203 ratings (3.66 avg)
1 review

Chafic

Add friend

https://www.goodreads.com/chaficatallah

Chafic’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (5)
currently-reading‎ (1)
read‎ (202)
did-not-finish‎ (0)
classic-fiction‎ (66)
marxism‎ (40)

politics‎ (34)
philosophy‎ (28)
economics‎ (19)
history‎ (18)
psychology‎ (16)
contemporary-fiction‎ (15)

poetry‎ (12)
science‎ (12)
religion‎ (7)
theatre‎ (7)
ecology‎ (6)
bandes-dessinées‎ (4)

art‎ (3)
comics‎ (3)
advertising‎ (1)
feminism‎ (1)

Stats | More…

Chafic is Currently Reading

Chafic rated a book it was amazing

Moby-Dick or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

bookshelves: currently-reading, classic-fiction

Reading for the 2nd time

read in July 2019

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Chafic said: " Moby-Dick is a book that eludes.

I first encountered this Leviathan of a novel while working at a bookstore but didn’t give it much attention until seven years ago, having suddenly developed an interest in sailing and whaling for reasons not interesti Moby-Dick is a book that eludes.

I first encountered this Leviathan of a novel while working at a bookstore but didn’t give it much attention until seven years ago, having suddenly developed an interest in sailing and whaling for reasons not interesting enough to expose in this review, I decided that I was finally ready to take on The Whale.
I finished it in a month, which was record time for me, and it instantly became my favorite novel. I had finally conquered the Leviathan.

But as time went on, I increasingly felt all the knowledge that this great book was supposed to have imparted to me slipping from my fingers. It was like I hadn’t read it at all. My first battle with The Whale had left me wounded, but yet aching for a second chance.
And a second chance I did get. Today, seven years later, I am halfway through my second reading of Moby-Dick.

“Hark ye yet again—the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask!”

Words uttered by a man who sought (much as I did on my first reading) and famously failed to conquer the Leviathan by force. Die he did, but he did so with certainty in his heart.
But there is another man who studied the Whale and wished to understand it. He gathered information about the Whale on his travels and from his books, he split the Whale into neat categories based on book-printing formats, then spent chapter upon chapter generously sharing this knowledge with us, like eight pages discussing the significance of the color white.
Is this not just another means to try and conquer the unconquerable?
Famously too, Ishmael survived the final encounter but was forced to live with the knowledge that he cannot possibly know everything there is to know about the Whale.
Still, to both Ahab and Ishmael, the Whale was the world, and the truth that lives in the world, and everything they know and don’t but wish to know.

I am halfway through the book, and I am constantly looking up words, historical references, drawings and diagrams of ships and boats and harpoons, and photos of Nantucket and New Bedford. I am reciting every speech and sermon out loud in what I believe is a great American pirate accent. I am giving my all to the study of this novel and of Melville’s project, and yet I can’t shake the feeling that I’m still occasionally missing something or other, and that I might have to re-re-read the book in another seven years. But rather than feel frustration at these perceived interruptions and this perceived failure, all I feel is immense relief in knowing that I will never know everything.
Imagine having nothing left to learn… I shudder at the thought.

Call me Ishmael or call me Ahab, Moby-Dick is my White Whale. ...more "

Apr 14, 2026 03:34PM · see review