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The North Water A Novel Ian McGuire Books

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The North Water A Novel Ian McGuire Books

I thought about reading this book, particularly after the New York Times named it as one of the top 10 books of 2016. However, I decided it wasn't for me. Fortunately, a good friend told me that he'd had the same reaction but read it anyway and loved it. I'm so grateful that he gave me the recommendation. Even though it's not what I'd normally think of as "my kind of book", I was dazzled.

The North Water is not a pleasant book to read. McGuire describes a Hobbesian world in which some people just take what they want without ever thinking of or caring about the consequences. (One of the many things that make this book so intriguing is that the Hobbesian greed is not limited to one social class or even nationality; evil penetrates into many places in McGuire's world.) However, his writing is dazzling; he creates a world of 19th Century whaling that is much more real than that of Melville (at least what I remember of Melville). Each location in which the book takes place, whether it's the bowels of a whaling ship, an ice floe subject to being destroyed by a glacier or the library of an English upper class scoundrel, is so real that you can practically smell it. His characterizations are deep and utterly believable, and his dialogue, which uses more foul language than I can recall seeing in many a moon, is entirely genuine. These and other factors make The North Water intense and entirely credible.

And let's not forget the plot. It too is brilliant and multifaceted; a mystery, a survival (sort of) story, a great sea yarn, and a tale of financial fraud. It's a constant page turner with the difference that I relished each page and found that in some ways the book went too quickly -- but only in the sense that I so loved his writing that I wish it could have gone on a bit more.

If you have thought about reading it but decided it was not your kind of book, think again; yes, it's bleak, but it's brilliant and deserves your attention.


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The North Water A Novel Ian McGuire Books Reviews

Critics have written favorable comparison to Conrad ("Lord Jim") and Melville ("Moby Dick") both of which I've read and admired. Ian McGuire goes for it right out of the gate with "Behold the man." ("Call me Ishmael.") In this case Sumner is our Ishmael and Lord Jim all rolled into one. Big white mammals play prominently in both North Waters and Moby Dick and I will leave it at that. The transformation of Sumner over the course of the story provides the sense of time and evolution. Another literary comparison I would add is Shakespeare's "Tempest" and specifically the character of Calban vis a vis Henry Drax. More animal than human. The books grabs your attention (by the bollocks?) from the beginning and doesn't relent until the perfect ending.
The year is 1859 and the whaling industry, once a thriving and profitable business is dying. “We killed them all,” complains a whaling ship owner referring to the whales—in thirty years of excessive hunting and killing. Petroleum and coal is the future, he declares. None the less, his ship, the Volunteer, is about to set sail on a six-month voyage, headed toward northern waters—the area where whales are still most likely to be found, although far from abundant. Such is the time period of Ian McGiuire’s fascinating and very dark novel, The North Water (2016), long listed for the Man Booker Prize.

McGuire paints a vivid and bleak picture aboard the Volunteer. Just as an arboretum and botanical garden produce things of beauty, the area of London in which some of the whalers that board the Volunteer lurk before shipping out and the Volunteer itself rapidly becomes a petri dish that facilitates the growth of sordidness, evil, murder, and worse—all magnified by the true and villainous purpose of the voyage of the ship kept secret from most of the crew—all of whom fall victim to a scheme they know nothing about as well as the perfidy of some of those aboard ship.

McGuire takes a realistic approach to his entire novel and it is carefully crafted throughout, containing the finest of language choices. Everything about The North Water the settings, the times, the action, the characters and dialogue, and the many plot twists all jump from the page and pull the reader into the world of a whaling ship. The North Water, however, is no mere sea adventure.

With the decline in profits for those working in the whaling industry comes a decline in character for those still willing to risk their lives on the open seas. McGuire wastes no time in painting a stark portrait of many of his characters in Dark Water—men, for the most part, who are not heroic figures of courage and stamina, but scoundrels with notorious pasts and equally abhorrent presents who make little effort to hide their true nature. It is McGuire’s character development who they are, what they are, and what they do that is the most gripping aspect of the novel. One expects men engaged in such laborious work that takes them far from home for long stretches to be out of the ordinary, hardened, and insensitive to many aspects of life. “If you are seeking persons of gentleness and refinement, Sumner, the Greenland whaling trade is not the place to look for them,” cautions the captain of the Volunteer. The majority of the men aboard the Volunteer, however, are even worse.

