Moby-Dick

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick: or The Whale. Oak Park, IL : Top Five Books 2026. (originally published 1851). Print.

First Sentences:

Call me Ismael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear or every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to the sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

Description:

Please do not be afraid of taking on Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: or The Whale. I know, I know, there are many reasons to avoid this masterpiece of literature and history. 

• Too long (600+ pages with 135 (short) chapters); 
• Too much whale info (from species differences to killing to processing to the value/use of spermaciti); 
• Too difficult a language (in 1850s style, why use one adjective and a short sentence when ten adjectives in a 50-word sentence works even better?); 
• Too much symbolism (everything comes in three's, too religious, fate vs. free will, etc.); 
• Too tragic (obsessive, vengeful doomed captain vs. maniacal, equally vengeful whale); 
• I simply don't have the time and don't care about this book.

But you will be denying yourself one of the greatest work of historical fiction ever created. You would want to at least give such an immersive novel a chance, wouldn't you? I thought as much so keep reading. 

 

To warm you up, I have included several more opening sentences above, more than just the first words of this novel. After all, who doesn't know "Call me Ishmael," probably one of the familiar opening three words in literature? 

 

But you need to notice and absorb the rest of these enticingly rich, revealing opening sentences to get a sample of what lies ahead. What you are presented with immediately are the evocative, highly-personal musings of the narrator, Ishmael, as he contemplates his current lack of funds, boredom with life, thoughts of death, the growing dominance of his "hypos," along with a weakening "moral principal" which prevents him from "knocking people's hats off," and his growing attraction to "pistol and ball" to end his life. 

 

To address his musings, Ishmael turns to his usual remedy: he takes to sea and impulsively joins the crew of the Pequod whaling ship.

 

Thus Melville introduces the character whose role is to observe and relate his tale to any land-lubber readers unfamiliar with a seaman's life and whaling. From his first musings and descriptions of the world and people around him, Ismael reveals his serious eye for detail and contemplation, a masterful use of language, and even some humor. He becomes an ordinary man on board a whaling ship in the 1850s among a company of shipmates with distinctive personalities. In these first sentences, we are given a penetrating picture of this thoughtful character.

And his fellow Pequod crew members are all under the leadership of captain Ahab who, Ishmael soon discovers, only took on the captaincy of this whaling ship so he could pursue and take vengeance on Moby Dick, the white whale that chewed off Ahab's leg on a previous voyage. Collecting valuable spermaieti from whales, the PequodI's investing owners' goal, would be only a secondary task to Ahab and his crew.

 

Here are the main characters:

• Ishmael (narrator) - "A simple sailor";
• Quequeeg (harpooner) - A heavily tattooed Islander who could hit a spot of tar across the ship deck with his harpoon (which he shaves with), and a friend to Ishmael;
• Starbuck (First Mate) - Voice of reason who tries to convince Ahab to abandon his quest of vengeance;
• Stubb (Second Mate) - Happy-go-lucky, pipe-smoking officer who enjoys eating raw whale meat; 
• Flask (Third Mate) - "A short, stout, ruddy young fellow...who somehow seemed to think that the great leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him";
• Fedallah (Ahab's harpooner) - Parsee (fire-worshiper) and predictor of the future; 
• Ahab (Captain) - Glowering, facially scarred, peg-legged, tragically-driven, vengeful leader of the voyage and crew.

  

We all know the story of Moby Dick and its tragic ending, so I won't re-tell it here. But beyond the plot, what makes this book fantastic is the depth Melville explores in so many areas. Whether describing the thoughts and actions of Ishmael's crew mates, musing over the roles of Fate vs. Free Will in decision-making, sharing the workings of a real whaling ship and voyage (a significant industry to readers of 1851 when the book was published), and even the cataloging of the different species of whales and harpoons, Melville is the master of observation and encyclopedic knowledge. He intersperses references to Shakespeare and the Bible alongside the history of whaling tools and the men who created and used them. All these inclusions are to support Melville's broad survey of the importance and reality of whaling in the 1850s. 

 

Moby-Dick is not a page-turning thriller although there are many suspenseful situations. It also is not a straightforward story that moves from Point A to Point B clearly and succinctly. If you are looking for a quick distraction, this is not the book for you.

 

Rather, it's as if we, the readers, are placed at a table with a magnificent gourmet feast in front of us. But before we can sample the food, the chef enthusiastically explains the workings behind the meal: from the growing of special crops and meat and their preparation; the people who cultivated and cooked the ingredients; the kitchen layout and utensils employed; the table setting; and even the atmosphere of the room. 

