Book Review of Dayswork by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel

 

Name of Book: Dayswork

Author: Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel

ISBN: 978--324-06540-1

Publisher: W.W. Norton 

Type of book: COVID, Pandemic 2020, Herman Melville, marriages of the past, obsession, Nathaniel Hawthorne, poets, biographers of Melville, facts, fiction, literature 

Year it was published: 2023 

Summary:

In wry, epigrammatic prose, Dayswork tells the story of a woman who spends the endless days of the pandemic sorting fact from fiction in the life and work of Herman Melville.

Obsessed by what his devotion to his art reveals about cost, worth, and debt, she delves into Melville’s impulsive purchase of a Massachusetts farmhouse, his fevered revision of Moby-Dick there, his intense friendship with neighbor Nathaniel Hawthorne, and his troubled and troubling marriage to Elizabeth Shaw.

As the narrator’s fascination grows and her research deepens, she examines Melville’s effect on the imagination and lives of generations of biographers and writers, including Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell. Ultimately, her quarantine project is a midlife reckoning with her own marriage and ambition. Absorbing, charming, and intimate, Dayswork considers the blurry lines between literature and life, and the ways we locate ourselves in the lives of others.

Characters:

The novel focused on nothing but Herman Melville, giving very little focus and attention to the protagonist and her husband. So main character would be Herman Melville who is brilliant, troubled, rash and very determined. The protagonist is best described as extremely obsessed with anything and everything Herman Melville, from literature and lives he influenced, to what he may or may not have said, to the biographers and their motivations on tackling Herman Melville and so on. I do have to wonder what the protagonist is afraid of or is hiding beneath her obsession to Herman Melville. The protagonist's husband is well-read and often shows interest in protagonist's obsession, but that is it? He is not as obsessed. 

Theme:

Past and history can be a distraction

Plot:

The story is in first person narrative, but instead of focusing on the main character and the present, the story focuses a lot on Herman Melville's life and it doesn't seem to go in order but goes randomly. Followed that, there is also focus on some poetry greats and their private lives as well as Herman Melville biographers' lives. As mentioned, it tends to be random, but the lives are definitely fascinating. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Chris Bachelder is the author of Bear V. Shark, U.S.!: Songs and Stories, Abbott Awaits, and The Throwback Special. His fiction and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s, The Believer, and the Paris Review. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Cincinnati, where he teaches at the University of Cincinnati.

Jennifer HabelGood Reason and The Book of Jane, which won the Iowa Poetry Prize. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Opinion:

What I expected was a story where Herman Melville's life was used to compare and contrast the protagonist's life. What I wanted from the story is more focus on the protagonist's life. Instead, it often felt as if the protagonist is doing her best to distract the readers and herself from her life by hyper-focusing on Herman Melville, from his life to the impact he had on generations after him. This was quite similar to a Janet Todd novel I reviewed few years ago; Jane Austen and Shelley in the Garden which also focuses on troubling relationships and tries to humanize Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysse Shelley . Because it was a different type of novel than I expected, I do have to wonder at the motivations; is it to say that the protagonist sees herself as a Herman Melville of sorts because of the lack of present within the pages? Is it that she tries hard not to think about her life of today? For readers who want to get to know Herman Melville as a person as well as people he influenced, then DAYSWORK will be a wonderful selection. For those who are seeking a novel about COVID and the togetherness, then this is not the type to fulfill that expectation. This is yang to JANE AUSTEN AND SHELLEY IN THE GARDEN by Janet Todd 

This was given for review

3 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)