Moby Dick — The New York Fly

Uh oh… whale time!

Herman Melville welcomes the reader to the world of main character Ishmael, a hardy man of the sea who doesn’t take any crap from anyone. At the beginning of this novel, Ishmael feels a longing for journey. He decides the destination best suited to scratch this adventurous itch is a whaling ship off the East coast. Not one to dilly dally, ol’ Ish-ey quickly packs his bags and heads down to Massachusetts. It’s during his stay at an inn there where he meets a town cannibal who becomes his best bud. They become such good pals, in fact, that Ishmael invites his new cannibal companion along for his whaling trip!

WRITER’S NOTE: When reading the remainder of this review, one must keep in mind that while I am, indeed, a writer, I am first and foremost a man. And after some sea fights and time on the boat with Ishamel and the gang, I realized that there were still over 200 pages left in this book. I didn’t really want to get into all of that so I sort of just filled in the blanks for the rest of this piece.

Once they head off to sea, the book becomes very whale-centered. If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be “whale.” Out of all the books I’ve read, this is definitely the book with the most whale-related content. While we encounter and get to know some new crazy characters, Melville firmly maintains his focus on whales throughout.

WRITER’S NOTE: I like whales a lot and I always have. I watched a documentary on National Geographic one time about whales and I found it really interesting. I find the little ones really cute.

Moby Dick reminded me of the movie, Jumanji (the Robin Williams one), a lot because this book has animals (whales) and so does Jumanji (other animals). Gun to my head, I would give Jumanji five out of five whales because I really liked the cast and production design.

Based on what other people have told me, Moby Dick is a generational piece of literature which will maintain its status as a masterwork until the end of time. Even when every physical copy of the novel is lost to history, the world’s oceans and those who dare challenge them will remember Melville’s haunting tale of the everlasting battle between man and beast.

Willie Nuttall