Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman MelvilleMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Finished Moby Dick last night. I didn't realize how much time Melville spends just wandering off the story to do an essay on whale classification, whaling methods, or even various types of rope. Some of the chapters are written more like a play than a novel. One chapter is literally a paragraph of one of the harpooneers singing a song to try and make the thunder stop in a typhoon.
It's a tough read, but the beginning when Ishmael makes friends with Queequeg (something that is basically ignored at the end) and the final 60 pages when Ahab finally moves toward his fate are the reason this book is a "classic."
Until I reached that last stretch I was literally only reading just because I had made it this far and wasn't going to be defeated by it. The irony of this is not lost on me.
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