Customer Reviews

Spell (New Series #5) (New Series (Ahsahta Press))

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What is the fascination with Melville's Moby Dick deemed a failure in its time, like much of Melville's later writing? It wasn't until the early 20th century that Melville's writing was given serious consideration and Moby Dick obtained its status as a great American novel. And justly so for its shifting genres between a first person novel, philosophical treatise on whaling, and drama complete with stage directions. How does this relate to Dan Beachy-Quick's second book "Spell"? "Spell" centers around Moby-Dick and Beachy-Quick shares his obsession with Moby Dick brilliantly. An important question: Does "Moby Dick" need anyone's help? Yes and no. After Joyce's Ulysses, Melville's "Moby-Dick" can be a frustrating novel to struggle through alone. When I first read "Moby-Dick" on my own, I skipped the essay-like chapters in favor of the plot driven chapters. "Just skip the whale chapters," I told a friend, who quickly asked "Isn't that what Moby-Dick is about?" It wasn't until graduate school when I took a course on Herman Melville, that I had the chance to progress though MD in a month's time. A general familiarity with MD will be helpful in reading and appreciating "Spell."

What does Beachy-Quick add to Moby-Dick? He meditates on the creation of the novel in letters to the Editor, on various characters, Ishmael, Starbuck, and Ahab, even many of Melville's own metaphors from MD itself such as the Whale Line. Like his first collection, North True South Bright, Beachy-Quick turns words over in his lines, breaking them down. His poems burn away the dust and add to Moby-Dick his own thoughts to make reading "Spell" worthwhile.

Wow! What a fantastic work. "Spell" exists on multiple levels, as a collection of poetic responses to "Moby Dick," as a completely independent work simply inspired by "Moby Dick," but also as somewhat of a narrative book-- after reading it a couple of times, it becomes more fluid, coherent and almost musical...less fragmented and confusing. It is really beautiful, but in order to fully experience Dan Beachy-Quick's work, one must abandon self-consciousness and immerse themself wholly and psychologically. If you are able to relenquish rationalization and the need for logic within a written piece, then you will find "Spell" most delightfully entertaining. Enjoy!