The North Water, by Ian McGuire

So I finally read the North Water.  I had recommended it some time ago as it was well reviewed and a top NYT Book Review pick last year.  There's a separate discussion to be had here about knowledge from second-hand sources versus first-hand reading, which can be recapitulated in many other activities, such as sports commentators/athletes, film critics/film makers, etc.  Generally, the former aren't as highly regarded because they lack an 'authentic' connection to their material.  Exception:  'expert' political analysis doesn't require one to have been a politician.  

So, The North Water.

The author creates a horrific historical world.  Horror is a prevailing mood--it's a whaling past filled with blood and gore and old time phrases which helps you think you're reading some old journal of the time.  At one point there's a sly technique where the protagonist Sumner seems to be remembering an incident, but it turns out to be a dream.

Unfortunately, the plot and theme aren't equal to the detailed world-building or literary technique.  The story begins as a fast-moving propulsive thriller, but eventually loses steam when the antagonist Henry Drax exits the narrative, and further on we're bogged down when Sumner is rescued after bear hunting and spends some time recovering with the priest. (The plot becomes far fetched there as Sumner keeps pursuing the bear.)  Psychological realism is important and the ball is dropped here with such a difference between pre and post rescue Sumner, by the way.  I think a source of the thematic muddle is the detailed nature of the world-building, in part, and allowing the characters to 'tell their own story' as some writer workshop techniques advocate.  (Maybe it's inevitable that for a great novel, you can have two of the three:  strong characters, strong plot, strong theme.)  Personally, I like the strand of storytelling which restates Balzac's notion that behind every fortune is a crime.  However, there's a religious or mystical strand here ("There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.") which centers upon the Otto character and his recurrent visions, which largely come true, juxtaposed with Sumner's atheist disbelief.

Henry Drax is a memorable villain, but also somewhat implausible--it's hard to see such a man who characterizes himself as 'impulsive' and who has presumably committed a number of crimes take so long in his life to conveniently achieve his comeuppance during the course of this story.

On a larger point, the book is an entry point for a discussion about realism in the historical novel, and the extent to which that can be achieved, or is desirable.  I am reminded here of Foucault and the use of discourse in history.  Maybe this 'history' tells us more about our perceptions of life today than 'real' history--this book is precisely the opposite of a romanticized past, and these days the 'real' is often associated with the gritty or nasty.  The North Water seems realistic, but of course it's not, and that which seems realistic today will seem stylized tomorrow.  As an entertainment, the 'realism' quality isn't that important, just so long as the world is sufficiently diverting.