karenstory 's review for:

Moby-Dick: Or, the Whale by Herman Melville

4.0

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Can you believe we actually read and discussed this in our Library Book Discussion group? Why not it was a classic! We also hosted a guest speaker a week later who was an expert on Herman Melville and had taught at our local university. It was actually quite the event for both weeks. And quite the discussion. I am constantly amazed what we can learn from these old classic tales.

Moby-Dick is an epic piece of literature. Rich in language and structure. As well as character and story.

It is about a man against a whale. And we can dissect the story philosophically all we want - and of course when we are in a book discussion group, we took our job seriously.

We have a sea voyage. The long, long, long search for Moby Dick, and then the adrenaline-fueled final days of the chase and fight. Man against creature? Man against nature?

Some of the themes of discussion that emerged:

*Human confronting the unanswerable question of existence.
*Grappling with the question of why bad things happen to good people.
*Why there is suffering in the world.
*Betrayal against One's body - even against himself.

Any way you look at it - there is heart in here. And lots and lots of room for discussion.