Cornflower Book Group - The Solitude of Thomas Cave

   

     1616, and a British whaling expedition to the Svalbard archipelago sees a member of the crew accept a wager to stay alone, throughout an Arctic winter, in that unexplored and inhospitable region. Thomas Cave must have his reasons for taking on something believed to be impossible, and what is behind his assent is gradually made clear as the months draw on and his isolation becomes ever more acute.
    Georgina Harding's The Solitude of Thomas Cave is a book of taut, restrained emotion, sometimes ethereal mood, as often raw, painful truth. It's a still book - still as in a calm sea, but one over which the storm clouds are massing.
    I found it very powerful, partly due to the stark contrast of the vast and pure landscape despoiled by the butchery of the whaling and the concomitant operations: crude, foul, industrial processing, the remains of which are memorably described in one scene as "... heaps of bones with a raucous multitude of gulls still picking and screaming amongst them, milling beneath the great white jawbones like the congregation of the damned beneath the arches of a fallen cathedral", but also because of Thomas' personal story - not just his dogged, methodical modus vivendi, but what led him to those shores, what possessed him to stay there.
    I don't want to give away anything to those who haven't read the book, so I'll be careful what I say here, but I was less taken with the later parts - I couldn't quite see an unbroken path to the end, and what is there is 'muddied' a bit. But that said, while 'haunting' is an over-used word in book review terms, this novel does linger like sea-fret, and I found its spare simplicity drew me in and held me.
   How about you?

Comments

[Dark Puss]

I too found the book rather mixed, in particular I thought the ending unsatisfactory. It isn't easy to make comments if I'm to be bound by Cornflower's request not to give much away, but I'll do my best to respect her wish in what I say here.

The book started with what I feared was going to be a set of stock characters from "Central Casting" and I think that is a weakness. The central character of Cave is much the best written, but his shipmates I felt were somewhat cliched. The writing about the Northern lands and the whale and seal hunting and "processing" are generally excellent and there is a good description of the aurora, the biting cold and the dazzling, deadening, terrifying snow. What Cave is in some real sense trying to escape from I found to be really far too obvious in that I'd guessed what the tragedy in his life was going to be well before we got any hint of it.

Occasionally I was put off, especially at the end of the book, by what seemed to me to be very modern concerns, which I completely share and agree with, of the effects of over fishing and hunting. I have not the background knowledge to say whether there were people in the early 17th C who would have thought in such terms, but it jarred.

Some good lines throughout, Cornflower quotes one here and earlier quoted the one about what a man's diary might be for. It is a good start for a first novel but it promises rather more than at the end it delivers.

[efi]

hello, first of all i would like to introduce myself. i have been a lurker almost from the beginning of this bookclub.i did not have the confidence to voice an opinion as i am not english .i am greek ,i live in north greece and english is not my native language.however i have really enjoyed travelling with you and i feel very lucky having found this blog .thanks karen.
now about this book.i agree with karen and dark puss about the unsatisfactory ending.two things impressed me.the strong protrayal of the artics and the fact that what we fear we carry into ourselves.the importance of keeping rituals in order to stay sane even everything around is against it was another important thing for me. thanks and forgive my eglish mistakes.
efi.

[Barbara MacLeod]

It was a easy, enjoyable read. I came away wondering how many other similar decisions people have made as a result of making a bet with someone. Also, there must be many people who make a bet with themselves in just such a way. For example, I am acquainted with people who are perfectly content in their chosen solitude over a long period, e.g. single-handed sailors, mountaineers who climb 'solo' (and these were in the days before GPS and VHF radios).

On that note, a bit of trivia. The book reminded me of the 2 whaling stations in Scotland that we have anchored near in the past: Bun Abhainn Eadar in North Harris (Outer Hebrides) and Island of Soay (adjacent to Skye). The former was the remains of a Norwegian base that Lord Leverhume tried unsuccessfully to regenerate (1918-23) and the latter was a shark whaling station run (unsuccessfully) by Gavin Maxwell (late 1940s).

[Cornflower]

Efi, I think you are brave to join in when this is not your native language, but your comments on the book are very well made, and you are most warmly welcomed!! Thankyou.