Soiled reputations and secrets abound among the crew. Captain Brownlee, with thirty years of command under his belt, is “notable for his fearsome ill luck,” having been the commander of the Percival, a whaling ship that went down with loss of life, multiple injuries, and loss of cargo. The ship’s surgeon, Patrick Sumner, is on the run from his past after having served in India and having partaken in a most unethical and unfortunate incident. His refuge is not only to board the Volunteer accepting a position far below his skill level, but from the laudanum bottle. First Mate Cavendish is a “whoremonger” who lords his authority over the crew. The head harpooner, Henry Dax, carries with him even darker secrets. Each of these men play pivotal roles in the novel and as the ship heads further north into more and more dangerous waters filled with glistening ice, chunks of which become of greater size and magnitude, nature itself becomes an awesome, uncontrollable player as well.

Repugnant and amazing events begin to take place quickly after the Volunteer takes to the sea and event piles upon event in rapid succession that will hold the reader spellbound. McGuire’s storytelling is above reproach. By mid-novel, the crew “fear worse is yet to come, and they would rather reach home with empty pockets but still breathing than end up sunk forever below the Baffin ice.” Turning back is not an option, nor part of the plan, however.

Any novel dealing with whaling in the 1800s is bound to have allusions to Herman Melville’s immortal classic, Moby Dick (1851) and The North Water is no exception. The descriptions of men in small boats pursuing and killing giant behemoths in the open sea are white-knuckle reading material. Melville’s respect for both the animals and the men that hunt them are obvious as they are in McGuire’s work in spite of the insidious nature of some of his characters. Melville’s inclusion of the mystical and dreams also make its way into The North Water. The most obvious comparison between The North Water and Moby Dick will not go unnoticed by readers familiar with the American landmark novel.

The North Water contains credible and vivid scenes of violence, the horrors of trying to survive in a most hostile environment, and for some, a handful of stomach-turning moments when it comes to bodily functions and physical injuries and within keeping faith to the novel’s tone and authenticity.

In some ways the conclusion of The North Water is inevitable, but McGuire’s use of suspense and exceptional plotting of his story leaves readers with no certainty as to exactly what will happen until the final page is reached. Readers who appreciate good storytelling and literature, especially with a historical setting, will be hard pushed to find a finer, recent novel than The North Water to satisfy their reading needs.
Well, let me make this simple. If Ian McGuire was determined to outdo "The Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, he came close except, in this case, the ship goes into the horrors ("the horror! the horror") of the Arctic. It is an amazingly dark novel with the most vivid descriptions of characters (you would never want to ever meet) in place (would would never, never want to go.) It will become a classic!
I thought about reading this book, particularly after the New York Times named it as one of the top 10 books of 2016. However, I decided it wasn't for me. Fortunately, a good friend told me that he'd had the same reaction but read it anyway and loved it. I'm so grateful that he gave me the recommendation. Even though it's not what I'd normally think of as "my kind of book", I was dazzled.

The North Water is not a pleasant book to read. McGuire describes a Hobbesian world in which some people just take what they want without ever thinking of or caring about the consequences. (One of the many things that make this book so intriguing is that the Hobbesian greed is not limited to one social class or even nationality; evil penetrates into many places in McGuire's world.) However, his writing is dazzling; he creates a world of 19th Century whaling that is much more real than that of Melville (at least what I remember of Melville). Each location in which the book takes place, whether it's the bowels of a whaling ship, an ice floe subject to being destroyed by a glacier or the library of an English upper class scoundrel, is so real that you can practically smell it. His characterizations are deep and utterly believable, and his dialogue, which uses more foul language than I can recall seeing in many a moon, is entirely genuine. These and other factors make The North Water intense and entirely credible.

And let's not forget the plot. It too is brilliant and multifaceted; a mystery, a survival (sort of) story, a great sea yarn, and a tale of financial fraud. It's a constant page turner with the difference that I relished each page and found that in some ways the book went too quickly -- but only in the sense that I so loved his writing that I wish it could have gone on a bit more.

If you have thought about reading it but decided it was not your kind of book, think again; yes, it's bleak, but it's brilliant and deserves your attention.