Title: Abundance
Author: Sena Jeter Naslund
I loved Sena Jeter Naslund's novel Ahab's Wife, so I went into Abundance with high expectations. Those who are familiar with Moby Dick know that Una, the wife of Captain Ahab, was a very bit player in the original novel. But Naslund expanded on the story and told a beautiful tale of the strong women married to New England whalers. Although there was quite a bit of research about whaling communities and she used Moby Dick as her inspiration, most of the story was of her own making. In Abundance, Naslund didn't have as much inventive freedom. We know more about Marie Antoinette than we do about virtually any other woman of the eighteenth century. So I was worried that the novel would either fall flat, or be a simple recitation of the many biographies written about Marie Antoinette. What saved Abudance is the way that Naslund got into Marie Antoinette's head. When we read Ahab's Wife in a book group a few years ago, several women complained that Una seemed too strong and too modern to be a realistic portrayal of a nineteenth-century woman. But Naslund's Marie Antoinette wasn't a twenty-first century feminist in a wig and a corset. Instead, I feel like I had a better understanding of Antoinette's own faults and her strengths. Although she's popularly vilified (and misquoted) as being the queen who "let them eat cake," Naslund portrays her as an eager-to-please princess, a frustrated snubbed wife, and a woman who matures and loves fiercely as a mother.
2 comments:
I too loved Ahab's Wife, but was totally disappointed with Abundance. I didn't (and still don't) know a lot of back story on Marie Antoinette, but I just couldn't relate to how forgiving she was with her husband and his inability to consummate their marriage. She tried too hard to please everyone, which didn't seem authentic at all to me.
It makes me sad, because I count Ahab's Wife as one of my favorite books and have read it multiple times, and yet Abundance and another of her books, Four Spirits, I've started but never finished. I wonder why some authors are unable to follow up their initial success with another really great book. I don't expect an author to pump out the same book over and over, but I hope to get that same level of engagement that I got from their first novel from their subsequent writing. I haven't found that from Naslund's other novels.
Now, how do you read so much when you not only have 4 little ones, but are training for a marathon? I thought I read a lot, but your multiple book reviews make my reading pale in comparison. ;)
I ignore my kids, lol.
Honestly, though, I read for about an hour every night at bedtime. And during the baby's nap and my toddler's quiet time. My dh works a lot of nights so when I'm home alone in the evenings, I usually read rather than watch tv (at least in the summer, when there's nothing good on).
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