Moby Gut Reaction

We discussed Moby Dick in our book club / study group. Some of my friends liked it. Liked the whole whale-of-a-tale thing. A lot.

My view is that it's a great short story novelette. Yeah, about 77 pages of greatness. The rest is 333 pages of over-rateness.

The man cribbed long essays and padded his book ferociously, marring the thing atrociously.

If you love the book, just as it is, I apologize. I'm being flip here. I'm serious about my basic point, but I'm being rather rude about it.

Flaws and all, the book does make for a great discussion topic. To deny that would be myopic.

The good news is that Melville
is gone and can't damn me to hellville.