The North Water: A Novel by Ian McGuire (Epub)

Description

Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship’s medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage.

In India, during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which man can stoop. He had hoped to find temporary respite on the Volunteer, but rest proves impossible with Drax on board. The discovery of something evil in the hold rouses Sumner to action. And as the confrontation between the two men plays out amid the freezing darkness of an arctic winter, the fateful question arises: who will survive until spring?

With savage, unstoppable momentum and the blackest wit, Ian McGuire’s The North Water weaves a superlative story of humanity under the most extreme conditions.

User’s Reviews

Review “John Keating is the perfect narrator for this story of redemption amid the brutality of a doomed nineteenth-century whaling trip. Keating’s Irish-accented voice shifts to fit each of the motley characters who populate the book―from the disgraced and opium-addicted surgeon, Patrick Sumner, to his shipmate, the irredeemably evil Henry Drax, and various other sailors. Keating captures the roughness of most of the men as well as the smoother tones of the officers and gentlemen who try to control things. This story includes bravery, cowardice, treachery, death, whales, bears, and friendship. It is by itself a compelling tale; Keating’s performance gives it another dimension and makes it riveting.” –AudioFile –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Review ‘The North Water is brilliant. A fast paced gripping story set in a world where ‘why’ is not a question and murder happens on a whim; but where a faint ray of grace and hope lights up the landscape of salt and blood and ice’ (Hilary Mantel on The North Water )‘The strength of The North Water lies in its well researched detail and persuasive descriptions of the cold, violence, cruelty and the raw, bloody business of whale killing. The Volunteer is rotten from the outset . . . The ship becomes a morally null universe, isolated on the north water. There are echoes here of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness’ (Helen Dunmore, The Guardian on The North Water )‘McGuire delivers not only arresting depictions of bloody destruction, but moments of fine prose that recall Seamus Heaney’s harsh music. For noirish thrills in an unusual setting, McGuire has the goods and the gore’ (Kirkus Reviews on The North Water )‘A dark, brilliant yarn . . . An amazing journey’ (Publishing News on The North Water )‘Ian McGuire’s second novel is an unflinching look at what men do, in extreme circumstances, for money, to survive, or for no reason at all. It has quite a lot in common with TV shows like HBO’s Deadwood and its many descendants (including Peaky Blinders), and . . . it grips like a horror movie. The North Water is self consciously literary, thick with allusions to other books: Moby Dick, obviously; Conrad; Elizabeth Gaskell’s only historical novel, Sylvia’s Lovers; William Golding’s Rites of Passage trilogy; Frankenstein; Dracula; McGuire’s opening sentence is an ironic allusion to John’s gospel but it also recalls the beginning of the novel that The North Water most resembles, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian’ (London Review of Books on The North Water )’Blood, blubber and appalling human violence saturate a tale of a doomed 19th century whaling voyage to the Arctic’ (The Sunday Times on The North Water )’Set in the late 19th century, this is the tale of Patrick Sumner, a former army surgeon who joins a whaler bound for the waters of the Arctic Circle. Why would he take on such a dangerous task? He has a secret to hide. Also worth noting is that Ian McGuire’s vivid novel is full of the smells of Victorian Hull, which include the “morning piss stink of just emptied night jars”, “the usual tavern stench farts and pipe smoke and spilled ale”, “the roaring stench of excrement and decay”; the “residual smell of horse dung and butchery”…I could go on’ (The Times on The North Water )’Prompted by Colm Toibin’s superb review in The New York Times, I lost my Kindle virginity to The North Water, Ian McGuire’s chilling tale of whaling and depravity’ (Madeline Kean, Sunday Independent (Ireland) on The North Water )’This terse and grisly novel about the last days of the whaling industry is joint favourite to win the Man Booker Prize’ (Sunday Telegraph on The North Water)‘Should there be a dark horse on the [Man Booker] list, this is it. Forget slick, cool, funny and topical, this is the kind of book that captures the imagination, this is what fiction is about – the power of story.’ (Irish Times on The North Water)’McGuire approached the telling of his novel with a linguistic panache seldom seen in contemporary British fiction’ (The Irish Times on The North Water )‘Powerful . . . A tale of startling brutality and violence. Undeniably gripping’ (Times Literary Supplement on The North Water)’A stunning achievement, by turns great fun and shocking, thrilling and provocative. Behold: one of the finest books of the year’ (James Kidd, Independent on The North Water )’McGuire delivers one bravura set piece after another . . . The North Water has, in places, a Conrad–Melville undercurrent, but for the most part it is Dickens’s influence that is most keenly felt . . . This is a stunning novel, one that snares the reader from the outset and keeps the tightest grip until its bitter end’ (Financial Times on The North Water )’Horrifically gripping. Such fine writing might have been lifted from the pages of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick’ (Independent on Sunday on The North Water )’Terrific, seamed with pitch black humour and possessed of a momentum that’s kept up to the final, unexpected but resoundingly satisfying scene … Inspired’ (Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail on The North Water )’As a storyteller, McGuire has a sure and unwavering touch, and he has engineered a superbly compelling suspense narrative . . . As a stylist, too, McGuire is never less than assured . . . a writer of exceptional craft and confidence’ (Paraic O’Connell, Irish times on The North Water )’Raw and compulsively readable . . . think The Revenant for the Arctic Circle’ (The Millions on The North Water )’This book is quite a ride . . . The powerful story and the riches of the setting do not romanticise the past’ (Erica Wagner, New Statesman on The North Water )’The North Water has exceptional power and energy’ (Nick Rennison, Sunday Times on The North Water )’A vivid read, full of twists, turns, period detail and strong characters . . . An enjoyable contrast to most literary fiction’ (Robbie Millen, The Times on The North Water )’Brilliant, fast paced, gripping. A tour de force of narrative tension and a masterful reconstruction of a lost world’ (Hilary Mantel on The North Water ) ‘Riveting and darkly brilliant . . . The North Water feels like the result of an encounter between Joseph Conrad and Cormac McCarthy in some run down port as they offer each other a long, sour nod of recognition. McGuire has an extraordinary talent’ (Colm Toibin, New York Times on The North Water )’A novel that takes us to the limits of flesh and blood. Utterly convincing and compelling, remorselessly vivid and insidiously witty. A startling achievement’ (Martin Amis on The North Water )‘Death is the making of The North Water, Ian McGuire’s bloody, gripping novel set in the middle of the 19th century aboard the Volunteer . . . The language has a harsh, surprising beauty that contrasts the spectacular setting with the greedy, bankrupt men who force their way northward, armed with harpoons for slaughter . . . Powerful’ (New Statesman on The North Water ) –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I missed the return window by a few days. I gagged through the first two chapters and then deleted this piece of garbage from my Kindle. Summary of first two chapters: guy from ship is ashore. Visits whorehouses, sucks his fingers afterward “to get his money’s worth.” Tries to bum drinks at bar. Winds up killing guy who bought him a drink and hides body with help of prostitute. Solicits 12 year old boy for sex. Suspects trap, kills boy and rapes his lifeless body.If this is your idea of a “gritty” good read, then this book is for you. No thanks.

