While not without its imperfections, Georgina Harding's The Solitude of Thomas Cave is a beautifully rendered story of one man's survival in a most inhospitable environment. It's a story of his internal struggles and eventual transformation. And it's a story of faith and redemption in a time of religious supersition. There's a grandeur to Harding's imagery both in it's beauty of the natural world and in the wretched manner in which man exploits and despoils it.
"I shall not forget the sight of him as we left, that picture stays strong with me: his figure still and straight on the wide shore, the land huge and bare about him, the snowy dip of the valley at his back, the mountains on either side, twin peaks they were of seeming identical height, rising steep and smooth and streaked with grey as if in some strange reversal the rock were ashes that had been poured down on to the snow from heaven; the sea darkened pewter and having that sluggishness to its movement that comes when it is heavy with the beginnings of ice. In all God's Earth, from the tip of Africa to the Indies or the wide Pacific, a man might never see a sight so lonely."
What would prompt a man of middle years and good intelligence to remain alone during the fearsome winter months in the Arctic? It's August 1616 and the whaling ship Heartsease is anchored in the Svalbard Archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. As a result of a bet between crewmembers Thomas Cave agrees to remain behind as the ice closes in after the retreating ship. Reminiscent of Robinson Crusoe Thomas spends his first days planning and preparing, counting his stores and supplies and making ready for the dark days to come.
As the days shorten until there is no perceptible daylight, it becomes clear that this was no rash decision of Thomas's, rather he sought out this extreme solitude. Brought low by a fever Thomas becomes delusional and believes his wife and child are with him in the cabin and follow him about. Real or not Thomas Cave is grappling with his own ghosts of the past and inner demons.
Written in both the first and third persons, the story moves backward and forward in time painting a picture of grief and culpability that Thomas feels. His story is told in third person by an omniscient narrator, which I thought seemed representative of Thomas's character. Austere in feeling and calm in action, Thomas remains aloof from his fellow sailors. However sympathetic I might have felt for Thomas, I always also felt a distance from him. His story is bookended by the narrative of Thomas Goodlard, which is related to the reader some 24 years after the events occurred. Young Thomas Goodlard is a fellow countryman befriended by the elder Thomas Cave and he tells in his own voice what he knows of this strange man. There's an immediacy to Thomas Goodlard's narrative, which is juxtaposed with Thomas Cave's more ethereal and dream like experiences.
The novel was at times painful to read. Some of the actions of the characters were shocking, and I had to remind myself that I was viewing this 17th century world with my 21st century sensibilities. What's sad is that in some ways things haven't changed much. There's a lot to think about in Harding's novel. On the surface this is a simple adventure story, but underneath Harding seems to have several different motives for telling this story--some more successful than others. What Harding excels at is creating a world at times so achingly beautiful that you almost want to enter it's icy coldness. What I do know is this is a story that will linger for a long time in my mind.