicuous head low down above the surface of the sea. I could see the sky through the coils. I could also see the head with remarkable clarity, a kind of crested snake's head, green eyed, the mouth opening to show teeth and a pink interior. The head and neck glistened with a blue sheen. Then in a moment the whole thing collapsed, the coils fell, the undulating back still broke the water, and then there was nothing but a great foaming swirling pool where the creature had vanished.'

He find himself and his cottage besieged by many of the people he has sought to leave behind, old love rivals, relations, friends and enemies turn up at his door, these people seem to both love and loathe him at the same time and it's through them that we start to see Charles's true character emerge and instead of 'learning to be good' he carries on being bad. This is a man who is far more used to manipulating and exploiting people than we were at first led to believe. His staggering conceit and lack of regard for the feelings of others really comes to a head when he bumps into Hartley, an old flame who he was once engaged to marry. Hartley was the one true love of his life and he has never really came to terms with losing her. They were very young when first together and seemingly devoted to each other when Hartley was suddenly whisked away by her family never to be seen again by Charles ... until now. It turns out that Hartley lives just a short way from 'Shruff End', she's an ordinary, rather unattractive and elderly housewife now but that doesn't matter to Charles. He see's her very much as she once was and is convinced that she needs rescuing from her rather brutish husband, Ben. This sets him on a course of actions which can only be described as bizarre, obsessive and self deluded. He thinks his intentions are honourable and finds constant excuses for his selfish behaviour. It is at times extremely uncomfortable to read about Charles's treatment of poor Hartley even though you do find yourself thinking frequently 'get a grip woman for goodness sake' but it's also fairly farcical too (you're constantly cringing and hoping that something happens to thwart his plans and scheme.) It's only in the aftermath of these disastrous encounters with Hartley that Charles really begins to assess his own true character.

Perhaps one of the most interesting secondary characters is James, Charles's cousin and rival. Charles has never liked or understood him, there's a fair amount of jealousy and suspicion going right back to childhood. Though his character is perhaps only lightly touched upon I found myself drawn to him and wanting to know more and much of the mystery and magic which weaves it's way through the tale is wrapped up in his story.I also really liked the descriptions of the bizarre meals that Charles enjoyed concocting, it added an amusing and quirky touch .. I've since found out that they mostly came from the suggestions of Iris's husband John.

The book is perhaps overlong, I felt at times I had got to the end when I hadn't quite and occasionally the story wandered too far and I found my interest lagging but on the whole I found it mesmerising, strange and quite unlike anything I'd read before. It's a story that's open to many interpretations and probably nearly every reader will take something different from it.

The Sea

Synopsis: When art historian Max Morden returns to the seaside village where he once spent a childhood holiday, he is both escaping from a recent loss and confronting a distant trauma. The Grace family had appeared that long-ago summer as if from another world. Mr and Mrs Grace, with their worldly ease and candour, were unlike any adults he had met before. But it was his contemporaries, the Grace twins Myles and Chloe, who most fascinated Max. He grew to know them intricately, even intimately, and what ensued would haunt him for the rest of his years and shape everything that was to follow. 'A novel in which all of his remarkable gifts come together to produce a real work of art, disquieting, beautiful, intelligent, and in the end, surprisingly, offering consolation' - Allan Massie, "Scotsman". 'You can smell and feel and see his world with extraordinary clarity. It is a work of art, and I'll bet it will still be read and admired in seventy-five years' - Rick Gekoski, "The Times". 'Poetry seems to come easily to Banville. There is so much to applaud in this book that it deserves more than one reading' - "Literary Review". 'A brilliant, sensuous, discombobulating novel' - "Spectator".

Review: This is something special. John Banville's prose is so beautifully rich and descriptive that it's a pleasure to immerse yourself both in it and the imagery that it conjures up. Although it's quite poetic, nothing is wasted or superfluous and just as you're getting comfortable, he intersperses his writing with an occasional shock like smelling salts which give you a jolt.

'They departed, the gods, on the day of the strange tide. All morning under a milky sky the waters in the bay had swelled and swelled, rising to unheard-of heights, the small waves creeping over parched sand that for years had known no wetting save for rain and lapping the very bases of the dunes. The rusted hulk of the freighter that had run aground at the far end of the bay longer ago than any of us could remember must have thought it was being granted a relaunch. I would not swim again, after that day. The seabirds mewled and swooped, unnerved, it seemed, by the spectacle of that vast bowl of water bulging like a blister, lead-blue and malignantly agleam. They looked unnaturally white, that day, those birds. The waves were depositing a fringe of soiled yellow foam along the waterline. No sail marred the high horizon. I would not swim, no, not ever again.
Someone has just walked over my grave. Someone.'

The story concerns ageing art historian Max. He's at a crossroads in his life, following the death of his wife and this prompts his decision to move back to the idyllic seaside village where he used to holiday as a child. In particular he is lodging at a house where he once was a welcome guest of the enigmatic Grace family. There's a lot of mysteriousness surrounding his return, all we know is that 'something happened there' previously but of course we don't find out what until near the end.

The Grace's are a fascinating bunch, they're the sort of family that one envies, effortlessly interesting and vibrant. Max, whose own family are a bit more mundane and ordinary, is desperate to become familiar with them. At first it is Mrs Grace that attracts him, but then he becomes infatuated with her daughter Chloe (with her smell of stale biscuits, the blonde comma of hair at the nape of her neck and the hairline cracks in the porcelain backs of her knees.) Chloe has a twin, Myles ..'like two magnets, but turned the wrong way, pulling and pushing' .. a web footed mute boy who communicates by gestures, noises and clicks which are perfectly understood by Chloe. He's rather odd and unsettling.

The storyline ebbs and flows quite slowly, Max wanders between the now, the lately and the long ago but his narration is not always reliable .. things we take as gospel are later retracted or altered, some of this is down to Max's memory which has become dulled over the years. Gradually we piece together his narration and begin to make sense of it. I don't think this style of writing will be for everyone, some people may find it slow paced or too poetic and there are times when you'll need a dictionary to hand (or at least I did ... what on earth do 'cinereal' and 'flocculent' mean?) but I thought it was pretty wonderful. It's haunting, melancholy and darkly humorous. In a nutshell, it's an old man's rather sad recollections. A wonderfully evocative and atmospheric tale of the unpredictability of life and the inevitability of death. It's another one crossed off of the '1001' (hooray) ... and very enjoyably too.