I just finished reading this tonight. I felt like it was at last time to regain a little control in my book selection process while keeping Mallory's role as book chooser because she has enjoyed doing it for me. So I chose four books off of my bookshelf and then had Mallory choose my book from only those four. She chose The Sea Wolf "because it has a wolf in it." For those keeping score at home, she has chosen my last two books based on witches and wolves. I haven't decided yet if I should be concerned about this.
Anyway, to the book. It was great. I really, really liked it. When Mallory said she chose this book because it has a wolf in it, boy did it ever. Wolf Larsen, captain of The Ghost to be exact. What a great character, one of my favorites. He rivals Captain Ahab from Moby Dick in the crazy ship captain department. His character was so interesting through having the combination of a super sharp intellect and ferocious behavior. The main character and narrator, Humphrey Van Weyden, was a great character as well. How he came to be a sailor on The Ghost, his interactions with Wolf Larsen, and his overall growth throughout the book are all very interesting and well done by Mr. London. I liked the whole book overall, but definitely enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half. I was lost with a lot of nautical terminology at parts but appreciated it nonetheless because it made it feel authentic.
This was my second Jack London book that I have read and I have enjoyed both. I own no more Jack London books so I will have to be on the lookout for another from him for future reading because I really like the way he writes. He is a great storyteller.
Three quotes:
Referring to Wolf Larsen who was at the time in a depressed mood: "I... knew this man's sadness as the penalty which the materialist ever pays for his materialism."
"Fire is fanned by the wind until it leaps up fiercely. So is desire like fire. It is fanned, as by a wind, by sight of the thing desired, or by a new and luring description or comprehension of the thing desired."
"After all, I thought, it is better and finer to love than to be loved, if it makes something in life so worth while that one is not loath to die for it."
No comments:
Post a Comment