The Solitude of Thomas Cave

The Solitude of Thomas Cave

The Solitude of Thomas Cave is non-fiction author, Georgina Harding?s first foray into fiction. It is set in the summer of 1616, on a whaling ship off the Island of Svalbard in the North Atlantic. The crew argues whether a man could survive the winter alone in the arctic wilderness. One sailor, Thomas Cave, insists that he could survive. His shipmates promptly bet £100 that he won?t. Cave accepts the wager. His shipmates leave Cave on the treeless, uninhabited island, promising to return for him the following year.
Cave initially thrives in his frozen Eden, rising to the challenge of wilderness survival. However, after ingesting toxic polar bear liver, Cave becomes ill and falls into a coma. When he regains consciousness, his pregnant wife is with him. At first, he welcomes the hallucination, chatting amiably with his phantom mate. When she disappears, he longs for her return. With each successive hallucination, Cave becomes more anxious and disturbed. Soon his phantom infant son starts appearing as well, so lifelike Cave can feel the warmth of his body.
The first two-thirds of the novel concern Cave?s efforts to survive the arctic winter and the mind-bending loneliness he experiences. This portion of the book is written in the third person, as if the reader is an undetected presence observing all that Cave goes through. Enough of Cave?s past is revealed to explain why an intelligent, resourceful man such as Cave might agree to such a foolhardy wager. This portion of the book is written very beautifully and convincingly. If I were to rate the book based upon this first section alone, it would merit an unqualified five stars.
There is a sharp break in the story two-thirds of the way through. The final third of the novel concerns the aftermath of the wager. This portion is told in the form of a narrative written by one of Cave?s shipmates twenty-four years later in 1640. The shipmate is struggling to understand the incident and the changes it wrought in Cave?s personality. The writing in this portion of the novel is uneven and is somewhat of a letdown after the fine writing and dramatic storytelling in the first section of the novel.
The language and manner of speaking employed in the first portion of the novel are roughly in keeping with 17th Century England. Surprisingly, the shipmate?s narrative in the second portion is written in a more contemporary style. For example, the shipmate uses an anthropological term that wasn?t coined until the late 19th Century. Still, I am favorably impressed with this debut novel. This psychological study of loneliness, human need and mankind?s relationship with nature is quite compelling. I look forward to more fiction by this author.