 

While this may sound tedious and frustrating ... "Just let me get on to the food!" you might think ... these vital details reveal the complex world behind the meal, a necessity to fully enhance for the novice diner the gourmet experience and the food itself. Through this chef's concern about presenting these details, we diners come to understand and appreciate the totality of this feast far beyond just the mere consumption of the food. 

 

There are plenty of fast food or even sit-down eating experiences out there if you preger those. No judgment. But Moby-Dick is a "meal" to be contemplated, savored slowly, and appreciated on a variety of levels. If you want a quick bite, an action-based story with everyday characters, you'll not find these in Moby-Dick. 

 

But there is oh, so much more that turns this novel from a hunt for a whale into a higher level that contemplates the battle between predestination, tragic obsession, and commercial whaling. Melville's language is so rich that it cannot be skimmed over. A reader must deliberately slow him/herself down to savor the 19th century words, the layered phrasings, and the concepts possibly unfamiliar to us living 175 years after Melville wrote. 

 

In short, you need to commit yourself to 1850 and life in the whaling industry to fully appreciate and identify with the characters and action of this book just as you would slowly, appreciatively relish each bite of a gourmet dining experience, even if there are courses that are not to your initial liking. It is the entire experience that shines and will stay with you long after the meal is over or the final pages are read.

 

 

 

As an elementary school kid I had repeatedly poured over my Classics Illustrated comic book version of Moby-Dick. (Note: Familiarity with the plots and characters in these 169 graphic interpretations of great novels, e.g. Silas Marner, Pitcarn's Island, Kidnapped, etc., carried me through my English classes in high school, my college BA and Masters in English). Later I had a wonderful high school teacher who took one entire day on the opening sentence of this novel and taught me how to appreciate its enormity. 

 

This month, when I learned that there was a re-release of a 1930 edition of Moby-Dick illustrated by Rockwell Kent, one of my favorites artists (these are his illustrations), I decided it was time to give the novel another, more adult look. Not a glance, not something to be quickly skimmed, but something I really wanted to understand in-depth. And boy, what I ever satisfied.

 

Maybe the 600+ pages is daunting to many readers. Or the language too unfamiliar. Or the diversions in whales, whaling, and the world of 1850 is too tiring to pursue when we have the internet, social media, and the television to captivate us more quickly. 

But I stand here today to highly recommend Moby-Dick  to everyone willing to at least sample, even if only for 50 pages or so, what powerful writing, themes, and stories can be. It will be time well spent, and, if nothing else, something you can brag about to friends and family.

 

[P.S. Those who notice such things may wonder why there is a hyphen in the title, Moby-Dick, but only the unhyphenated name "Moby Dick" is used in the book. No one knows why this is, although the rumor is that Melville's brother changed the proof in the title at the last minute because he liked hyphens, but didn't have time to do so throughout the book. Melville himself used a hyphen in his sea-faring adventure novel, White-Jacket, but really who knows (or cares)?  It's still a fantastic book, with or without a hyphen.]

[P.P.S. Here is a beautiful graphic map to help you understand what happens where and when on the voyage]:   https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/moby-dick-map/

Of course, it gets my Highest Recommendation. Enjoy. And let ne know your thoughts if you do read it or decide to give it a pass. I'm interested.

 

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 DeFoe, Daniel. Robinson Caruso

One man is shipwrecked on a deserted island and make his way along, contemplating the world, his fortune, and his survival until jhe discovers a companion.

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 500 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe

Puertolas, Romain. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe. New York : Knopf 2014. Print.

First Sentences:

The first word spoken by the Indian man Ajatashatru Oghast Rathod upon his arrival in France was, oddly enough, a Swedish word. Ikea

Description:

Well, I'm not going to tell you much of anything about this delightful book except the premise and the factors that send the ensuing actions in motion:

• First, Ajatashatru Oghast Rathod ("pronounced a-jar-of-rat-stew-oh-gosh"  or "a-cat-in-a-bat-suit" among other helpful tips from the author), arrives in Paris with one mission in mind: find the nearest IKEA store, buy a bed of nails for sale at this store which he plans to use in his professional life as an Indian street fakir/con-man/magician), and then take the flight home to India with his purchase the following day. Simple, huh?

• But he falls asleep underneath a bed in the IKEA store until after closing and, to avoid detection, hides in a large display cabinet.

