Emerson, and the master of the oceanic genre, Joseph Conrad - read his classic "The Open Boat," if you want to shudder at the power of the mighty blue - understood the sea: its sheer might and desolation; the camaraderie among sailors; the randomness of every wave, every current, resulting in a constant state of uncertainty about mere survival.
Andrea Barrett, a 1996 National Book Award recipient, knows the sea, too. In her new novel, "The Voyage of the Narwhal," Barrett has penned an utterly engrossing tale - part adventure, part love story, part poetic oceanic opus - in which the quest for scientific discovery becomes a dangerous obsession. Fusing fact and fiction, the story focuses on Erasmus Darwin Wells, a nineteenth-century scholar-naturalist, and his search for a sea-faring exhibition that is lost in the Arctic.
As Erasmus' ship heads north from Philadelphia on May 28, 1855, the main character yearns for more than just a search-and-rescue operation. After all, the ship is heading into uncharted polar waters. Because of his mission, Erasmus is afforded the opportunity to document unknown species and study the edge of the natural world. But then the Narwhal's northern trek is halted by a massive ice blockage and a rescue story turns into one of horrific survival.
Barrett, along with Caleb Carr, is one of the premiere writers of historically accurate, yet wonderfully gripping creative fiction. "The Voyage of the Narwhal" illuminates the vast dangers of scientific discovery, showing how the egotistical, presumptuous quest for knowledge and name recognition can lead to a whole lot of trouble. Throughout "The Voyage of the Narwhal," Barrett paints a majestic picture of the arctic while exploring her characters' pitfalls of scientific and personal passion.
(Sam Weller)
- The Voyage of the Narwhal
copyright 1998 New City Communications, Inc.