Moby Dick by Herman Melville: a (very short in comparison to this gargantuan book) review

I was originally making notes on this book, but I got about a third of the way through, and I couldn’t keep stopping to make notes. This book is so damn long. I just had to finish it.

            I would usually give a plot here, but the length of the book means that there are too many plot points to narrow it down. It mostly follows the life of the whalers aboard the Pequod on a quest to get the whale, Moby Dick.

            This book isn’t bad. I will say that now. What it is, is far too bloody long. The audio book is 24 hours, and I would not feel like I was missing out if the book was half that length. Every scientific chapter on whales is useless, as are most of the chapters before we see life on the Pequod. I just wish it moved far quicker.

            I do love the narrator of the audio book I have, William Hootkins. I might have struggled to make my way through, even with his assistance, but his voice work is absolutely wonderful.

            There are parts of this book that genuinely surprised me. While the handling of cultures outside of white Christians was not perfect, it was far better than I thought. Many books that I’ve read from that time get nowhere near to the place where this comes from. It may be patronising at times, but it often seems to be coming from a place of attempting to learn more.

            I keep feeling like I want to write more. This book is so long, and such a short review feels wrong, but the only way I could do it justice would be to go through the whole book and review as I go along with the plot. I don’t think I could do that with this. I couldn’t read this book again. I’m glad I’ve read it once, but for me, once is all I need.

            I read this for study, and unless you really like really long books with hundreds of tangents, then I can’t say I recommend it. I really struggled to focus on it, and often zoned out from it. Though, if you really like whales, you’ll love it.