⭐ “He senses death, feels its leaden presence, scents its fecal perfume on the whipping air.”I think that’s my favorite line I’ve ever read. This book thinks it’s saying something of significance. It’s not. It’s not literary fiction. It’s airport fiction. Which isn’t to say it’s bad, but the fact that the author seems to think he’s Hemingway, or James Dickey, or Tolstoy, is truly offensive. The book fails to ever provide any real insights about any of the proceedings. Things just happen. And according to the NY Times review that’s “Just great!” But for me it was a titanic failure. I didn’t underline or highlight once. The book is competent enough and had enough positive insider steam behind it to propel it to the critical forefront, undeservingly. It belongs amongst the other b-grade melodramatic schlock in the Terminal B bookstore.Watch The Grey. Read Deliverance. Far superior in every aspect. This book kinda sucks. Again, disturbingly overrated.

⭐ The year is 1859 and the whaling industry, once a thriving and profitable business is dying. “We killed them all,” complains a whaling ship owner referring to the whales—in thirty years of excessive hunting and killing. Petroleum and coal is the future, he declares. None the less, his ship, the Volunteer, is about to set sail on a six-month voyage, headed toward northern waters—the area where whales are still most likely to be found, although far from abundant. Such is the time period of Ian McGiuire’s fascinating and very dark novel, The North Water (2016), long listed for the Man Booker Prize.McGuire paints a vivid and bleak picture aboard the Volunteer. Just as an arboretum and botanical garden produce things of beauty, the area of London in which some of the whalers that board the Volunteer lurk before shipping out and the Volunteer itself rapidly becomes a petri dish that facilitates the growth of sordidness, evil, murder, and worse—all magnified by the true and villainous purpose of the voyage of the ship kept secret from most of the crew—all of whom fall victim to a scheme they know nothing about as well as the perfidy of some of those aboard ship.McGuire takes a realistic approach to his entire novel and it is carefully crafted throughout, containing the finest of language choices. Everything about The North Water: the settings, the times, the action, the characters and dialogue, and the many plot twists all jump from the page and pull the reader into the world of a whaling ship. The North Water, however, is no mere sea adventure.With the decline in profits for those working in the whaling industry comes a decline in character for those still willing to risk their lives on the open seas. McGuire wastes no time in painting a stark portrait of many of his characters in Dark Water—men, for the most part, who are not heroic figures of courage and stamina, but scoundrels with notorious pasts and equally abhorrent presents who make little effort to hide their true nature. It is McGuire’s character development: who they are, what they are, and what they do that is the most gripping aspect of the novel. One expects men engaged in such laborious work that takes them far from home for long stretches to be out of the ordinary, hardened, and insensitive to many aspects of life. “If you are seeking persons of gentleness and refinement, Sumner, the Greenland whaling trade is not the place to look for them,” cautions the captain of the Volunteer. The majority of the men aboard the Volunteer, however, are even worse.Soiled reputations and secrets abound among the crew. Captain Brownlee, with thirty years of command under his belt, is “notable for his fearsome ill luck,” having been the commander of the Percival, a whaling ship that went down with loss of life, multiple injuries, and loss of cargo. The ship’s surgeon, Patrick Sumner, is on the run from his past after having served in India and having partaken in a most unethical and unfortunate incident. His refuge is not only to board the Volunteer accepting a position far below his skill level, but from the laudanum bottle. First Mate Cavendish is a “whoremonger” who lords his authority over the crew. The head harpooner, Henry Dax, carries with him even darker secrets. Each of these men play pivotal roles in the novel and as the ship heads further north into more and more dangerous waters filled with glistening ice, chunks of which become of greater size and magnitude, nature itself becomes an awesome, uncontrollable player as well.Repugnant and amazing events begin to take place quickly after the Volunteer takes to the sea and event piles upon event in rapid succession that will hold the reader spellbound. McGuire’s storytelling is above reproach. By mid-novel, the crew “fear worse is yet to come, and they would rather reach home with empty pockets but still breathing than end up sunk forever below the Baffin ice.” Turning back is not an option, nor part of the plan, however.Any novel dealing with whaling in the 1800s is bound to have allusions to Herman Melville’s immortal classic, Moby Dick (1851) and The North Water is no exception. The descriptions of men in small boats pursuing and killing giant behemoths in the open sea are white-knuckle reading material. Melville’s respect for both the animals and the men that hunt them are obvious as they are in McGuire’s work in spite of the insidious nature of some of his characters. Melville’s inclusion of the mystical and dreams also make its way into The North Water. The most obvious comparison between The North Water and Moby Dick will not go unnoticed by readers familiar with the American landmark novel.The North Water contains credible and vivid scenes of violence, the horrors of trying to survive in a most hostile environment, and for some, a handful of stomach-turning moments when it comes to bodily functions and physical injuries and within keeping faith to the novel’s tone and authenticity.In some ways the conclusion of The North Water is inevitable, but McGuire’s use of suspense and exceptional plotting of his story leaves readers with no certainty as to exactly what will happen until the final page is reached. Readers who appreciate good storytelling and literature, especially with a historical setting, will be hard pushed to find a finer, recent novel than The North Water to satisfy their reading needs.

⭐ No spoilers. 5 stars. All the omens were good for the whaling ship Volunteer to fill its main hold with whale blubber and seal hides from the north waters…30 years prior any half-wit with a boat and harpoon could get rich quick… now you’d need a 20 horsepower steam engine, harpoon guns and luck…… even then you could come back empty handed…It is the 1800s and the whales have been over harvested and no one wants whale oil anymore… it’s all petroleum and coal now…… but the crew of the Volunteer is up for the challenge anyway…Behold the man: Henry Drax, a harpooner, is a psychopath hired on for the voyage. He is known as a hard drinking lout with explosive farts who likes to bugger young cabin boys…… Drax is one to watch… he makes decisions based on what benefits him in the moment… killing is nothing new to him…Brownlee is the ship’s captain, hired on by rich financial backer Baxter. It is Brownlee’s second chance to prove himself or retire in shame…Sumner is a court martialed surgeon hooked on laudenum looking to escape to the sea. Sumner is the main character of the story…Eventually the ship and crew are in peril on the ice due to someone deliberately sinking the ship for the insurance money…… and they find themselves trying to survive on the ice with dwindling supplies and no help in sight…This is a whale of a tale…This is the third time I’ve read this novel. If you like seafaring stories then you’ll like this to the last paragraph.The story has all the elements of a good book: there’s treachery, murder, inclement weather and of course harvesting whales and seals (I’m grateful to the author for not going into detail there).This novel is similar to (but shorter than) THE TERROR by Dan Simmons.Warnings: Profanity and animal and child cruelty

⭐ Well, let me make this simple. If Ian McGuire was determined to outdo “The Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad, he came close except, in this case, the ship goes into the horrors (“the horror! the horror”) of the Arctic. It is an amazingly dark novel with the most vivid descriptions of characters (you would never want to ever meet) in place (would would never, never want to go.) It will become a classic!

