The Voyage of the Narwhal
Ratings4
Average rating3.8
The novel draws on the experiences and discoveries of real expeditions to the Arctic; sections of the novel are preceded by quotations from writers, naturalists, and scientists of the 19th century.
Erasmus Darwin Wells is a naturalist aboard *The Narwhal* as it sails from the Delaware river for the Arctic with the goal of discovering the fate of expedition of John Franklin (a real expedition). Zeke Voorhees, a childhood and family friend of Wells, is the commander of the expedition. For Wells, the expedition also becomes an inner journey as a rift develops between himself and Voorhees.
With the Narwhal's arrival in Arctic waters Voorhees begins the search for the lost expedition by exploring Arctic bays, sounds and coastlines. But as the Arctic winter approaches, the outlets to open waters set into a deep freeze. *The Narwhal* becomes barricaded by ice in a cove. The challenge now becomes surviving the Arctic winter. The men must deal not only with the harsh physical environment of the Arctic, but they must keep alive their spirit and determination to live.
When spring and summer arrive, as more of the frozen waters open up, Voorhees treks inland alone. He leaves Wells in charge of the Narwhal. When Voorhees does not return by the due date, the crew persuade Wells they must leave before winter sets in again. They retrofit a whale boat, so that it can be pulled or sailed along the frozen land, until they reach open waters.
«...they fell and stumbled and were relieved only once, when the ice field was smooth and the wind blew from the northwest. That day they set the sails and glided for eight miles: a great blessing, never repeated ...» ( from *The Goblins known as Innersuit*).
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When Zeke came back my heart sank - there was just no good that could come from him and his way of stealing all the happiness in a room for himself. I slammed the book down and walked away, and it took me three days to sufficiently nerve myself for whatever was to come.
When Dr. Boerhaave died my heart broke for him and also for Erasmus, who was just beginning to see the beauty of having a dear friend. When Erasmus got the letter from one of the doctor's other friends, and that friend called the doctor by his first name, I felt Erasmus's sadness and shame that his priceless friendship apparently hadn't even made it out of stage 1. Who among us hasn't been crushed by the knowledge that someone is more important to us than we are to them.
When the author described how the doctor's drowned head had washed up on the cliff below the men's camp, and that they simply didn't look over, nor did they hear the wind whistling across the jawbone, I gasped. The way that she showed us something that could have been life-altering for Erasmus but wasn't, how she played with going past coincidence into far-fetchedness BUT DIDN'T, was brilliant.
Wonderful wonderful wonderful book.
Boy, I don't know how to rate this one.
At first, I loved it. Then about a chapter into it, I realized this book is
neither history or historical fiction. I suddenly became very irritated with
it. I vowed to plug on.
I unexpectedly got quite caught up in the story (who will survive? who will
marry?) and followed it to the very end.
This author writes well. She tells a nice story.
But in the end, I didn't really care about the characters (oh, well, he
perished in the ice...)
This book reminds me of the way I felt about The Corrections. The author is
excellent at copying a paint-by-numbers picture onto another piece of paper
and painting in each part the right color. None of the numbers show. But
when you look at the picture, you know somehow that it was taken from
somewhere, that it wasn't drawn from the heart.
Does that make any sense?
I rate Voyage of the Narwhal a 7.
