Call Me Ishmaelle
A triumph ... There is so much pleasure to be had in rereading old favorites — and part of the joy is meeting beloved characters, who have been updated or somehow arrive in a new form to resist old tropes and types. Guo’s recasting of Ishmaelle is no exception.
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Tightly plotted ... I think I won’t be alone in finding the book disappointing as a response to Moby-Dick. Still, it is surprising and often beautiful, and I came to love Ishmaelle’s odd, thoughtful voice.
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Guo has chosen not to imitate Melville’s multi- layered writing, and for the most part Ishmaelle’s voice is down-to-earth, and sometimes oddly flat. She is telling a story, but doing so without the exhilarating, if sometimes baffling, circumlocutions that make Ishmael’s voice so distinctive ... Guo gives renewed forms of life to Melville’s immense novel, but the transformation is not without cost. What emerges from her version of the story is adapted to the expectations of a very different, more prescriptive literary culture ... Guo’s novel doesn’t bear comparison with its celebrated inspiration in every particular, but this is not the point. Ishmaelle has her own story to tell, and a changing audience will want to listen.
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