Moby Dick was the final book that I've been dreading from this list. I started it a couple of times and didn't get very far. However, it didn't defeat me!
This book is hailed as the best American novel. I'm not sure I agree. I'm not convinced that it's a novel. It's more a short story interspersed with a textbook on whales & whale hunting. Moby Dick is about a whaling voyage where the obsessed monomaniac Captain Ahab leads his crew in search of the giant white whale that caused him to lose his leg. It is a fascinating portrayal of obsession, leading him to take his crew into extreme danger to try to kill a whale that was known to whalemen everywhere as unkillable.
However. The edition I read had 360 pages. I would estimate that only about 50 of those pages had actual narrative action. The rest described in intimate, excrutiating detail, every tiny element of the whale & catching thereof. Chapters on the spout, the tail, the jaw, each piece of equipment. It is beautifully phrased and deeply researched...but not very interesting. Sorry, Herman.
A couple of observations, which may get me some spam followers. I may be smutty but I found it really difficult to get past the number of times the word sperm was used - maybe more than in 50 shades of grey (haven't read it). They were hunting sperm whales, I get that. However, I must confess that I read the descriptions of buckets of bubbling sperm and squeezing lumps out of sweet unctuous sperm and so forth with something of a smirk. Sorry - must grow up.
Also, the end is quite exciting. I won't give it away...but I'm not sure whether it was just exciting because nothing had happened thus far!
I wouldn't argue that this isn't good - it's very well written and researched - but it's not much fun.
Two more to go, and then I regain freedom of choice in my reading matter once more. Woohoo.
Ps random fact - Herman Melville is singer Moby's great grandfather. Don't say I never teach you anything!
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