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    The Rathbones: A Novel
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    The Rathbones: A Novel
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    The Rathbones: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Rathbones: A Novel

    Written by Janice Clark

    Narrated by Erin Spencer, Cassandra Campbell, Gabrielle de Cuir and Malcolm Campbell

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A gothic, literary adventure set in New England, Janice Clark's haunting debut chronicles one hundred years of a once prosperous and now crumbling whaling family, told by its last surviving member.

    Mercy Rathbone, fifteen years old, is the diminutive scion of the Rathbone clan. Her father, the last in the beleaguered dynasty, has been lost at sea for seven years - ever since the last whale was seen off the coast of Naiwayonk, Connecticut. Mercy's memories of her father grow dimmer each day, and she spends most of her time in the attic hideaway of her reclusive uncle Mordecai, who teaches her the secrets of Greek history and nautical navigation through his collection of specimens and moldering books. But when a strange, violent visitor turns up one night, Mercy and Mordecai are forced to flee the crumbling mansion and set sail on a journey that will bring them deep into the haunted history of the Rathbone family, and the reasons for its undoing.

    As Mercy and Mordecai sail from island to island off the Connecticut coast, encountering dangers and mysteries, friends and foes, they untangle the knots of the Rathbone story, discovering secrets long encased in memory.  They learn the history of the family's founder and patriarch, Moses Rathbone, and the legendary empire he built of ships staffed with the sons of his many, many wives. Sons who stumbled in their father's shadow, distracted by the arrival of the Stark sisters, a trio of "golden" girls, whose mesmerizing beauty may have sparked the Rathbone's decline.

    From the depths of the sea to the lonely heights of the widow's walk; from the wisdom of the worn Rathbone wives to the mysterious origins of a sinking island, Mercy and Mordecai's journey will bring them to places they never thought possible.  But will they piece together a possible future from the mistakes of the past, or is the once great  family's fate doomed to match that of the whales themselves?

    Inspired by The Odyssey by way of Edgar Allan Poe and Moby Dick, The Rathbones is an ambitious, mythic, and courageous tour de force that marks the debut of a dazzling new literary voice.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 6, 2013
    ISBN9780804148382
    Unavailable
    The Rathbones: A Novel
    Author

    Janice Clark

    Janice Clark is a retired teacher, coach, and conference speaker. She founded Williams Bird Covenant, LLC a non-profit organization with the mission of helping others with financial wellness. She serves on the board of People Helping People Counseling Ministries. Janice operates in the spiritual gifts of teacher, prophet, and the ministry gift of helps. Janice serves as a captain in the Vision Keepers Ministry at WCCI. Janice shares in the life of Christ to do her best to present yourself to God as one growing in wisdom and understanding. While enjoying the fruits of God’s creation: she enjoys traveling, sporting events, fishing, arts and crafts, sewing and adventures.

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    Reviews for The Rathbones

