Movie Theater SH Book Club #7 (May)

[Arch]

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex</span>
By Nathaniel Philbrick</span>

Ever wonder where Melville got his idea from for <span style="font-style: italic">Moby Dick</span>? Now you know. This book was recommended to me through another book club on another forum and I look forward to reading it. Here is a little BOOK REVIEW to whet your appetite.

 

[Arch]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

I am in the middle of a couple of books, but I am going to open and start this one tonight. Check out the review above if you are at all interested.

By the way, I picked up the book for a dollar, and you know how much that is worth these days...

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

A-Libris, a source for books.

(Don't know what happened to the original link, this is a different source).

 

[Queequeg]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

41,

You magnificent Bastard, I read your book!

Well, this month's recomendation anyway

.

I'm a big fan of the genre, you know scrimshaw, parmacetti, ambergris, coconut bras, blubber, etc...

If I can find it, under all the clutter, I'll read it along with you folks again. It is a great book many of you, for whom endurance under extremely trying circumstances is more than a "concept", will relate to.

 

[Blackstone]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

Greg,
Your link worketh not.

 

[Arch]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

A superb compliment, having been in 2/4. God Bless.

 

[Arch]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

I would difficult to believe that anyone here would not like this book. I have never been to Nantucket but I am getting a superb history of the island starting out, and an insightful look at a basically pacifist people (Quakers) whose every waking moment (and possibly their dreams) is tied to their 'bloodlust' for the whale . If you have ever read Moby Dick, things and people in that book will become more vividly clear. Great read.

 

[Shady_Jay]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

I'm more into space aliens and explosions.

 

[Queequeg]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

Just about 4/5ths through it again. It really is amazing what these people endured, even before the main theme of the book occurs.

The whale ships were floating factories. Vessels under sail, laden with the equipment and supplies necessary for two to three years of circumnavigation of the world's oceans in search of Sperm whales. This particular ship, the Essex, left Nantucket with 21 men aboard.

The work load and perils were enormous and the remuneration for it was unimaginably meager.

Then there were the several down sides!

 

[Arch]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

Pretty much cleared it last night except for the end notes. Briefly, it was interesting to learn about Nantucket, and Quakers, whales and the various influences on society and vice versa. I have always been fascinated by wooden sailing ships and the ocean, not to mention the classic by Herman Mellville, which was directly attributable to this story.

I like the fact that he draws the story together from mostly primary sources. I would have liked more detail in the chase and harpooning phase, and perhaps more information about the process on the other end....the processing of the oil and it's movement to the biggest consumer(s). I did not like the mistake he makes in the cannabilism discussion, attributing a more recent case to a soccer team in the Andes. Heck, those people are afraid to pick the ball up and run with it and everyone knows it is ruggers that eat their dead.

This is a very good book, and part of American history that would keep any reader interested. I recommend that if you pick it up, keep a very large container of cool water nearby as you work through it. You are going to get thirsty. If you want a real challenge. Skip meals for 2 days before getting to the second half, and then keep a warm chicken leg beside you as you get toward the end. There are a lot of things a man might say he would never do, and then he does them in order to stay alive. It might not ever happen to you but it is still a good lesson to be stored back there somewhere in your cranial hard drive.

 

[Queequeg]

Re: SH Book Club #7 (May)

The thoroughness of the endnotes is testimony to the author's detective work and his love of the subject matter. That he is an artful author makes the book that much more outstanding.

There is much to learn of the people of that era, that little community and its yin and yang contradictions. That the conditons in American society at the time would encourage any man to volunteer for such perilous service suggest the work options most Americans face today are hardly as onerous as they very were around 1820.