MOBY-DICK or THE WHALE by HERMAN MELVILLE

"Close! stand close to me, Starbuck; let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better to gaze upon God!"

PR: 8.6/10

I don't know where to begin it from. Reading Moby-Dick was like a literal voyage for me onto the heart of the ocean, hunting a goddamn whale!

Yes, Moby-Dick felt less of a novel and more of a whaling encyclopedia, but that doesn't limit Melville's imagination.

The story is about an old man, Captain Ahab who holds a grudge against a sperm whale called Moby-Dick, who is responsible for his disability. He wages an unholy meaningless war against the creature who is as vast and unknown as the sea itself.

The book was 80 percent information and 20 percent novel. It was worth it, easily worth it.

But even upon chasing and raging this meaningless on the sperm whale, Ahab and his crew members go through intense characterization, both spiritually and morally.

The narrator of the story, Ishmael as he calls himself boards the whaling ship where Ahab is the captain along with officials such as Stubb, Starbuck on the ship called Pequod from a place known as Nantucket.

This novel is very hilarious and at the same time it doesn't take times get serious and grim at all. Ahab, against all odds and opinions of Starbuck, finds reason and logic in his madness. But its this same madness and stubbornness which is the cause if his own and other's around him's demise.

I won't say it was an easy read because it clearly was not. You had to spend extra time which each passage, chewing them down to bits and slowly swallowing.

Ahab's soliloquies are one of the attraction of this novel. He doesn't misses a chance to spit out philosophy.

But in this battle of men vs whale who will prevail and at what cost?

Its a voyage that one must take on. Only then shall you know.

Thank you for reading.