    3/5

    50 ratings13 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Disappointing. I wanted to like it, but just couldn't. I thought that maybe it was just not a setting for me; too much sea mythos. But really it was that none of the characters were engaging. Even the big revelation at the end (an ordinary "so you think s/he's a villain, but you should really just pity them" left me feeling bored & unmoved.
    • 4/5
      I just finished this and I'm still a bit adrift in its sea of words. (I'll also probably be using nautical metaphors for everything for the next few weeks). Briefly, the story should probably be categorized as gothic at the very least, creepy horror at the most, but I for one really enjoyed it. The story follows, mostly, Mercy Rathbone as she travels the shores of New England with a relative and discovers her family's (frankly disturbing) history.This book smells like an oyster tastes. Or how fog feels on your skin at dawn in the harbor, or an interior of a damp ship in March. I rather like the font; I love the author-drawn illustrations and how the family tree was continually growing. I love how it nails old New England families, in tone, right to the table: "A question unasked is an answer un-regretted."I liked how the story was soaked through with myth, and never quite the ones I was expecting. Everything hovered around the edge of wider myths: Greek, Norse, the American Dream, Poe, etc. I think I'll be understanding more about this book as weeks go by.Recommend for those who liked: A Cider House Rules, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Middlesex, and, of course, Moby Dick. (There were just enough whales in this one. Just enough.)
    • 3/5
      Mercy is the last of the Rathbones, a whaling family of over 100 years, and she and her uncle Mordecei are on the run. Her father disappeared years ago and she thinks she remembers a brother, but no one will talk about him. When she finds her mother, on the widow walk carnally engaged by another man, who spots Mercy and chases her, she and Mordecei take the skiff and leave their home. This novel is said to be a combination of the Odyssey, Moby Dick with trace of Poe and I can see the comparisons. Having lived off the plunder of the sperm whale, the sources are diminished and the family must go further than ever to find any signs of the whale. On Mercy and Mordecei's travels we meet many strange people along the way, as Mercy tries to find out if her father is alive. Which brings us to the mystery part,This was interesting, the characters unique, much, actually a bit too much about whales, and it sometimes is tedious too read about a hundred years in the life of a family, and it is one strange family let me tell you. So this was okay, parts interesting, parts I really liked and parts I skipped through but I do applaud this author for delivering a story that is certainly unique.
    • 2/5
      In the whaling town of Naiwayonk, Connecticut in 1859, a young girl, Mercy Rathbone, sets out on a voyage to discover the story of her family's mysterious past. From that simple beginning, proceeds a tale that is very strange, to say the least. It's part mystery, part fantasy, part fairy tale, part sea shanty, part history, part mythology, part coming of age. If you like these things, this is the book for you.For me, it was just too weird. We come across pet crows, a reclusive teacher who appears old but isn't, strange women who seem like sirens, a mother who barely speaks to her daughter and at one point slices a dress off her, a father who has seemingly been away at sea for 10 years, a whaler who has many wives one after another, so he will have sons to sail his whaling ships. There is much more, but I wouldn't want to give anything away. There are many horrible things that happen throughout the story, yet the girl, Mercy, seems oddly unaffected by them. I found it difficult to keep track of when the story was being mystical or when it was being realistic. It went back and forth between the two quite randomly. I didn't feel any sympathy or connection to any of the characters. None of them told anyone the truth, but rather spoke only in half truths or metaphor, if they spoke at all. The author was good at describing the scenery and the ships and sea, but I could never quite figure out the architecture of the rather strange house that the Rathbone family lived in. I was interested in finding out how the story ended, so the author managed to keep me intriqued enough to finish the book, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I do think it was well written, though, and should appeal to those who like mystical fantasy type books.
    • 3/5
      3.5 out of 5. I wanted so much more from this book and that's always the curse, isn't it? I wanted it to be something that it wasn't, based simply on the blurb and the cover - and so then my rating becomes about the distance between the two. This is a well-written book, full of feeling and beauty, but it also lacks a certain something, a certain cohesion, that might've made it exceptional. Every time the magic sucks you in, there's something to drop you back out again - that inconsistency is just a bummer.
    • 3/5
      I'd heard this was a strange book, but I had to read it to believe it. I believe it now. A sort of retelling of The Odyssey with shades of Poe and Melville and gothic tropes tossed in. There's some really well-crafted writing here, and a chapters were excellent, but for the most part the book just fell flat for me.
    • 5/5
      Wonderfully moody enchanting creative tale. I loved it.
    • 4/5
      If you read only one story about incest, whaling, keeping crows as pets, and lost parents this year, read this one!Janice Clark has compiled a monster of a history of the Rathbones family. I loved the voice in which she wrote -- awash in the sea and longing and plenty of humor. The line she has when the second set of seven suitors arrive -- "The men must have expected a more formal interview." -- is excellent and probably is funnier in context.Well worth your time.
    • 5/5
      Disclosure: I received a free pre-release copy of The Rathbones by Janice Clark courtesy of Doubleday, via GoodReads First Reads.

      The Rathbones is a hypnotic, surreal story of a family whose lives and history are so irrevocably bound to the sea and whaling that their entire lives are lived in an epic oceanic metaphor, even the young protagonist Mercy, who has previously not been on a sea voyage. Mercy's search to find traces of her lost family members brings out a dream-like narrative of multiple complex meanings, both to Mercy and to the reader. The character's name repeated throughout the novel seems like a distress call ("Mercy!") but exactly what Mercy wants to be saved from, she herself must decide as she moves forward from the Rathbone legacy towards her own destiny. Despite this novel's length, Janice Clark's storytelling prowess and seamless use of thematic language make it smooth sailing from one page to the next.

      Fans of Barbara Kingsolver will particularly enjoy this fanciful family epic, which is stylistically similar to The Poisonwood Bible.

