Moby Dick

I've seen Gregory Peck's Moby Dick a few times and was looking forward to listening to this "classic".It's a great story but there's a Pacific Ocean of whaling trivia to wade through every hour or so.Barry is right, get the abridged version or the movie.I've trudged through and enjoyed many drawn out Victorian novels. None have tried my patience as much as Melville did.

This felt like the longest book I've ever listened to and that's saying something considering I've listened to "War and Peace" and several other nearly as long.Melville gives an in depth look at whales and whaling circa 1850.While some of this is interesting, it is also a bit dry, like listening to a text book at times. I abhor violence against animals, which made this book an odd choice for me and made it difficult to listen to the descriptions of whale hunting.I wanted to read it anyway to see how Melville handled attitudes towards the whales the morality of the hunt.I was not wholly satisfied on that regard. Hootkin's performance was excellent, breathing life into what could have been a very laborious listen.