Ahab and the White Whale

Ahab is in his own words the captain of the Pequod and the greatest whale hunter ever to sail the seas.  He is determined to find and capture the great white whale, Moby Dick. Searching for his dream he crosses seas of jelly fish, touches a warm iceberg, is almost swallowed by a man-eating island – even loses his leg. In fact, his search goes on so long he tells us he forgot what he was looking for and even forgot his name. So how did Ahab make it home?

How to take Melville’s extraordinary novel Moby Dick and create something for a young readership? Marsol does not make any attempt to retell the story. Rather he focuses on one character, Captain Ahab himself and on his obsession with that great white whale. His text is minimal, pared back as Ahab tells his story. The wealth lies in Marsol’s extraordinary illustrations. Colour saturated and textured they draw on a whole range of techniques – collage, watercolour, pencils, plastic emulsion paint – and the effect created by mixing oil paint and acrylic. The result is bold, colourful, immersive – almost tactile. At the heart of the retelling is Ahab’s obsession, an obsession that results in a futile search, ‘Over and over again, I asked myself the same question: Where the blazes could he be hiding?’  The reader, turning the pages to be drawn into the mysteries of the sea, will realise that Ahab’s obsession has blinded him. Moby Dick is on every page, hiding almost in plain sight in a richly imagined ocean world. For Marsol the sea is fascinating and indeed full of mysteries. His illustrations are teaming with them, ranging from wrecked ships to giant squid whose tentacles create fingers, caves inhabited by skeletons, islands that suddenly appear. And to answer Ahab’s question – how did he get home? Well, the penultimate spread might answer that for the reader… As Ahab says  ‘The sea is a mystery.’

This beautifully produced book demands to be on library shelves challenging the comfortable picture books that we are so accustomed to. It is exciting, imaginative, visually demanding, and ultimately rewarding.