⭐ Maybe my expectations were too high. NYTimes Top 10. Noted on many other publications lists of books of the year. Described as Moby Dick meets Heart of Darkness. I was expecting high literature and a deep dive into the darkness of man or something like that against the gritty and already morally challenging backdrop of the whaling industry. Instead, it read like a generic action flick crossed with a sailing-era period piece. The villain was almost cartoonishly evil. The main plot events read like your standard action sequences, just with a fairly unique setting. It was engaging enough of a read, but like any popcorn flick, I got nothing of depth from it and no strong desire to return to it.

⭐ Someone I know who reads quite a bit told me that this was the best book he read in 2018. He described it as being a more readable version of a bloody Cormac McCarthy tale. That’s a good description. It has thematic heft, strong characters (some ambivalent, some evil, not too many pure as the driven snow), and it has lots of violence.What Mr. McGuire has, which is very rare, is equal chops when it comes to things like pacing, character development, and storytelling, on the one hand, and a sure literary hand and sense of place and time on the other. Many times during the book I was arrested by the beauty of some passage, an otherworldly description of something as simple as an ice floe at midday or something as brutal as the killing and flensing of some sea creature. And then the next page I felt myself holding my breath because some action scene was so intense it was almost unbearable to keep reading.And then, lo and behold, from out of nowhere I was blindsided and I found myself mulling over a philosophical question that either the author or one of his characters had raised. I’ve never described a book as a metaphysical page-turner, but the handle fits “The North Water.”The book deals with a somewhat disgraced former military doctor who signs on as ship doctor on a whaling vessel commanded by a captain who already has a bad reputation based on a previous expedition with a boat called the Percival.To describe the details of the story would risk either spoiling it for the reader, or reducing it to a summary that can’t encapsulate the beauty of the writing, and frankly the perfection of it. This thing glows, like Fitzgerald or Stephen Crane. The latter is probably the better and more apt comparison, what with McGuire’s core of human compassion masked by layers and layers of the brutal reality that overlay everything and make belief at once both nigh-on impossible and somehow unavoidable.My friend was right, at any rate. This thing is incredible. Highest recommendation.

⭐ Critics have written favorable comparison to Conrad (“Lord Jim”) and Melville (“Moby Dick”) both of which I’ve read and admired. Ian McGuire goes for it right out of the gate with “Behold the man.” (“Call me Ishmael.”) In this case Sumner is our Ishmael and Lord Jim all rolled into one. Big white mammals play prominently in both North Waters and Moby Dick and I will leave it at that. The transformation of Sumner over the course of the story provides the sense of time and evolution. Another literary comparison I would add is Shakespeare’s “Tempest” and specifically the character of Calban vis a vis Henry Drax. More animal than human. The books grabs your attention (by the bollocks?) from the beginning and doesn’t relent until the perfect ending.

⭐ The North Waterby Ian McGuireRating: ***** (5 stars)Book Length: 270 pagesGenre: Fiction, Historical FictionAll I knew about this book before I picked it up was that it had good reviews and it was suppose to be dark.The book opens by introducing us to Henry Drax who is most likely a psychopath. He follows base instincts to know when to eat, sleep, have sex, get drunk, and to kill. Henry Drax represents everything that is vial about human nature. Yet, this is not really his story.The novel follows Sumner, an army surgeon that was dishonorably discharged while serving in India. Unable to find work Sumner agrees to be a doctor on a whaling ship. To add to his misfortune Henry Drax is also employed on the ship.The novel is dark but not graphic. Ian McGuire does a great job describing the characters and the world. He pays extra special attention to the olfaction sensory experience. I do not think I have ever pictured smell so vividly from reading a book. Yet, due to Sumner acting as narrator, the book portrays the potential cruelty of human nature without being so graphic that it was completely unreadable. Instead what is shown is a struggle to overcome base human nature to transform into a better human being.As reviewed on The Book Recluse Review

⭐ “The North Water” unfolds as a physical battle of wills among two crew members aboard whaling vessel in the 1800s. I debated between giving this book two or three stars. The first half of “The North Water” is riveting and bleak fiction. The life aboard a whaling ship in the Arctic Circle is brutally and realistically depicted, and the behavior of the misfit crew is appalling and squirm-inducing. It read like Moby Dick as shot through by Cormac McCarthy.However, by the second half of the book, it begins to lose its way. The propulsive narrative and complex characterization drop away and are replaced by a meandering plot and bleak nihilism that only feels half-earned. The ending drama unspools a bit too mechanical and neat in a way that feels like a betrayal of what’s come before.The violence in “The North Water” is graphic and bloody, but appropriate for the time period and conditions. I think Ian McGuire was going for a nautical “Blood Meridian,” but it can’t muster up the pathos beyond ‘man is an animal.’ If you’re interested in this subject matter, I recommend Dan Simmon’s “The Terror” or Hampton Sides’s “In the Kingdom of Ice” as alternatives.

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