Customer Reviews

Gus Openshaw's Whale Killing Journal

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, sorry about the cheesy review title, but as my friend, Herm Melville said, this is the best "guy-tries-to-get-revenge-against-a-whale book" published in 155 years. So I got carried away.

Our Story: Gus Openshaw is a cannery worker/blogger who has never read MOBY DICK. He is seeking revenge against the darned whale that ate his right arm and his family, and Gus relates his tale in the form of a blog recounting his battles with the elements, mutineers, and litigators.

The plot's not just an excuse to trot out absurd action and boisterous humor, although it does that too. It's actually a pretty ingenious maritime story, and it ends up doing comic takes on a multitude of genres. Plus, it has pictures!

Extra Credit for the remote controlled giant squid robot. This book was funny enough for me to search out Thomson's previous novel. If it's only 5/6ths as funny as this one, it will be worth the effort.

Gus Openshaw was a cat food cannery worker working "the worst stinking job you can get" when a super sized sperm whale with a B-shaped scar on his head ate Gus's wife, kid, and right arm. The whale got away, but only for the time being. With his life insurance settlement, Gus sets out on a voyage of revenge. He posts his captain's log and ruminations on life in a web log, the entries of which make up the book Gus Openshaw's Whale-Killing Journal.

Gus's two-month ocean odyssey is a whirlwind of zany adventures told in smart prose and accompanied by scrimshaw illustrations. At one point, Gus gives a detailed physical description of the criminal whale, and the harpooner/scrimshawist on staff whips up a police scrimshaw sketch of the alleged murderer. The reader is also treated to rum-fueled scrimshaws of female vixens along with portraits of the many madcap characters encountered during the journey.

Thomson's sophomore is a 5-star work of fiction, hands down, but it does follow a pattern of crisis / almost dying / alive / good news / super-bad news / laugh-out-loud funny scene / surely-they-will-die!! / hope / possible escape / alive / bad news, all of which are executed repeatedly in a random order. Who knew that Internet exchanges, renegade military forces, F-15 fighter jets, robotic armies, pirates, drug dealers, lost European colonies, and icebergs would be involved in a modern-day whale hunt? Wireless internet is a key plot device, one that works both for and against our renegade whale-hunting crew.

Huffington Post writer Keith Thomson writes an account, in the first person, of a Oakland man named Gus Openshaw who works in a catfood cannery ("literally the worst stinking job there is") until his wife and infant son are eaten by a whale. Gus loses his arm in the process of trying to rescue them. In the time-honored tradition of victims of amputation by whale, he sets to sea to get revenge.

Gus keeps a blog, beginning with his purchase of a cheap boat. He enlists the aid of the blogosphere in posting sightings/giving him advice. The trail takes him into the Caribbean, where he adds a crew befitting a man with no money, including a scrimshaw artist/harpooner whose poor luck whaling reduces him to doing his artistry on cocktail napkins (the book is filled with his illustrations). The psychotic ex-Viet Cong interrogator who serves cook is the most capable of the lot.

Every imaginable challenge, ranging from pirates to tropical storms to a battle with the entire Tortollan navy, befalls Gus. And Gus and his bargain-bin crew themselves is probably their own biggest challenge. The writing/comedy is first-rate, Monte Python with more action. Each blog entry/chapter ends in a cliffhanger, usually with Gus facing certain death. The twists and turns in the story are incredible. Even the whale is a good character. And there is love in the form of a tropical island princess (who works for an illegal arms dealer constructing a robot, torpedo-launching squid), poignant friendships and bonds among the crew, and a surprise ending that's much better than the ending in that other whale-killing book, the one by Melville.