    • 4/5
      I was disappointed with the inconsistencies in this book. It was hard to stay immersed in the tale when I kept being pulled up short by something, then had to flip back and forth between pages to see if I was mis-remembering, or if the author/editing was just sloppy. Spoiler alert: It wasn't me. Here are a few examples:p. 10: I called them Larboard and Starboard because wherever Mama went, so they went, one to either side of her. Their bedrooms were to either side of Mama's too.p. 17: Mama's room was by itself, on the left near the end of the hall.How could her room be both by itself and have a bedroom on either side?p. 67: (re: Hepzibah) She thought of her own bed and wondered if her sisters had fallen asleep or were still sobbing, if her father was searching for her, if he would think to look so far from home.p. 72: Hepzibah's father had died in a fishing accident when she was eleven...No, I would imagine her dead father would not think to look too far from home.P. 148: (re: the Stark sisters, Lydia, Priscilla & Miriam) Since finally moving in the the big new house, after having lived with an aunt on the mainland for months while it was being built, they had quickly chosen their favorite haunt.P. 154: (re: Lydia) She had never been on a boat of any kind.Hmmm...I wonder how an island-dweller like Lydia would have gotten to the mainland in the 1800's if not on a boat?Does this kind of thing bug anyone else like it does me?
    • 4/5
      A journey that crisscrosses time and the sea, is what you find between the pages of The Rathbones by Janice Clark. A sea faring dynasty, that is filled with both cruelty and wonder.The tale is told by Mercy, a young woman of the Rathbone family, and it is told as she herself discovers who her ancestors were and what they were. Not all of them gave her reasons to be proud of her name. Sons borne by women, many women fathered by ...well, that would be telling.Mercy has a dim recollection of a strong limbed and golden brother, who seems now to be only a dream. Sadly, her questions go unanswered by her peculiar and solitary mother. Mercy's only other companions are two crows, and Mordecai, a cousin who lives locked away in the attic, and teacher her all she knows about history, whales and navigation.Whaling is what her family does, and how they came to be the empire that that was respected and perhaps hated along the coast of Connecticut. Their success came from their connection to the sperm whales, the very ones they killed in order for their family to grow and survive. The story is a quirky, mysterious and sometimes touched by magic. The tides of the sea seem to run through the veins of this family, as they live, and die by the water. Sailing comes naturally to them all, and in the end, provides the answers to Mercy's past...and perhaps her future.This was a good solid story, and one I am glad to have read. You will enjoy it too, if you like taking that half step outside the ordinary. And who doesn't? Recommended.
    • 3/5
      So somewhere along the way before picking it up to read it after the publisher sent it I forgot what this book was about and convinced myself it was a children's quest story...and then there was gang rape and I realized that it was in fact an adult title. Mercy and Cousin Mordecai leave home to look for Mercy's father and brother. They are the last in a long line of an incredible whaling family that drifted off course and is now dying out.

      I've spent the last 24 hours trying to figure out how I feel about this book. While I still haven't fully formed an opinion about everything I am now certain that I did in fact enjoy this strange epic family story.

      I still need a little time to think about what it was I specifically liked but I at least I've figured out that I liked it.
    • 2/5
      I recieved a free copy of The Rathbones via the GoodReads First Reads program.

      The Rathbones is the story of a young woman's journey to discover her heritage and learn the truth behind the disappearance of her brother and father. Mercy, fifteen, the last of a whaling clan, lives in a ramshackle mansion with a mother that doesn't love her and a cousin that is confined to the attic. When she witnesses her mother with a strange man, and that man pursues her through the house, she takes refuge in the attic with her cousin Mordecai and together they plan their escape. They set out in a small skiff to visit the islands and coves they've heard or read about in family lore. Along their journey, they discover the origins and fate of their whaling ancestry as well as the truth about Mercy's brother and parents. This literary coming of age story is both a mystery and a travelogue.

      I found the beginning of the story intriguing, especially the strangeness inherent in Mercy's relationship to her mother, as well as the mystery behind her brother and father. The opening chapters had a gothic vibe that was not unwelcome. Unfortunately, once Mercy and Mordecai left home and set sail, the story broke down into a boring, tensionless travelogue with flashbacks into the Rathbone past that were either silly (if taken as metaphor) or cliché (if taken as fantasy). Some might find the tedious unraveling of Mercy's ancestry fascinating, but I am not such a one. The great reveal at the end, where Mercy learns all the family secrets, was a letdown. I was hoping for something much less predictable.

      Had the story focused more on the whaling, or had there been something bigger at stake, I might have enjoyed the story. Instead, this was a tepid account of genealogy wherein the conflicts brewing between Moses Rathbone, his son Bow-oar, and their many descendants took a backseat to Mercy's slow discovery of the lines of paternity in her quest to fill out the family tree.