Moby Dick, Or, the White Whale

I know, it's supposed to be a classic of American literature, but knowing the story (from movies and other synopses), I guess I expected a bit more character development and a lot less exposition about the whaling industry. I didn't need two dozen pages explaining why whales are actually fish and categorizing them. I did need a bit more about how Ahab came to be in the mental state he was in.

That said, when the denouement came, it came quickly and surprisingly so, which was awesome. I just wish I didn't have to wade through the intricacies of 19th century whaling to get there.

The style and language, the allusions and allegories.

I struggled with this one. I wanted to like it more than I did. At times it felt like I might be be-calmed on gold-beaten seas myself, reading long sentences laid clinker-built along the ribs of the story.

Given the times and circumstances under which it was written, it must be accorded its literary due. Melville did things with the structure of this story that drew my attention. His willingness to shift perspectives by way of dialog or - in many cases - monologue. His alarums and excursions from one end of the world to the other. His clinical anatomy of the whale itself and holding it up as an object of reverence. What wonders it must have engendered when it was written and read aloud in drawing rooms by lantern light in winter's icy grasp.

In spite of myself, I rather enjoyed the tale. Coming from New England's stony coasts myself and having sailed the dark oceans off Cape Cod, I found a homeliness in Melville's descriptions of New Bedford and Nantucket. I couldn't quite smell the sea from here, but I could remember what it smelled like.

I can't really recommend this book. Not because there's anything wrong with it, but you need to be in the right frame of mind to tackle this tome. If you want for exercise, this one will stretch your literary sinews and challenge your stamina in the long uphill climbs.

Reading a classic a month is my 2023 reading goal. January's sorted.