[Anne]

I was drawn to reading this book by its unusual subject.I know very little about whaling and the Artic in the early 17th Century and I probably expected more information,in fact I was quite glad it wasn't too "technical".
I did however almost stop reading the book when I came upon the flaying of the baby seal. This barbaric act again happening later on in the book which I felt was more poignant as we had read how the seals reacted when Thomas played his violin.
The initial part when Thomas was left along at first and he tries to set up a routine promises more than really happens.
Yes I , too felt that I had a good idea what happened in Thomas's life. Nevertheless it's a book I'm glad to have read and will read more by the same other but it seems her next book is entirley different.
Glad to have managed back to the Book Group.

[Mary McCartney]

I was looking forward to this book having been reading recently about silence and solitude (Sara Maitland and Patrick Leigh Fermor, among others)and thought that the author captured pretty well their effects on Thomas Cave. Like Dark Puss, I could see the tragedy coming and I felt too that we were being shown the whaling industry through the prism of modern opinions. I was very much sruck by the passage on the arrival of spring and the image of ice rotting before disintegrating into porridge and slush was especially graphic! Although I thought the book had flaws I found it was indeed haunting.

[blackbird]

I don't think that it's a book that I will forget. The amazing setting and the lonely story both seem to cast their spell but I think that each reader may be moved by different parts.

I found much of the book to be fairly predictable but that didn't take away from the telling of the story. I had the feeling that the parts set in England were almost vibrant with color and the parts alone in the Arctic were more shades of silver, grey and white. It's almost as if the time spent with his wife was more real and savored when he remembered it than it was at the time.

It didn't bother me that the other characters in the book weren't very developed. To me, it reflected a time in history where there weren't a lot of individual stories. What I mean is that there weren't a lot of options- ways to improve or alter your life. Life was usually short and often full of danger for both men and women. You were born into a place and position and you did the best you could. So, why not take a wager?

I agree that the hunting and processing scenes were difficult and reflected a modern perspective. When he hunted on his own for food to survive, the tone was more respectful. One thing that struck me from the book was the length of darkness in the Arctic winter. I remember reading a viking saga about a king who hid his fear of the dark. Living in the city, it's not often that I find myself in a place where there is no light but it is unsettling. It's hard for me to imagine living in it for four months.

[claire]

I also think the predictability deterred a little from my enjoyment of the book, and I particularly wanted the story to have focused more on Thomas's daily struggles. I was actually expecting to read more extensively on his activities and non-activity during his solitude, but was a little disappointed as to how it was mostly flashbacks to his past. I thought the ending was unnecessary. Over all, however, I did like it and thought the place and atmosphere was very well-drawn by the author. I just wish there had been more about Thomas's solitude.

[Lindsay]

I bounded to the keyboard full of exciting comments on the Cornflower monthly book, as I read it last night. Unfortunately, I don't think they'd be welcome, as I read Tragedy At Law, which I see is

next
month's book! Ah, well - but just one challenge - I spotted the guilty party about half way through; can you do better?

I think I should read this book, though. I love the far north (and south) and enjoyed visiting Svalbard a few years ago. Those who enjoyed it might like MacDonald Harris' The Balloonist which I reviewed at http://booksdofurnisharoom.typepad.com/books_do_furnish_a_room/2009/05/balloonists-warm-hearts-and-cold-seas.html

[Mr Cornflower]

Inventive premise, excellent descriptions - clearly the author has done her homework - but the characterisation was rather uneven and the plot creaked a bit. Joins a small but select group of whaling-themed novels.

[Loretta]

This book is a real find. Harding has presented a wonderful and believable picture of solitude, a solitude both spiritual and full of people, in the form of memory. The ending, when he is in England and is believed to be someone with “the power to drive out devils” was somewhat problematic for me. I felt the story became somewhat contrived at that point and I would have been happier if the book had let his experience in the Arctic be more internal and understated, as it was until the end.

[Susie Vereker]

Sorry I missed this one, Cornflower. Forgot to buy it before my Adalucia hols. Not entirely sure, from the above interesting reviews, that it would be my cup of tea as e.g. I don't like the sound of 'processing', but I'll probably give it a go.