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The Belly of the Whale

Linda Merlino

Publisher: Kunati Inc.

Pub. Date: April 1 2008

208pp

http://www.kunati.com/

 

 

 

 

Book Room Review

 

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Hudson Catalina (I love that name by the way) has a loving husband, four children and is a successful teacher.  Hudson also has breast cancer.  After experiencing the horrible effects of chemotherapy and having both breasts removed, Hudson figures she might as well give up.  Feeling sorry for herself, Hudson tells her doctor she is going to stop treatment and decides to wait and die.  She begins to plan her daughter’s upcoming fifth birthday party as a last party for her too.  So she sets out in a blizzard to Whales Market to pick up supplies.

While she is there, she gets caught in the blizzard, so she stays to visit with the elderly store owner, Ruby Desmond and Willy Wu, the mentally disabled part-time help. Enter Buddy Baker, drunk and angry.  What happens next is shocking and violent and leaves the reader reeling.  I won’t go more into the story except to say I read it as fast and furious as I could wondering what was going to happen.  My interpretation of this compelling and terrific book would be to compare it to the story of Jonah who was swallowed by a whale. 

In the Book of Jonah, chapters one and two, God prepared a whale to swallow him and Jonah spends three days and nights in the belly of the whale. Jonah prayed to God “ I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, For thou had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about. All thy billows and waves passed over me.”  But in the end Jonah cried out to God and He spoke unto the fish and it vomited out Jonah onto dry land.  I can only imagine what women like Hudson go through when they experience breast cancer but I do know there is faith and hope and The Belly of the Whale gives all of us this important lesson.

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Book Room Grade

A

 

Review Posted:  June 25, 2008

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