• The cabinet is unexpectedly sealed in bubble wrap by these security men and loaded onto a plane for delivery, never noticing its hidden content, and thus sealed him in.

• The cabinet and he are unloaded in another foreign airport where Ajatashatru's adventure begins as he tries to return to IKEA, make his purchase, and return home. 

To add to his problems, he is pursued by the irate taxi driver who first transported him from the Paris airport to IKEA and found his passenger had paid him with a fake 100 Euro bill. He is out for blood and will follow Ajatashatru wherever he must to get his money and revenge.

 

That's all you get from me. This all happens in the first few pages. If you are still with me, you are a great candidate for this book. Quirky, unexpected, delightful, sympathetic, and romantic escapades follow our hero each one of which he narrowly escapes by luck, the kindness of strangers, or his own wits.

 

Give it a shot. It's a very short book, a good afternoon of reading during the inclement December weather while you recover from the stress of the holidays and the world around you. It's a fun romp, complete escapism, and I loved it.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:]

 

Jonasson, Jonas. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared.

Another book with a lengthy title that traces the travels, people, and experiences of a curious man fed up with his life in a retirement home and decides to seek adventure in the outside world, elephants and all. (Previously reviewed here.)

 Happy reading.

Fred

[P.S. Click here to browse over 490 more book recommendations by subject or title and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader.]

Tracks

Davidson, Robyn. Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback. New York: Vintage. 1980. Print.

First Sentences:

 

I arrived in the Alice at five a.m. with a dog, six dollars and a small suitcase full of inappropriate clothes....A freezing wind whipped grit down the platform and I stood shivering, holding warm dog flesh, and wondering what foolishness had brought me to this eerie, empty training station in the centre of nowhere. 

Description:

With personal challenge and survival memoirs, I always try to imagine whether I could achieve what the author accomplished. Almost always the answer is a resounding "No, not in my wildest dreams." That is even more obvious while reading Robyn Davidson's magnificent journey, Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback.

 

Davidson is just an ordinary Australian-born young woman with no special skills or ambitions...except for a persistent desire to walk across the Australian outback desert, alone, with only camels and her dog as her companions. Yes, that's right. She will walk on foot, not ride the camels, for 1,700 miles, making her "lunatic idea" (her words) even more impossible-sounding.

 

So she takes a train from her home in Queensland to the bleak outback town of Alice Springs, where men are men and women stay home. There she hoped for the first time to actually even see a camel and then learn how to manage them by herself. 

 

She began to work for a domineering man who captured and tamed wild, feral camels that roam the outback. Taking on the lowest position on his ranch, she agreed to work for free in exchange for camel-training experiences and, at the end of eight months, be given three of his camels for her expedition. Not all goes according to this plan, however.

 

Eventually, off she goes, with her two camels, following old desert roads, trails, and open terrain from one feeding spot to another, hoping local information about watering holes is correct and the rumored tiny settlements are still active and places where she can get rest and advice along the way.

I knew [people] all had that sinking feeling that they would never see me alive again, and I had the sinking certainty that I would have to send messages from Redbank Gorge the same day, saying, "Sorry, muffed it on the first seventeen miles, please collect." 

Along with her faithful dog, Diggity, and occasionally a photographer from National Geographic magazine, the source of her funding and eventual article, she slowly walks, gaining rhythm, confidence, and power in her aloneness. Wild, unpredictable camels, numerous hardships, and the vast desert all around her. What could possibly go wrong?

We were breaking camp at four in the morning, walking until ten, resting in the shade until four, then continuing until eight at night....Living on one's nerves and expecting every moment to produce a horrendous catastrophe is one thing -- doing it in 130-degree heat is quite another. Hell must be something like that. 

Along the trek, she encounters wild camels ("If you see one, shoot it first -- immediately" is the advice given her), snakes, dried up water holes, abandoned villages, as well as friendly, generous people and moonlit skies that kept her dream alive.

 

I really enjoyed reading her clear, honest prose as she recounts adventure after challenge, or just the boredom of putting one foot in front of the other mile after mile. It is a powerful, yet simple read, one that should be enjoyable to anyone seeking an insight into the beauties and threats of the Australian Outback desert, and the perseverance of one woman who tries to live in it.

It struck me then that the most difficult thing had been the decision to act, the rest had been merely tenacity....One really could do anything one had decided to do whether it were changing a job, moving to a new place, divorcing a husband or whatever, one really could act to change and control one's life; and the procedure, the process, was its own reward.

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

Harris, Kate. Lands of Lost Borders.   

One woman's quest to trace the route of Marco Polo through China, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, India, and other countries...by bicycle. Wonderful descriptions of her journey, the land, and the few people she encounters in the vast, mostly unsettled mountains of Asia. (Previously reviewed here.)

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 475 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

 

The Racket

Niland, Conor. The Racket: On Tour with Tennis's Golden Generation -- and the Other 99%. Dublin, Ireland: Sandycove (Penguin). 2025. Print.

First Sentences:

 

Behind every successful tennis player is a parent who refused to allow them to quit. I was ten when I first told my folks that I wanted to give it all up. They didn't yield then, and they never did. Tennis was our family business, and the stakes were made clear to me when I was young. 

Description:

I used to play a lot of tennis, from age eight through college and later as a teaching professional internationally. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I had the game, physicality, or mentality to compete on any professional level. Without formal lessons, playing rag-tag survival tennis with "interesting" shots (my Turn-Around-Jump-Reverse-Spin serve comes to mind), I knew early on there were way too many levels above me to delude myself into pursuing a playing career. But teaching tennis was for me a different story, one I could excel at and really loved.

For Conor Niland, an Irish tennis player in the early 1980s through the late 1990s, the professional dream was his reality. At least it was for his parents and subsequently his two older siblings who trained and joined the professional circuit. 

 

Niland's recent autobiography, The Racket: On Tour with Tennis's Golden Generation -- and the Other 99%, relates his ambitious climbs from playing on his backyard court under the stern instruction of his parents, through college in the United States, and then into the Futures Circuit (now ITF World Tennis Tour) for players ranked 500 or lower in the world. 

 

His first goal was to break away from the lowly Futures up into the Challenger Tour (for players ranked 100-500) and ideally into the elite ATP Tour of the top players ranked 1-100. Niland explains that each win in any tourney gave him ATP points, helping improve his ranking and placement in upcoming tournaments. A high enough ranking allowed him to enter the next prestigious level of tournaments with more luxuries, prize money and ATP points available.

I grew to like the atmosphere around the house on the morning of a final, my senses were always heightened. From the moment you woke up, every sound appeared that little bit sharper: the spoon hitting the cereal bowl, the bread popping out of the toaster. Everyone was dressed more smartly, and spoke in a quieter, softer tone.

Junior training had its ups and down for Niland. At twelve, he beat an unknown Roger Federer in straight sets. Later, when training at the Nick Bollettieri IMG Academy for two weeks, he noted that the facility is "a tennis zoo: kids are kept caged in courts all day and fed tennis balls," although the Academy did develop players including Andre Agassi, Monica Seles, Jim Courier, and Maria Sharapova.

His climb from the backyard upward, recounted on a tournament by tournament basis, reveals the trials and tribulations of a young player on his way up (hopefully), the goals he achieves along the way as well as the blown opportunities that might have helped him. His lifestyle and behavior are also laid out as he struggles with decisions faced both on-court and off. He recalls practice hitting sessions or matches with great players like Andy Murray, the Williams sisters, Andy Roddick and many others now lost in tennis obscurity. Along the way, Niland provides astute, fascinating comments about each player. 

It's not exactly right to say that the very top guys like Djokovic hit the ball much harder....But they hit it deeper, right to the baseline, and they do it relentlessly. It doesn't look like a big difference on TV, but that extra foot and a half of depth, over and over, is a killer. This didn't so much put me under pressure as put me under siege.

Traveling 35 weeks a year, he had no time for social relationships with women or player s concentrating on their own struggles to survive. Sometimes he played nine tournaments in ten weeks, flying all over the world from Doha to Chennai to Montreal to Switzerland to Banja Luka and on and on and on.

Expenses are also always in his mind. Can he afford  to pay a coach who could free him from the tedious requirements of finding hitting partners, give him professionals training and advice, and provide companionship as Niland travels weekly from country to country? How can he deal with the pressure of competition, knowing that a win would secure necessary funds and ATP points (not to mention necessities like travel expenses, equipment, and food), while a loss would lower his ranking? 

Along the way he also discusses his encounters with physiotherapists, gambling on matches, banned substances, sideline coaching, tennis parents, qualifying tourneys, wildcard entrances to the main draw, and even food poisoning at an inopportune moment.

