As I mentioned a few days ago I have been reading “Ahab’s Wife” by Sena Jeter Naslund. It’s a monster of a book and I have finished it, much to my despair. I love long books. I get into the story and when they finally end I am so dissapointed. I digress.

It was a great story. There are tales of whaling and sailing interspersed with the Kentucky frontier. The life of one woman is followed as she moves from stage to stage in her life. Woven throughout her stories are the themes of love, faith, freedom, sin and forgiveness.

Naslund also does an incredible job of mixing American literature genres. On one hand she has written an enthralling companion to Melville’s “Moby Dick” full of exciting sailing stories and tales of life on Nantucket in the early 1800’s. The reader’s mind is full of images of huge cresting waves and billowing sails. It is a classic sea story.

Almost seamlessly we are taken inland to Kentucky and we see the author’s devotion to her motherland and to the stories of the land. The strong influence of Harriet Beecher Stow echo through the stories of Kentucky farming, abolition and the lives of runaway slaves. We follow bounty hunters and are treated to the southern slave dialects found crossing the Ohio River. One almost wonders if we will stumble upon Uncle Tom’s Cabin along the way.

Have you read the book yet? If you have, let me know what you thought of it. Haven’t read it yet? (or just heard of it?) go ***here|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688177859/qid=1075071589/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-6832497-9165707*** or to your local library and check it out!