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Just finished reading Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund, and was quite taken with the rich story the author weaves about the life of Una, very briefly mentioned in Moby-Dick. How could you not love a book that begins, "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last."
I marked a couple of passages to share with you:
(Ahab speaking) "Beware the treachery of words, Mrs. Sparrow. They mean one thing to one person and the opposite to another. They are like all conventional, land-born habits. Words seem to be well-woven baskets ready to hold your meaning, but they betray you with rotted corners and splintered stays."
And, for lovers of alliteration: "S is the sound of the sea. Her surge and suck, her spray and surf. Sometimes she seethes. She knows the sound of smooth. With her s, the sea marries the shore, and then there is scamper and slush in the sand. With curling s's the sea rises to stroke the side of her superior, the sky, who loves and meets her in the s of spray, spawned in liquid and air."
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Pooh-Bah
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Two excellent passages! The first is so true - most of my domestic rows have been occasioned by exactly that treachery of words! As a decidedly passionate lover of alliteration, the second is very appealing - there is something special surrounding the sound of "S", isn't there? It is certainly one of the easier letters to use for alliteration - is, by any chance, the most common initial letter? or possibly the most common sound? No doubt someone will tell me where to LIU! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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alliteration of "S"Well Rhuby...here you go! What hasssss it got in itsssss pocketsssss? --Gollum
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Howya Rhubarb
....the most common initial letter? or possibly the most common sound?
I refute yer idea and I am writen a little note ta ya, ta try ta prove that I might be right and you could be wrong about yer theory on the nineteenth letter of the alphabet. I wonder how far I can go without printen that letter.
Oh dear, I think that I am runnen out of...er..er...that thing that water would turn ta, if it were ta attain boilen point...
I think I have wrote enuff fer now, but mabee it would be fun ta determine how far ya could go without employen a particular letter of the alphabet (includen phonetically). What do ya think? Naturally, not every letter would qualify - I refer particularly ta the twenty fourth letter, and there may be another one of two.
By the way - I know yer talken about a novel (but I'd like ta get my one fiftieth of a dollar in) - I think Gregory Peck played the part in the film very well and I think he did a good job in intertrepen the character. He performed well in "Ta Kill a Mocken Bird" too. Fer the record - both of the men he played had a name that began with an A.
GallantTed
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Just finished reading Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund, and was quite taken with the rich story the author weaves about the life of Una,
Sounds good Nancyk but before embarking on a 700 page 110 chapter journey it would be nice to know a little more about it, would you share? ( in checking the URL's I get the feeling that no one has really read this book. One reviewer said that it would take a small book to review it.)
As for you Gallant Ted, If Nancyk will permit, I will post on this thread a review of "Ella Minnow Pea" by Mark Dunn. This wordnerd can write chapter after chapter using only four or five letters of the alphabet.
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Milum, isn't there some book written (in english) without the letter "e"? [which is far the most common letter, roughly 13-14% of a typical text-sample]
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Re: milum's "700 page 110 chapter journey"Something unanticipated that came out of my book club's discussion of Ahab's Wife was the numerical significance of page numbers and major illustration plates. We decided it was no accident that it has 666 pages and has 13 full-page illustration plates. One of the major themes of the book is the main character's refusal of her father's religious fervor, and there's probably some scholarship out there affirming the intentional use of numerology to reinforce that point. I got the book for Christmas two years ago, and just finally got around to reading it about 6 months ago. I loved it, I passed it along to my mom, and she loved it too... some people in the book club got impatient with it, but I assured them that they hadn't properly assumed willing suspension of disbelief. Besides, I just read In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick, which provides a non-fiction account of one of the major happenings in Ahab's Wife, and Sena Jeter Naslund did her research. I was surprisingly impressed with the whole kit & kaboodle, particularly considering that reading Moby Dick in high school was tantamount to torture.  I never thought I'd say this, but I might just have to read it again. 
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"La Disparition" is a French novel of complex intrique by George Perec, written without using the letter "E". It was published in France in 1969 and translated into English, as "The Void", by Gilbert Adair in 1995.Thanks, Davenport Public Library! http://www.rbls.lib.il.us/dpl/FAQletterE.htmOooh! Even better! Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright appears to be a contender in the "originally written in English" category! And the full text is online... hyperlink at the bottom of this page: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/eprime.htm
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I still haven't read either A Void[sic] or EMP yet, but. http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=46859Cool on Gadsby, Fbabe! I hadn't heard of that one. [hurrying off to look] Also, Sparteye started a cool  thread on suchlike. Maybe we can resurrect it? [gone for the weekend, but I'll be b-a-a-c-k!]
