Inside the Whale - Joseph G. Peterson

This meetup is hosted by Wisdom and Woe. For more details and to sign up for this event, go to: https://www.meetup.com/wisdom-and-woe/events/311960605

Inside the Whale (Joseph G. Peterson, 2011) is a modern narrative poem that tells the tragic, mythic story of an artist struggling with alcoholism, guilt, and self-destructive behavior.

It follows the life of Jim O'Connor, an Irishman and aspiring poet in Chicago. He is haunted by the memory his ex-girlfriend, Anne, who was killed in a car crash while Jim was driving while intoxicated.

The story is presented in stanzas that shift between third and first-person accounts, incorporating many of Jim's own poems. It is framed in the spirit of Beowulf, imagining a bardic drone recounting the story to a group of ruffians.

It has been described as a "beautifully haunting, fascinating, and unique novel"; "infused with spirit, heart and awe"; and features nods to Moby-Dick.

Wisdom and Woe is a philosophy and literature discussion group dedicated to exploring the world, work, life, and times of Herman Melville and the 19th century Romantic movement. The group is free and open to anybody with an interest in learning and growing by "diving deeper" into "time and eternity, things of this world and of the next, and books, and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters."