This lovely little volume is a gift that keeps on giving. Its essays are simple, elegant, soulful, inspiring. And thought-provoking. You may well find yourself searching your own Christmas memories, and finding gems you had long forgotten. Which is what this book is all about -- seeing, hearing, remembering those things we take for granted, and cherishing them anew. This is a book to feed the heart, and the soul. And it's just the right size for stocking stuffing!

The kind of collection that is a great gift during the holidays for anyone - it reminds us of the spirit of the season and connects us to our past, our hopes, and the more important meaning of our lives! Great gift for family members, co-workers, neighbors and for anyone on your list!!

This is an amazing book that is a must-have for anyone that is in the industry, interested in being in the industry, or just plain interested in the world of digital video. Editing Digital Video by Robert M. Goodman and Patrick McGrath is an exceptionally well-written book that covers techniques in craft and theory about editing that can benefit the novice home video editor to the professional feature film editor. The authors complete the daunting task of covering all of the many different digital editing interfaces by stripping them down to the essentials. They also cover the many different kinds of formats, such as narrative, documentary, commercials, music video, etc. I found the Keyboard Shortcut Cross Reference exceptionally handy. This book also covers recording DVDs, EDL formats, and details about exporting graphics. Being an editor initially learning editing techniques by physically cutting film and graduating to digital video editing, I very much appreciated this book that respected editing as a craft and art.
The fundamentals about storytelling and editing are definitely worth reading. Some of it might be a bit too Editing 101, but surprisingly, held some gems. The "Films to Watch" chapter with films that have been recommended for different genres of editing to lists of Eddie Award Nominees and Oscar Nominees is an added bonus.
Written in a very readable and likeable prose, Editing Digital Video is an absolute joy and a must for any editing enthusiast, whether in trade or in hobby.

Let's face it, most people doing digital video are self-taught. Sure, there are some who've been to film school or have lots of experience with film but of all the DV camera owners, they're in the minority. The result: hours and hours and hours of weddings, school plays, birthday parties and... well... tripe. This book can help turn that tripe into gold because it covers the black art of editing.
Editing is one of those subjects that seems to be hard to teach through a book and, therefore, hard to learn. The solution employed by the authors is to include a CD containing three video clips for the reader to edit. The overall process is described in the text.
There's a wealth of other good information, some quite basic, some fairly advanced - a perusal of the table of contents will be informative to you.
Pros:
* Platform and edit system neutrality
* Video clips to edit
* Tour of all the important concepts
* Simple terminology

Cons:
* No finished professional edit of the project
* More detailed info on professional techniques would be nice

This is an amazing book that is a must-have for anyone that is in the industry, interested in being in the industry, or just plain interested in the world of digital video. Editing Digital Video by Robert M. Goodman and Patrick McGrath is an exceptionally well-written book that covers techniques in craft and theory about editing that can benefit the novice home video editor to the professional feature film editor. The authors complete the daunting task of covering all of the many different digital editing interfaces by stripping them down to the essentials. They also cover the many different kinds of formats, such as narrative, documentary, commercials, music video, etc. For the expert, I found the Keyboard Shortcut Cross Reference exceptionally handy. This book also covers recording DVDs, EDL formats, and details about exporting graphics. Being an editor initially learning editing techniques by physically cutting film and graduating to digital video editing, I very much appreciated this book that respected editing as a craft and art.
The fundamentals about storytelling and editing are definitely worth reading. Some of it might be a bit too Editing 101, but surprisingly, held some gems. The "Films to Watch" chapter with films that have been recommended for different genres of editing to lists of Eddie Award Nominees and Oscar Nominees is an added bonus.
Written in a very readable and likeable prose, Editing Digital Video is an absolute joy and a must for any editing enthusiast, whether in trade or in hobby.

The disturbing eeriness of the short story 'The Lottery' has stuck with me since my days of junior high school. Having never been exposed to any of Jackson's other work, I recently picked up _The Lottery and Other Short Stories_ hoping to find more morsels that equalled "The Lottery"s power. Did I find them? Nope - but I didn't find disappointment, either.

Jackson's short stories display a variety of themes, from thought-provoking political commentary to childlike whimsicality (and all points in-between). Likewise, some stories are well-developed, while others seem like little more than the skeleton jottings of an author's thoughts. When it's all said and done the stories provide worthwhile reading, but some are far more satisfying than others. "The Lottery" stands head and shoulders above the rest as the jewelled crownpiece; save it for last. It will stick with you like few stories you'll ever be priveleged to read.

I first read "The Lottery" in high school and it has stayed with me ever since. I bought this book for the title story, and it is the most powerful of the stories, though the others are also very entertaining. Hopefully it will also stay with you.

Ms Jackson is a phenomenally talented writer. You know immediately that there is something wrong with the simple village lottery, and the suspense and horror builds with every word. That this can be achieved in the space of a short story is amazing - we have a very lttle time before we are faced with the shocking truth.

"The Lottery" is the finest short story of its genre, and stands alone as one of the greatest stories ever written. Shirley Jackson is a master, and her novels "The Haunting of Hill House" and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" are also engrossing reads. But "The Lottery"? Well, you will never forget the twist in the tale.

If you've never read "The Lottery," you're wasting valuable time reading this review. Go buy the book and read it instead. If you have read "The Lottery," then odds are you already appreciate this dark, brilliant, horrific little story. It's one of the greatest horror stories ever written, and it's one of my favorites of all time to teach, as well. My students were all shocked and horrified by the story (not least by the fact that I would give them something that so offended them), but by the end of the semester, they came to love the story. The set-up is brilliant, and the twist ending is perfect: brutal, shocking, and short. Other reviewers have commented on the story's excellence for teaching things like the evil of tradition; it's also an excellent way to teach how ordinary people could become involved in something like the Nazi death camps.

The rest of the stories in the collection are uniformly excellent, as well, although I would recommend saving "The Lottery" for last. It's by far the most horrific in the collection, but Jackson's satire can be just as brutal as her horror, and there is more than a little of the horror of everyday life sprinkled throughout the rest of these tales. A must-buy!

I have been TOAD-devotee for several years now. I have found it as an indespensible tool for myself, and have converted my Oracle development departments at each of my employers to drop their current SQL tool (SQL*Station and Rapid*SQL in another) and pick up TOAD as the tool of choice for developers and business analyst alike.

Over the years I have found one feature after another that further solidifies my devotion to the tool. Now I finally have a book, that gives yet more hidden secrets. What a wonderful Christmas present it was when I opened it under the Christmas tree.

BChase
MylxHQ - Oracle Resource Portal...

In my past few years, I am working as a developer for an e-Banking System, I have an opportunity to know Oracle, however, I would like to know more about it, apart from reading books or being certified, the best way is to "Practise", there is an experienced DBAs told me you can use a tool called "TOAD" for your reference, you will be much faster to be on tract and see what's going on in Oracle, it helps during load test and development time. Also, it is a tool for Oracle developer, some of my friends test their program in Oracle, but it is not a good practice and TOAD provides a good way for us to defend our standard and practice.

Actually, why do you need this book ? Why don't you just download the documentation or print out the manual from [the website]?

The reason is simple: This book is precise and direct.
This book likes provides clear steps for you to achieve various functions including administration, debugging , SQL and Procedures.

If you find, there are two books called Unix For Oracle and Oracle DBA Checklists, those are simple and crucial steps required by DBA as well as manager, we don't need a thick book with 800 pages, we just need a book with 100 pages and portable.

I strongly recommend this book for consultants and developers.

It helps me to solve problems many times...:>

Anthony

I've been downloading TOAD for a few years, but mostly done the same old stuff in the same old way. This book, by the TOADman himself, has been great because it covers the 95% of options I've never bothered with, especially the right-button mouse-click options. I wouldn't claim a 500% increase in TOAD productivity, but maybe a 50% one, when using TOAD, especially with PL/SQL. And the size of the book is great too, perfect for coat pockets, and the desktop, with all the tabs, clicks and being being quickly accessible. Nice work.

This early work of Patrick McGrath is an interesting mix of good and not-so-good short stories (mostly 'gothic' tales - ie, the strange, bizarre, and unexpected). While on the whole the book is enjoyable and very readable, it's hardly an example of McGrath better works. But McGrath fans will love it.

Fan that I am of director David Cronenberg, I learned recently that his next film was to be an adaptation of "Spider" by David McGrath. "Who is this David McGrath?" I wondered. A look at some customer reviews on Amazon was followed by a quick trip to the local library, where several of his books were available. But rather that go straight for "Spider," I decided to check out "Blood and Water" instead. I figured that I could better decide if McGrath was my cup of tea by reading a few of his short stories. And now I'm VERY glad this writer came to my attention, because I gobbled up this collection quickly and have just begun reading "Spider."

Patrick McGrath has a style all his own. It's very Gothic ... almost Baroque (and hope I'm using that term in an acceptable way). Although McGrath has been pegged as a horror writer, theses are not stories that are necessarily scary; rather, they make the most of weird or ghastly scenarios with humor, affection, and pathos. Most of the stories are written in the third person, though a few are written in the first. Either way, you imagine being TOLD these stories by an actor on a stage. The style is full of descriptive flourishes and absurd observations. If you are the sort of reader that enjoys reading an occasional paragraph OUT LOUD simply because it's written in such a witty and dramatic way, you need to read this book.

Patrick McGrath is an oddity in literature. He is a literary horror writer, the very type that was nearly terminated by the mass-market horror matrons. His writing elegantly chilling, it evokes fear, rather then explaining it. That very thing, being able to hint at the deepest terror seems to be a very wanted commodity in the horror community. But even more impressively, McGrath is brilliant writer. He does not overdo the exposition in his stories, yet still elicits emotional response. Well, lets get to the book before the reader's die of hypo-praise-osis, lets get to the book. Blood Water and Other Tales is a collection of 13 short stories, macabre in tone. I don't want to ruin any of them for you, so I will just talk about one story. (the rest are of equal or better quality)

"The Angel" is a story about telling stories, or at least I view it that way. In the process of the narrative, the reader learns about both the narrator, and about the mysterious man he befriends. The language reflects the feel of urban decay, as the story is set in a hot New York City summer, where all the apartments seem to be falling apart. But what distinguish this story is both the method of narrative and the final twist. "The Angel's" main plot is told through a combination of narration and the storytelling of the mysterious man, Harry Talboys. As for the final twist, I cannot reveal anything, for that would spoil it. So, buy the BOOK! Ben Shepard Patrick McGrath is an oddity in literature. He is a literary horror writer, the very type that was nearly terminated by the mass-market horror matrons. His writing elegantly chilling, it evokes fear, rather then explaining it. That very thing, being able to hint at the deepest terror seems to be a very wanted commodity in the horror community. But even more impressively, McGrath is brilliant writer. He does not overdo the exposition in his stories, yet still elicits emotional response. Well, lets get to the book before the reader's die of hypo-praise-osis, lets get to the book. Blood Water and Other Tales is a collection of 13 short stories, macabre in tone. I don't want to ruin any of them for you, so I will just talk about one story. (the rest are of equal or better quality) "The Angel" is a story about telling stories, or at least I view it that way. In the process of the narrative, the reader learns about both the narrator, and about the mysterious man he befriends. The language reflects the feel of urban decay, as the story is set in a hot New York City summer, where all the apartments seem to be falling apart. But what distinguish this story is both the method of narrative and the final twist. "The Angel's" main plot is told through a combination of narration and the storytelling of the mysterious man, Harry Talboys. As for the final twist, I cannot reveal anything, for that would spoil it. So, buy the BOOK!

Ben Shepard

Dr. Haggard's Disease is intriguing because of the way it's written: the protagonist addresses another character in the story.
But there isn't a whole lot of plot. Dr. Haggard falls in love with his pathologist's wife, Fanny. She dumps him. There's an assault; Dr. Haggard falls down a stairs, breaking his hip. Throughout the book, he refers to this ailment as Spike. He takes morphine, tries to kick it, can't. He's fired after the "accident" and goes to live in the south of England at a house called Elgin, where he treats a retirement community. But then Fanny's son, a WWII Spitfire pilot comes to see him. He's found out about his mother's affair and wants to know more about Haggard. That's when the book really really gets strange. Haggerd turns his obsession on James and we're wondering whether Haggerd's disease is his obsession with Fanny or insanity. James finally shuns the doctor, worried that there may be some homosexual interest. But that's not the doctor's take. He's worried the boy may have a disease, a disease that will remind you of THE CRYING GAME. Of course, we're not sure what's happening to James is really occurring because of the unreliability of the narrator. I read the novel because I wanted to see how McGrath handled the unusual point of view, but I wouldn't recommend it for the beach.

While I enjoyed Dr. Haggard, it didn't compare to Asylum or Spider.
For me, the book ended up being about a poor loser who couldn't get over his brief love affair. On some levels I can relate, but at some point you have to move on. Dr. Haggard did not move on, and eventually moved even further out there (as you'll learn from reading this book).
I love Mr. Mcgrath's writing and his novels and look forward to more of his work.

McGrath is an excellent writer - as a purveyor of 'modern gothic' he has few peers. I have to agree with another reviewer that this is not his best work - SPIDER is amazing, and ASYLUM and THE GROTESQUE both rise to heights not matched here - but it has many good points, and is definitely head and shoulders above much of the gothic literature on the market today.

The story is set at the beginning of the Second World War, and is told by Dr. Edward Haggard to the adult son of a woman with which the doctor had an ill-fated affair - but rather than being told in words, it plays itself out in an instant, in the minds of the narrator. Dr. Haggard sees himself as a grotesque character - his head is large, out of proportion to his body size, with a shock of wild, unkempt hair; he walks with a limp and a stick, as a result of a hip injury sustained at the hands of his lover's husband, a fellow doctor; he has become addicted to morphine in attempting to quell the recurring pain from this injury; and since the ending of the affair, he is prone to depression and melancholy, which are not helped by his choice of a new abode: a foreboding house perched atop a cliff on the southeastern coast of England, in a small town that will bear the brunt of a German invasion, if one should come.

Throughout the story we hear Haggard attempt to reconcile the deep love and passion he experienced during the course of his affair with the pain and separation he feels after its inevitable end. He ruminates at length on his beliefs on the nature of love, of passion, of life itself. When a young British airman comes to his door, and turns out to be the son of the woman with whom he remains obsessed, he sees the young man's mother reborn, and quickly becomes obsessed with him. This obsession, as it turns out, has a physiological and medical basis, as well as an emotional one.

The story is a dark one - and fans of McGrath's fine writing should expect nothing else - but it has many bright moments. Many of Dr. Haggard's ideas and views on the nature of love and passion are moving, and will most likely resonate within many readers, coming close to things that they feel themselves. The story is an unusual take on the 'depression after and affair gone wrong' motif, and in the hands of McGrath, it is a memorable piece of writing - moving and disturbing at the same time.

I lost myself in this almost-torrential syntax, used by the author. The book is not just unputdownable, but we draw inexorably further and further into the mind of spider.
Who is spider?
The first time we meet him, he is a man who is recalling his younger years, as a boy who lived in loneliness because he felt different than other young men.
Little by little we can recognize the first signs of his acute schizophrenia, the way that he watches how daily things change. We follow Spider across the years (when Hilda, a new partner of his father's, takes the place of his mother in his house); the feeling of hate and missing the humanity of his mother and long years in a mental hospital).
This portrait of madness puts us in a spiral of anxiety and compassion and I consider McGrath to be a master story-teller.

...take a step into Spider's mind -- and after you do that, you'd better pray that the door didn't slam shut behind you. You're definitely going to want a way out -- this is a pret-ty scary place.

Of the three novels and one book of short stories I've read by Patrick McGrath, this, I believe, is his masterpiece. As Spider narrates his story -- in an almost-torrential syntax that in itself reveals a lot about him -- the reader is inexorably drawn further and further into the mind of a man who is slipping away before our eyes. Spider is hanging on to the ledge of reality by his fingernails, while events conspire to take their turn trodding on his fingers. His thoughts and fears are as real to us as if they were our own. His world -- more-or-less present-day London -- seems as alien to us as a Martian landscape. Everyday people, events, objects and places leap out of the mist at him with frightening intensity -- we feel our breath and our pulse quicken repeatedly as he/we attempt to deal with the ever-more threatening reality of daily life in a halfway house, as images and ghosts from the past intermingle with pieces of the present, and it gets harder and harder to tell one from the other.

McGrath is, at the core, a master story-teller. His interest in the psychological most likely stems from his father's work at Broadmoor Hospital in England, where he grew up. All of his works share an eye for detail, and the care he takes in doing his homework is very apparent. This book is one of the most compelling, captivating and frightening portraits of madness I have ever read -- and it's thoroughly entertaining as well. It's staggering how much power McGrath has been able to cram into this slim volume -- without crowding out a fine story, told with a uniquely fractured clarity and in an unforgettable tone.

