Call me Ahab. No, I am not misquoting Herman Melville. Just like captain Ahab, Moby Dick has become my Moby Dick. For a year and a half, I have been chasing after its 655 pages, slowly losing my sanity along the way. Like The Pequod, I have endured hardship and captured other literary whales on my journey, but unlike the infamous ship and her captain, I have finally conquered Moby Dick without being destroyed.
Why so long? Well, as most people who have read or attempted to read Moby Dick can attest, it is not your average read. Not only is it lengthy, but Melville alternates the narrative of the story with history, anatomy, stories, and thoughts. Sometimes you will have one chapter of what is going on aboard the Pequod, and six chapters on the skeletal structure of the Sperm whale. My biggest foe in this journey was my pregnancy. No offense to Mr. Melville, but he neglected to consider such women when he wrote his chapters about killing, capturing, butchering a whale - chapters not conducive to an already-queasy mom-to-be. My second biggest challenge to finishing this book was a much more welcomed break after the birth of Ethan.
On the whole, however, I loved this book. Melville wrote, "To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme." To be sure, he is referring to the sheer magnitude of the Sperm whale, but Moby Dick is a cautionary tale of what can happen when we let our desires control us.
If you are interested in boarding the Pequod and hunting down the Great White Whale, happy sailing! A good version can be found in the Barnes & Noble's Classics section (or you can order it online here).
TOTAL PAGES READ IN 2011: 1, 411
call me papa. what whale of a book are you going to tackle next? i am reading the chocolate war by debbie cadbury. its pretty interesting.
ReplyDeletekeep writing.