Journey to the End of the Whale
Encyclopedia
Journey to the End of the Whale (2005) is a novel by John David Morley
, a book that almost killed its author in the making.
island of Lefó. There, he will uncover the secret of his origins, but not before risking everything hunting
with the islanders, the last torchbearers of an ancient tradition by which whales are bested by men in teak boats, harpooned by hand on the open sea.
, novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones
described the book as “a paean to the majesty, complexity and otherness of the world's whales; and an elegy for a way of life which depended on killing them.” In The Sunday Telegraph, Matthew Alexander wrote:
"A marvellous and original work of fiction, which has not quite received all of the recognition it deserves" was the verdict of novelist and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg
, who chose Journey to the End of the Whale as one of his 'Books of the year' in The Observer. In The Observer magazine, Joe Holden concluded simply: “If ever a writer put his heart into a book, it is John David Morley
.”
John David Morley
-Early life:The third and youngest child of the artist and sculptor Patricia Morley and John Arthur Elwell Morley, an officer in the British Colonial Service, John David Victor Morley was born “in something of a hurry on a bench in a third-class Chinese ward at the Kandang Kerbau Maternity...
, a book that almost killed its author in the making.
Summary
Swiss orphan, insurance agent and amateur marine biologist Daniel Serraz free-floats with life’s currents until a traumatic midlife episode sends him on a journey of discovery to the remote east IndonesianIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
island of Lefó. There, he will uncover the secret of his origins, but not before risking everything hunting
Aboriginal whaling
Aboriginal whaling is the hunting of whales carried out by aboriginal groups who have a tradition of whaling....
with the islanders, the last torchbearers of an ancient tradition by which whales are bested by men in teak boats, harpooned by hand on the open sea.
Reception
Writing in The ObserverThe Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, novelist and critic Adam Mars-Jones
Adam Mars-Jones
Adam Mars-Jones is a British novelist and critic.Mars-Jones was born in London, to parents William Mars-Jones, the Welsh High Court judge and President of the London Welsh Trust, and Sheila . Mars-Jones studied at Westminster School, and read Classics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge...
described the book as “a paean to the majesty, complexity and otherness of the world's whales; and an elegy for a way of life which depended on killing them.” In The Sunday Telegraph, Matthew Alexander wrote:
- "It is impossible to do justice in this space to the rich spiritual-thematic explorations which Morley produces... The whale legends and ancient traditions of the islands, the submarine lives of giant mammals connected by sound-telepathyAnimal echolocationEcholocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals.Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects...
across vast tracts of ocean, the giant whale-stone which overhangs the bay in Lefó; from these and many more images and experiences emerges a poignant kind of personal spirituality which leads Daniel to a new understanding of his own humanity."
"A marvellous and original work of fiction, which has not quite received all of the recognition it deserves" was the verdict of novelist and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
, who chose Journey to the End of the Whale as one of his 'Books of the year' in The Observer. In The Observer magazine, Joe Holden concluded simply: “If ever a writer put his heart into a book, it is John David Morley
John David Morley
-Early life:The third and youngest child of the artist and sculptor Patricia Morley and John Arthur Elwell Morley, an officer in the British Colonial Service, John David Victor Morley was born “in something of a hurry on a bench in a third-class Chinese ward at the Kandang Kerbau Maternity...
.”
External links
- http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article590759.ece ‘Briny Points', John Spurling, The Times (November 20, 2005)
- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/Subscriber_Archive/Biography___Memoirs_Archive/article6757438.ece ‘A little like a whale', Karl Miller, The Times Literary Supplement (January 6, 2006)