A newer edit of this review can be found on my
Substack.
I’m going to get into it.
As soon as this book was available, I bought a copy to read. I am a faithless reader and don’t give a damn about purist sensibilities about classics remaining untouched in their wordy perfection. Give me a retelling! Say it in a different way! If you love Moby Dick so much, why don’t you marry it!
Am I being too childish, dear reader? Maybe, but it kind of infuriated me to read the notes of several Substacks that just trashed this book. Like, what is the problem here? Writers are always picking apart and retelling, sometimes they don’t even know they are doing it! But also some of the comments seemed a little bit terfy and quite sexist in their complaints and just against the idea in general or just plain bitchy (you can decide: I’m talking about here and here and here
I mean, everyone has their preferences in books. That’s cool. That’s what Freedom to Read is all about! But I guess it’s all the disdain that irks me.
I’m more on this side
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| credit to @thirtyaf and @EdGoreyFanClub |
Not Moby Dick
To me Call Me Ishmaelle is a book that could be a gateway for younger, less lit obsessed, folks who actually might never pick up Moby Dick, and even if they do, like myself, might never finish it. The difference is that I will eventually try again, maybe sooner than later, but those newer readers might not. OR they might because they read Call Me Ishmaelle.
The gender fluidity of the character Ishmaelle, the deep connection to nature, the bleak violence of the world around them, all could appeal strongly to younger generations. AND it’s extremely easy to read. Strangely page turning, masterful storytelling.
Even the NYT review (behind a paywall here) referenced by most of the initial negative reactions, is not scathing. William Giraldi at first talks about Guo’s “artistic audacity” (yawn) but then, more importantly the actual writing: the lack of throughline with the character naming (why Pound, Seneca, Hawthorne and Moses?) and what he describes as “clichés” in the language and “allegorical instruments” : the whale and Captain Seneca become overt symbols of black slavery and the white oppressor.
But it still didn’t bother me as a reader because I wasn’t expecting it to be this:
“Herman Melville’s American prose monument “Moby-Dick,” absolutely alone in its capacious grasp of the American Sublime” (Giraldi).
It can’t be that. That already exists.
To me, Xiaolu Guo is reconstructing a tale that yes, uses, Melville’s masterpiece as a framework, but is rebuilding it as a coming of age fable (not, as some people are calling it, a “feminist retelling” more on that later) - yes an allegory, yes a clear one, but as a kind of beacon for young people. Like, “Yeah we know we are old and annoying and ruined everything throughout history but: we see you.”
Feeling ‘seen’
Throughout the story, Ishmaelle is hiding herself, or is she being her true self? She is constantly unsure. When she meets Kauri and he sees her she believes, as she really is, she feels safe and loved. She feels seen. After the gender reveal, Dr. Hawthorne admits he suspected she was a women and praises her talents as a healer and she feels he finally truly understand her as a women. When she meets the local woman and her children in the village when they are in port and the woman gives her the first fruit she seen and eaten in months and months, the woman just has to look at her and smile for Ishmaelle to feel a woman-to-woman warmth and bond. But when Ishmaelle is on the ship working alongside the men, she feels, despite her lack of experience, a strength and capability inside her that she never felt before - but never quite a safe. These instances explore her gender fluidity but they also show Ishmaelle’s struggle to find herself, like any young person does as they crossover to adulthood and try to find themselves.
Showing the violence is awful but important
The sexual violence she experiences at the hand of Mr. _____ could also be seen as a trope but this novel would not have been complete without it. If Ishmaelle is herself symbolic of young women and youth today (and frankly, in any era, including I am sure the 1800s) then of course she experienced sexual violence. It was brutal, but rang true.
Back to the feminism
The reason I hesitate to call this a feminist retelling is partly because of the mimicking of Melville’s structure which, to me, is not at all feminine. Ishmaelle is pretending to be a man and, this imitation is hidden even in the structure itself: short chapters, linear timeline etc. Interestingly, Captain Seneca’s stream-of-consciousness chapters feel - very loosely - more feminine to me. He is letting himself be guided in his thoughts by his instinct towards the natural world (the whale). But because Seneca’s instincts are driven by revenge and are largely incoherent, it does not quite read “right in the head”. I do think feminism is a theme here especially as the book progresses but I still think this is more a coming-of-age tale immersed in archetypes and folklore.
Ishmaelle’s connection to the mystical universe and the divine feminine was my favourite part of this book. Her natural ability to heal, her dreamscapes and her curiosity towards Minzu’s readings of the I Ching really uplifted her as a compelling heroine
It’s ok if you don’t like the idea of this book, you don’t have to read it! But I did, and I liked it.
My 22 year-old son just stole my copy.
👓👓👓 and a half reading glasses