 

I was totally involved with Conor Niland's life, his ambitions, his frustrations, and his day-to-day, tournament-to-tournament lifestyle. When he succeeded, I felt elation. When he stumbled (choked?), I honestly felt bad for him, a player I previously had never heard of.

There were matches in my career in which it felt as though what was at stake was not merely qualification, but my identity too....How long was I going to give it? I was going to give it years if it meant getting a few great hours in return.

Highly recommended for an insider's look into the everyday adder to tennis success and the impending slide back down that also awaits every player at every level.

 

[If this book interests you, be sure to check out:] 

  

McPhee, John. Levels of the Game.   

Point by point analysis of the 1978 US Open tennis match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner. McPhee takes readers inside the players' minds as they devise strategies, relish successes, and overcome missed opportunities. Provides the background and personalities which influence each player's shot selection, strategy, and mental game.

 

Happy reading.

Fred

 

Click here to browse over 435 more book recommendations by subject or title

(and read the introduction to The First Sentence Reader).

  

Apple of My Eye

Hanff, Helene. Apple of My Eye. New York: Doubleday 1978. Print.

First Sentences:

On April Fool's Day, I came home from a meeting with a publisher, hurried through my apartment-house lobby and told all the tenants waiting at the elevator:

"I've got the dream assignment of all time! I'm going to write copy for a book of photographs of New York City."

Description:

Sure, author Helene Hanff is rightfully excited to land the plum assignment to write the text for a book of photos of New York City. The pictures will be of the famous sites in the city: the Statue of Liberty, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, the Cloisters, Grant's Tomb, etc.

But there is one problem: Hanff, a born and raised New Yorker, has never visited any of these famous sites. So nothing would do but grab onto her friend Patsy, (someone who also has not seen these destinations) and set out to visit, observe, and take notes on the intriguing aspects of each location. The result of their frantic tour around New York in 1975 is the delightful, insightful book, Apple of My Eye, a tour-de-force that I highly recommend for any one interested in witty writing, overwhelmed tourists, and, of course, New York's iconic attractions.

With little money and no maps (or ones they were unable to decipher), the two women ride buses or walk to take in all the scenery tourists might come across, poking their heads into small restaurants, shops, and historic markers along the way. They refused to ride subways since that underground experience would rob tourists of the views of the city. 

Going from Grant's Tomb to Zabar's was going from the sublime to the ridiculous or from the ridiculous to the sublime, I'll never be sure which.

They are game to see everything, but their acrophobia make them very hesitant to take the elevator to the top of the Statue of Liberty and the new-opened twin towers of the World Trade Center. (It was quite a shock to read about these towers from a New Yorker's perspective in 1975):

Throughout its construction, the World Trade Center was cordially detested by all New Yorkers. The unpopular Rockefeller brothers were so closely involved in the financing that for a while the twin towers were knows as Nelson and David....the financially desperate city didn't need two new 110-story office buildings and couldn't afford to supply them with services.

But later, when they had swallowed their acrophobia and made it to the Tower's Observation Deck, Hanff felt differently:

And suddenly, irrationally, I gloried in the highhanded, high-flying damn-your-eyes audacity that had sent the Trade Center's twin columns rising impudently above the skyline at the moment when New York was declared to be dying, and so deep in debt it couldn't afford workers to dispose of the Center's trash, police its plaza or put out its fires.

Of course, Hanff and Patsy have their differences. Hanff, who has done copious research, constantly quotes "interesting" statistics and detailed stories to a non-listening Patsy, while her friend is constantly worried that Hanff will not include items in the book that might attract tourists. Their dialogue in Battery Park is typical of their back-and-fourth exchanges:

[Hanff] "President Washington," I told Patsy -- though I knew from experience that the minute you start a sentence with "President Washington," everybody stops listening -- "used to stroll here on summer evenings with his wife and the members of the Cabinet..."

[Patsy] Who's on this slab? Did you write him down? Who's on that slab over there? Did you read this one? Write it down. You're not writing anything down....I think you're being very haphazard about this...Somewhere in this book you'd better write: "Everything in this book is half-accurate."

When they drink coffee outside the Metropolitan of Art, Hanff sits with her back to the museum "Which is he only way I will ever consent to sit." You see, Hanff is bitter that the Met takes up space "torn out of Central Park, which does not belong to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it belongs to me. Me and a million other New Yorkers..."

