I couldn’t get through the book, either, the first couple of times I tried to read it. But on my third attempt I came to think that the obsession with whales itself, both Ahab’s and the author’s, was maybe more important than the plot. In any case, it’s a strange, fascinating book.
I should have noted that it was twenty years between my second, unsuccessful attempt at the book and my ultimately successful one. Maybe sometimes one has to become a different person to get it.
