Call Me Ishmaelle
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Pick
“Well worth your time . . . By adding in new characters while adhering to the original story, the author creates something new, strange and thrilling.”—Los Angeles Times
“An astonishingly ambitious undertaking . . . you’re in the hands of a genuine storyteller.”—New York Times Book Review
From the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author, a feminist reimagining of Herman Melville’s classic Moby-Dick through the eyes of one inimitable woman and a diverse, swashbuckling crew
I must work on a ship as a man . . . I must find freedom on the seas.
1843. Ishmaelle is born in a small village on the stormy Kent coast where she grows up swimming with dolphins. After her parents and infant sister die, her brother, Joseph, leaves to find work as a sailor. Abandoned and desperate for a life at sea, Ishmaelle disguises herself as a cabin boy and travels to New York.
Years later, as the American Civil War breaks out, Ishmaelle boards the Nimrod, a whaling ship led by the obsessive Captain Seneca, a Black free man of heroic stature who is haunted by a tragic past. Here, she finds protectors amidst the bloody male violence of whaling and discovers a mysterious bond between herself and the white whale who claimed Seneca’s leg.
Built on the bones of Melville’s classic, Call Me Ishmaelle is a dynamic new tale, imbued with an eclectic crew—from a Polynesian harpooner to a Taoist Monk—and a powerful exploration of human nature, gender, man’s place among the animals, and the nature of home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
NBCC Award winner Guo (Nine Continents, a memoir) delivers a spectacular retelling of Moby-Dick, in which she recasts Ishmael as a 17-year-old girl and Ahab as a Black freedman named Seneca who's battling the "white devil." In 1858 England, Ishmaelle's parents and baby sister die from illness, and her brother leaves their village to find work as a sailor. Following in his footsteps, Ishmaelle leaves behind her tragic and isolated life on a "desolate salt marsh" in Kent for "freedom on the seas." Disguised as a cabin boy named Ishmael, she makes her way to New York City and then to New Bedford, Mass., where she joins the crew of a Nantucket whaling ship helmed by Captain Seneca, who's consumed with seeking vengeance against the white whale that took his leg and haunted by his father's legacy of enslavement. With unyielding resolve, Ishmaelle proves her worth as a sailor among the hardened crew. Privately, she finds solace in her friendships with Kauri, a quiet but steadfast Maori harpooner, and Mr. Hawthorn, the ship's surgeon, who treats her with "fatherly kindness." Guo conveys her protagonist's complex experience of gender in direct and elemental prose as Ishmaelle navigates the "floating life of a half-man half-woman." Equally captivating are passages from Seneca's perspective, in which he rues a betrayal by his wife and reveals the depth of his motivations. Newcomers to Moby-Dick and Melville devotees alike will find much to love.
