Call Me Ishmaelle: maybe not what you think

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

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

New Reads: Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett

This review is also available on my Substack in a newer edit.

e v e r y w o m a n

I love Claire-Louise Bennett’s writing so much. When I read Pond I was enchanted by her prose; unpredictably descriptive, internal but universal. Reading any of Bennett’s novels is an effort but not so much because the language itself is dense, although I guess some might call Pond opaque. To me it’s more like, the words are important so you can’t let your mind go too too much. You have to bring yourself back. I often read a page up to 3 times to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. Anna Burns is also like this for me in her writing. Milkman was so wonderfully rich I’d be constantly rereading passages and flipping around to make sure I read it right. Might even go back and read it again now that I mention it.

Is this not the best most beautiful cover you have ever seen?

Why can’t I stop reading Irish women writers?

I once had a creative writing instructor who really thought all women should be feminist writers. I mean #goodforhim, but also, I was 21 years old and had no understanding of what being a feminist writer meant or how that could influence me in my writing. He even brought Gail Scott into our class to talk about…something…likely feminist writing - and I admit, I just rejected the whole thing. Was I being closed and stubborn and did I think I knew better what I should write? Sure. But none of it appealed to me at the time, linguistically or intellectually. I just wanted to read what i wanted to read and write what I felt like writing at that time. Ah, who knew how important it would be to retain that instinct.

All this to say, I know nothing about feminist literature or writing, in a feminist language theory way. But I do know what I consider to be feminist writing as a reader and woman and how it speaks to me when I read it.

Also a great cover. Would have also accepted Robert Doiseau’s photo The Kiss 

Not a review of Milkman

No, this isn’t a review of Milkman but I do have to talk about it because for me, it was the novel that had the most impact; was most revealing of feminist writing for my reading self. I was completely spellbound. The narrative was structured so elegantly but so incredibly deconstructed at the same time, it flowed like Middle-sister’s own thoughts were my own and she was inside me. There were no jarring breaks of time or backstories that came after a respectable amount of character building or whatever or anything explanatory in an editorial way. It just was Middle-sister telling the story in her way. Honestly, do we even understand how difficult it must have been to write that novel?! Indescribably difficult! We learn writing in such a patriarchal way (even the stream-of-consciousness bits!) that I just can’t even imagine how much Anna Burns had to really trust herself to unlearn.

Claire-Louise Bennett has furthered my obsession with this “kind” of writing (ugh, I don’t like to even lump it in together because it’s not the same).

Novel that this article is actually about…

Where was I?

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye has this wonderful way of showing you the story of this woman’s life by thought process, some parts are gone over twice, sometimes more, because that’s the way she is thinking about it, and to me that rings true. She goes over and over some things while other things, the more dark and uncertain things, she comes to and then leaves and comes back to again later with a different part until she finally finds the core of the story, that she maybe was not wanting to talk about at all.

It’s very funny and a bit dark and quite dreamy to read. Like, you are going on a nice ride with a friend and nothing is really planned but you haven’t seen each other in a while but there will be snacks and lots to talk about. It’s like that.

The woman is at the turning point of her relationship with a man, Xavier, many years her senior, but is also remembering another relationship she had with another older man, Robert Turner, a teacher she had in high school. This triggered memory is brought about by another teacher’s letter mail correspondence (Terrance Stone) that she receives via her publisher. There are all sorts of funny twists and turns to her getting the letter and the ensuing email replies ( … it has been customary, has it not, to end our emails by alluding to the colour green. Green. Greenly. Greenliness. Greened. Greened, all greened. Greenest.) The forced direction they bring about to Robert Turner is not a path she wants to be taken down at first. It’s clearly painful and because she is concentrating on changing the nature of her relationship with Xavier to a platonic one but she still cares about him deeply and worries about him, she keeps on moving away from the memories of Robert Turner. As these two narratives converge in the novel, she is going about her life moving house and writing. She is still in touch with Xavier but it is different. She comes to confronts her memory of Robert Turner and is rebuilding her life.

I’m not THAT SMART

I’m not going to pretend I understand this ending 100%. I definitely could use another read of this book but to me the metaphor is elemental and about power and dominance. She is trying to reclaim herself from these relationships. 

Has she? She is trying.

She is not her, she is the situation, and the situation pulls things from her that exceed her direct experience and personally gained understanding. She is immaterial. She is all the ages. What does it matter therefore? She is his superior. She stands still with her back to the fire. He has his coat on. Usually she would be moving by now, towards the door, or perhaps into the little kitchen. She does not move and she does not speak. This can only mean she is waiting for something. She is looking at him, yes. She doesn’t take her eyes off him as he walks towards her. Her eyes are holding his and feel like they are about to crack open and pour out across the stone floor. He looks at her and it is unbearable. Something is going on. Something is really going on and it is not what she foresaw, and it is too late now because now her eyes are closed and his eyes are closing and their mouths open, their lips are touching, their mouths are open and he reaches right in. We are in the dark. We are together in the dark. He is very strong in this place. I want it to go on and on. I want to stay here. The dark, the dark.

I loved this book as I loved Checkout 19 and Pond (and Milkman and many, many more books by Irish women, including Bina by Irish-Canadian author Anakana Schofield). I hope you read them and love them too. They are funny and smart and tender and fresh.

Reading glasses rating of of 5: 👓👓👓👓👓