They have judgmental observations about the people of New York as well:

West Siders look dowdy, scholarly, and slightly down-at-heel, and the look has nothing to do with money. They look like what a great many of them are: scholars, intellectuals, dedicated professionals, all of whom regard shopping for clothes as a colossal waster of time.

Witty, informative, personable, and always slyly funny. As a bonus, it's wonderful to see photos from that year of Central Park's model sailboat pond, the cable car over the East River to Roosevelt Island, Grand Central Station, the Metropolitan Opera House, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and yes, sadly, the World Trade Center towers. A wonderful overview of the city to accompany Hanff's text.

Hanff is the author of 84, Charing Cross Road, the epistolary story of her correspondence with a rare book dealer in London as she tries to procure obscure editions of favorite books. She is a very skilled wordsmith, someone you want to listen to forever as she reels off stories, demands, confusion, and self-reflection, all in witty, personable manner that makes you want to hear more and more.

I really love Apple of My Eye, especially since I have spent time in New York City over the past few years. Her descriptions of places I have seen, entered, or at least walked by struck a note that supported the idea that this is a great city during any age. And for anyone not familiar with New York, well, here's your chance to read all about it as you walk along side with Patsy and Hanff in their delightful explorations and observations.

 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Hayes, Bill. Insomniac City.   

Author Hayes, newly moved to New York City after the death of his partner, loves wandering his new city late at night, talking with people, observing the world, and photographing the heart of New York, then sharing his thoughts with us lucky readers. Wonderful. (previously reviewed here)

West with Giraffes

Rutledge, Lynda. West with Giraffes. New York: Lake Union. 2021. Print.

First Sentences:
 

...I'm older than dirt. And when you're older than dirt, you can get lost in time, in memory, even in space. I'm inside my tiny four-wall room with the feeling that I've been...gone. I'm not even sure how long I've been sitting here.

Description:

 

Lynda Rutledge's West With Giraffes is delightful, compelling, romantic, and thrilling novel rooted in actual historic events. The novel depicts a cross-country journey from New York City to San Diego, California during the Great Depression, transporting two giraffes in a small truck. Rutledge brilliantly re-imagines that trip, backing up her narrative with historical news articles which documented the journey at that time and described the fate of the giraffes to the very interested public. 

 

On September 21, 1938, a hurricane hit New York City. Besides the usual destruction, the storm damaged nearby cargo ships, one of which, the SS Robin Goodfellow, was transporting two giraffes, Miraculously, these animals survived, although they had been abandoned as dead during the storm by the freighter's crew when the crates housing them were crushed.

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, now 105 years old, remembers that day and storm as the start of his adventure with the animals, and thus serves as the novel's narrator. As a 17-year-old orphan, Nickel had fled with Dust Bowl dryness of Texas where his family had died. He landed in New York City only a few weeks before the hurricane hit.

 

The giraffes, judged to be healthy after the storm, still need to be transported to the San Diego Zoo in California. Head Zoo Keeper, Riley Jones, gently talks and strokes the crated animals onto the make-shift truck that young Nickel stows away on. He is familiar with animals and, once he is discovered, is given the job of driving the truck and caring for the animals during the long trip.

Along the way, they pick up a young red-haired woman photographer interested in documenting this unusual journey. The giraffes had caught the nation's attention as hurricane survivors, so any accounts of their health and travels, she felt, would be major news.

Of course, the journey is full of surprises. Traveling across America in an old truck with two gangling giraffes was a sight to see for the people of every small town they pass through. And these gentle giants bring a sense of peace and quiet to Riley, Nickel, and Red, the photographer, as they meander over the back roads.

 

But they are pursued by men with more evil intentions. Percival T Bowles, a cruel circus ringmaster, and Cooter, owner of a decrepit roadside animal zoo, both want the giraffes for their own profit. It's up to Riley, Nickel, and Red to thwart these baddies.

 

West With Giraffes is a wonderful read, full of unexpected events, gentle (and not so gentle) characters, descriptions of life during The Depression, and the calming power of  two gigantic beasts on the people and world they encounter. Need a great, quiet, adventurous, can't-be-put-down read? Here's your answer. Highly recommended.

 

Happy reading. 

Fred

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About The First Sentence Reader blog

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

 

Helfer, Ralph. Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived

True story of seven decades in the life of a remarkable elephant and the boy who bonded with him, from the giant's early life as a circus attraction, to his survival and  rescue of the boy during the sinking of a boat, to his work in teak forests and eventual stardom in an American circus. Simply a great read.