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book club's discussion of Ahab's Wife
Sounds as if your book club delves much more deeply into its books than mine does, Fiberbabe! I intend to recommend Ahab's Wife as our next selection and it'll be interesting to see how the comments compare. Although I remarked on the 666 pages, I never thought to count the illlustrations - very astute!
I did, however, come away with the same feeling about Moby Dick - I want to reread it to see how the details in Ahab's Wife might provide a fresh perspective, particularly on Ahab, but also on the other characters.
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milum, I guarantee the if you enjoy well-written, original novels, you will enjoy this one. As Fiberbabe mentioned, some readers might get impatient, but the book is so well researched and so internally cohesive that it's well worth the journey. As for the suspension of disbelief - yes, necessary if you are to accept that one person (Una), a woman, particularly at that time, can have all the dramatic and sometimes shocking experiences detailed in the book.
Naslund's characters all come alive within the context of Una's life - you really do care about them and want to know more than you're given. Definitely not an easy book to summarize in a review.
BTW, am very interested in "Ella Minnow Pea." Recently gave it to a proofreader friend for her birthday. Have not yet read it myself but the idea of it intrigues me no end.
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ELLA MINOW PEA
-Mark Dunn
ISBN:0-9673701-6-7
Predisposition of reviewer:
This book seemed to be right down my alley. The subtitle- a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable, said it all- a word game within the content of a novel that uses as a device a series of letters like Flowers for Algernon or The Diary of Anne Frank. The library took so long in processing this book after they received it I almost went out and bought the darn book myself. I was eager.
The Cover:
Nice cover; shiny bright green with a picture of a pod with five brown and yellow peas.
The Story:
Sometime in the late nineteenth century an
island off the South Carolina coast became disenchanted with the ways of mainland and so withdrew from South Carolina and the
Union of States and formed their own country. It was such a small island that nobody cared. Strangely, somewhat like the ersatz country of Awad, the raison d’existence of this tiny republic was the preservation of good language and words.
The as-they-became, nollopians named their new country Nollop, after Nevin Nollop the creator of the famous pangram the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The Nollopians, like the Mormons were ruled by elected Elders, and like the Amish they disdained the use of some modern conveniencies and communicated by writing letters to each other much as we do here at Awad except they continued the nineteenth century tradition of letter writing by being ever-so-kind and polite. Here, comparisons with Awad end. Anu created his monster and then left town. Nevin Nollop never knew he had a monster to create.
One day a “Z” fell off the statue of Nellop. The Elders being Elders decided that this was a sign from Nellop and so banned the “Z” from nellopian communication. Punishment for using a “Z” in a letter or sign was (a) public humiliation and then (b) banishment, under the threat of death. This was no real problem at first, all you do is spell zebra with a S, but two days later an “E” fell off. And so forth, the glue, you see, was faulty.
The Good, The Bad, The Bland : The book is a quick read -two hours tops. Mark Dunn is a gifted letter writer and a wordpuzzlemaster equal to the studied skill of this board. Therein lies the problem. The book is a one-trick pony, or maybe a two-trick if you count the ending. A story set perfectly for an examination of the nature of the absurdities of those who rule, deterioates into the story of a writer trying to write his story with progressively fewer and fewer letters of the alphabet. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what the hell, thinks the reader, resisting the urge to skip the harder and harder to read clever constructions and go straight to the end.
**********
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Douglas Hofstaeder wrote a marvellous book about language, translation and many other things - "Le ton beau de Marot" (it's written in English, so don't worry!). He includes a section on passages which omit certain common letters (in English, French and German, I think). Highly recommended for any linguaphile!
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Highly recommended for any linguaphile!
As is your attendance here... so WELCOME Boronia! Have a sweet time...
Hev
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I am not only a linguaphile, but also a chromophile -- so thanks for your colourful welcome, Hev!
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We are fast becoming hevophiles, and look forward to future boroniaphilication. Welcome a-board, ya!
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thanks to you, too, K, for your welcome - what a friendly crew - I'll try not to bore on ya all
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