New Reads: Call me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo

Maybe not what you think?

It has a very good cover

I’m going to get into it.

As soon as this book was available, I bought a copy to read. I am a faithless reader and don’t give a damn about purist sensibilities regarding the wordy perfection of classics. Give me a retelling! Say it in a different way! If you love Moby Dick so much, why don’t you marry it!?

Am I being too childish, dear reader? Maybe, but it kind of infuriated me to read the reactive notes of several Substacks after the NYT review came out. Like, what is the problem here? Writers are always picking apart and retelling, sometimes they don’t even know they are doing it! But also some of the comments seemed a little bit terfy and sexist in their complaints and just against the idea in general or just bitchy, and somehow about the last straw is the feminizing of Ishmael?!? (You can decide: I’m talking about here and here and here). There were other less negative posts but these are the ones I saw first. And we all know from our years and years and years in customer service that it’s the complaints that stick.

I mean, everyone has their preferences in books. That’s cool. That’s what Freedom to Read is all about! I guess it’s the disdain that irks me.

I’m more on this side.

credit to @iamhirtyaf and @EdGoreyFanClub

Not Moby Dick

Call Me Ishmaelle is a book that could be a gateway for younger folks who might never pick up Moby Dick, and even if they do, like myself, might never finish it. The difference is that I will eventually try again, maybe sooner than later, but those newer readers might not. OR they might because they read Call Me Ishmaelle.

The gender fluidity of the character Ishmaelle, the deep connection to nature, the bleak violence of the world around them, all might appeal strongly to younger generations. AND it’s extremely easy to read. Strangely page turning and wonderful storytelling.

The NYT review (behind a paywall here) referenced by most of the initial negative reactions I saw, is not scathing. William Giraldi at first talks about Guo’s “artistic audacity” (yawn) but then, more importantly, the actual writing: the lack of throughline with the character naming (why Pound, Seneca, Hawthorne and Moses? Could there be a link? Maybe, but that would require a real deep dive) and what he describes as “clichés” in the language and “allegorical instruments” : the whale and Captain Seneca become overt symbols of black slavery and the white oppressor.

But it still didn’t bother me as a reader because I wasn’t expecting it to be:

“Herman Melville’s American prose monument “Moby-Dick,” absolutely alone in its capacious grasp of the American Sublime” (Giraldi).

It can’t be that. That already exists.

To me, Xiaolu Guo is reconstructing a tale that yes, uses, Melville’s masterpiece as a framework, but is rebuilding it as a coming of age fable (but not necessarily, as some people are calling it, a “feminist retelling” more on that later) - yes an allegory, yes a clear one, but as a kind of beacon for young people. Like, “Yeah we know we are old and annoying and ruined everything throughout history but: we see you.”

Feeling ‘seen’

Throughout the story, Ishmaelle is hiding herself, or is she being her true self? She is constantly unsure. When she meets Kauri she believes he sees her as she really is and she feels safe and loved. She feels seen. After the gender reveal, Dr. Hawthorne admits he suspected she was a women and praises her talents as a healer and she feels someone can understand her strengths as a woman. When she meets a local woman and her children in the village when they are in port and the woman gives her the first fruit she seen and eaten in months and months, the woman just has to look at her and smile for Ishmaelle to feel a woman-to-woman warmth and bond. But when Ishmaelle is on the ship working alongside the men, she feels a strength and capability inside her that she never felt before - but never quite safe. These instances explore her gender fluidity but they also show Ishmaelle’s struggle to find herself, like any young person does as they cross over to adulthood.

Showing the violence is awful but important

The sexual violence Ishmaelle experiences at the hand of Mr. Flaherty could also be seen as a literary device (I guess) but this novel would not have been complete without it. If Ishmaelle is herself symbolic of young women and youth today (and in any era, especially for a woman in disguise on a ship in the 1800s) then of course she experienced sexual violence. It was a brutal, truthful, raising of the stakes as the journey came closer to a harrowing end.

Back to the feminism

The reason I hesitate to call this a feminist retelling is partly because of the mimicking of Melville’s structure which, to me, is not at all feminine. Ishmaelle is pretending to be a man and this imitation is hidden even in the structure of the book itself: short chapters, traditional timeline… Interestingly, Captain Seneca’s stream-of-consciousness chapters read - very loosely - as more feminine to me. He is letting himself be guided in his thoughts by his instinct towards the natural world (following the whale). But because Seneca’s instincts are driven by revenge and are largely incoherent, it does not quite read “right in the head”. Feminism is obviously a very predominant theme, especially as the book progresses and Ishmaelle feels more like her true self but I still think the heart of it is more a coming-of-age tale immersed in archetypes and folklore.

Ishmaelle’s connection to the mystical universe and the divine feminine was my favourite part of this book. Her natural ability to heal, her dreamscapes and her curiosity towards Minzu’s readings of the I Ching and innate connection to the mythical world really uplifted her as a compelling heroine. I was enchanted by her.

My 22 year-old son stole my copy as soon as I finished it.

Rating: 👓👓👓