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Loading... The Navigator of New York (edition 2003)by Wayne Johnston (Author)
Work detailsThe Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston
In The Navigator of New York, Wayne Johnston weaves fictional characters and events into the race to reach the North Pole early in the 20th century. Given how closely much of that chapter in polar exploration verged on the fraudulently imaginary, there is much room for Johnston to maneuver in this arena. The highlight of the book for me was Johnston's vibrant depiction of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New York at the turn of the century. Although his protagonist is humorlessly earnest and the plot is implausibly baroque, it all works reasonably well because, honestly, anything looks good against this race for the North Pole. The expeditions to the South Pole seem to provide a much richer vein from which to mine inspiration, with a great example being The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge, a book that arouses great empathy for these flawed explorers. In contrast, the race for the North Pole was essentially a sordid affair, featuring the vile Robert Peary and the icky Frederick Cook. It is a murky and disheartening business that seems to spawn books more along the line of Give Me My Father's Body. I was dismayed when I discovered that Frederick Cook would play a central role in this novel, sensing that our hero, not to mention the reader, was about to get "played" over the course of the next few hundred pages. This turned out to be not far from the truth. Given how prone Cook and Peary were to spinning their own fictions about themselves and their exploits, I did take some pleasure in Johnston having created his own fictional events in which these explorers come off looking so very shabby. Poetic justice I calls it. (  ) maritimer | Jul 14, 2011 |  Good book by a good writer. (  ) charlie68 | Jun 8, 2009 | 1  tamaranth | Sep 16, 2007 | Fictionalization of the story of Cook's quest for the North Pole based around the story of a young Newfoundland boy and his adventure from outpost to New York. The historical fiction part of the book is excellent, the plot is contrived... well written, bad plot. (  ) piefuchs | Nov 12, 2006 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0385507674, Hardcover)From the bestselling author of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (“brilliant and accomplished” -- Annie Proulx), an epic novel of one man’s quest for the secret of his origins that ranges from the bustling streets of nineteenth-century New York to the remotest regions of the Arctic.As a young child in St. John’s, Devlin Stead and his mother, Amelia, are suddenly abandoned by his father, Dr. Francis Stead, who flees north to practise medicine among the Eskimos. Distraught by his absence, Amelia throws herself into the icy ocean from Signal Hill. Rather than return home, his father joins the American Lieutenant Peary on one of his attempts to reach the North Pole, but wanders off from camp one night and is never seen again. Now orphaned, Devlin grows up an outcast and a loner, attended to by his devoted aunt Daphne and his taciturn physician uncle. And then one day his uncle summons Devlin to his office and hands him an extraordinary letter from the explorer, Dr. Frederick Cook -- the first of several that will change everything Devlin thought he knew about himself. He will sail to New York to become Dr. Cook’s protégé, to be introduced into society, and eventually to accompany him on his race to reach the Pole before his arch-rival Peary. It is in Manhattan that Devlin falls in love with a young woman with an astonishing family connection to Amelia. In The Navigator of New York Wayne Johnston’s descriptions of place -- whether of the frozen Arctic wastes or the city of New York, bursting with the energy of a metropolis about to become the capital city of the globe -- evoke an extraordinary physicality and conviction. A remarkable achievement that seamlessly weaves fact and fabrication, it continues the masterful reinvention of the historical novel Wayne Johnston began with his lavishly praised The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. From the Hardcover edition. (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:49:55 -0400) No library descriptions found. |
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