North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther

The opening scenes of this novel suggest that it will be a traditional maritime adventure—maybe a little dark but reminiscent of Melville, Conrad or Forester. Nonetheless, it slowly morphs into something stranger and more elegiacal. Rutherford uses the claustrophobic setting of a ship on an extended voyage during the waning years of the whaling industry to explore larger questions that still resonate today. How much of our environment are we willing to sacrifice for short term profits? Can mankind’s ingenuity ever overcome nature or are we doomed to a creeping devastation? In addition to man’s hubris, the setting gives Rutherford an opportunity to explore other issues like colonialism, toxic masculinity and brutality, isolation show more and endurance. Also, he introduces mythical and allegorical elements to the classical nautical genre.

The third-person narrator doesn’t particularly engage with the action. Instead, he is passive and merely observational. Moreover, there is no real protagonist in the story. The ironically named captain, Arnold Lovejoy, is anything but joyful. He is estranged from his family and has recently returned from a failed whaling expedition only to take on another extended voyage. This one will be aimed at hunting in the Pacific and Arctic for the greatly diminished whales, while also returning a missing whaling captain who may have absconded with the proceeds of a lost Arctic expedition. Lovejoy seems willing to use questionable methods to please the ship’s owner and to achieve his goals.

With the exception of two young brothers, the remainder of the ship’s crew seems equally joyless. They doggedly go about the work of whaling, the brutality of which Rutherford captures in vivid detail. Many of the other principal characters seem more allegorical than real. Leander, the missing captain, is a Kurtz-like figure, disillusioned with life and with what he was required to do for his employers; Thule, the mysterious man sent along by the owner to make sure Lovejoy succeeds is definitely a loyal company man willing to stoop to anything for his boss; Eastman, a prominent member of the crew, is evil incarnate; and Old Sorrell, a strange creature—half man half bird—seems to be some kind of divine protector of the innocent and the environment. Rutherford focuses on the two young boys to provide a hint of redemption. As the least skilled members of the crew, everyone takes advantage of them in multiple ways, both mundane and malicious. If the novel has any uplifting message, however, it is through the mutual caring that the brothers have for each other.

Rutherford’s overarching mood is moral ambiguity. This evokes a sense of foreboding and unease that increases with the claustrophobic setting, the unrelenting brutality and danger, and the strangeness of the environment and events. Although effective, this approach leaves one wishing for more resolution and emotional reckoning. Rutherford’s emphasis on mood over plot also makes this a slow-paced read. Notwithstanding these flaws, the writing is sparse and lyrical with particular emphasis on the imagery of the Arctic and the unflinching descriptions of what it takes to extract profit from the environment. show less

I cannot believe this is a debut novel as Rutherford is a gifted author who seems to be already at the top of his game. The story is about a whaling ship (the Esther) as it travels to locate the husband of the wife of a wealthy shipping family from Bedford, Massachusetts who went missing at sea. The novel takes place in the late 1800's and is told in short vignettes that makes it effortless to read. The book is mystical and beautiful in the telling of this failed expedition.