The reader is also encouraged to check out a couple of his other fine novels: ASYLUM and THE GROTESQUE. The former is one of the most unusual love stories I've ever run across, and the latter will surprise and reward you with its combination of suspense and wickedly funny humor.

I'll take Patrick McGrath, a true modern master of the Gothic style, over any of the mass-producing 'scary novel' writing machines (who are so in vogue) any day. The quality of his work will surely stand the test of time. I would suggest not reading any of these with the light off, but that would be difficult, would it not...

Reading this book, it is easy to see why Cronenberg decided to film it-- it takes place in the macabre world of the mind of a mentally deranged man, a schizophrenic who obsesses over the mysterious death of his mother. Those looking for Stephen King-type thrills should look elsewhere, as this book's chills are much more subtle and realistic. I haven't seen the movie yet, but if any filmmaker could capture the twisted gothic atmosphere of the book, it is Cronenberg.

McGrath's popular works (Spider, Asylum, Dr. Haggard's Disease) are known for being compact, psychological dramas with a paranormal twist. These novels exhibit not only intriguing stories but also show the effectiveness of writing in the first person. The Grotesque is McGrath's first novel. Although it shows the promise of his capabilities as an author, the book does not compare to his later works.

The Grotesque is a relatively light-hearted "gothic comedy". It contains the requisite spooky house, sinister butler, a murder, and some strange happenings. But it is all rather tongue-in-cheek. This comedy aspect disarms the scary elements, which all seems to trivialize the novel. It comes off as a good made-for-TV movie script, and not a serious novel. In fact the characterizations in The Grotesque are surprisingly weak.

So The Grotesque is a "McGrath-light" sort of novel. I recommend seeing the film version of it, which is probably available on video, and invest your time on his other novels.

This is McGrath's first book, and it's a good one. A goof on the familiar Gothic novel, it tells the story of the hostile take-over of a creepy old estate by the owner's butler. However, since the narrator is in a state of complete paralysis, and quite possibly insane, his story is suspect. Is the butler really doing the nasty with Sir Hugo's wife? Who murdered the insipid fiance of Sir Hugo's daughter and fed him to the estate's pigs? What REALLY happened in Sir Hugo's barn workshop the day he became paralyzed?

A black comedy of murder and manners, THE GROTESQUE provides us with the requsite gloomy mansion, a dismal swamp, a suspicious servant, bad plumbing, and a possible inspiration for Thomas Harris's HANNIBAL. I recommend it.

I've now read Asylum, Spider, Dr. Haggards Disease and The Grotesque and I would definitely put this one in at #3, behind Asylum and Spider.
This story got me thinking about how awful life would be if you were a vegetable and noone knew you were able to understand everything around you. McGrath's narrators are always "one sandwich short of a pincic" and you have to think about what's really happening/happened vs. what the narrator said happened. I enjoyed the story quite a bit, and still have many unanswered questions!

I picked up this book about a month ago after reading that Stephen King had written the screenplay for the upcoming Jonathan Demme film adaptation (King's first script not based on his own material). I was curious to see what the book was like.

Before I was more than a couple of pages into "Asylum," I had already been grabbed by the magnetic pull of McGrath's darkly elegant narrative style. He's quite talented at setting a gloomy mood, the kind that, if you're a fan of Poe or Lovecraft, you just can't get enough of.

The gloom that hangs over the opening pages just builds and builds as you progress through this book. There's no escape, no asylum from the psychological claustrophobia of the characters' dark minds and ruined hearts. The psychiatrist who narrates the story of Stella and Edgar's destructive love affair gone horribly wrong proves to be much less distanced from all this obsessive madness than he would like to think. I came away from the book feeling that the narrator, in his calm, balanced way of trying to proclaim his sense of reason is probably the most unbalanced of all the unbalanced characters in this book.

This book is very well written and quite perceptive. If it weren't also so damned depressing, I would have given it five stars. Still, I would recommend it to readers who like their fiction dark, brooding and psychologically compelling.

As a gothic horror story, "Asylum" succeeds on the level of its atmospheric intensity. However, the brooding sense of foreboding that just builds and builds doesn't quite lead anywhere. In the absence of any discernable climax to the plot, the reader experiences none of the cathartic release he expects from the denouement in a novel of this genre. The subject is clearly Stella, the psychiatrist's (Max's) wife. The other characters are just wallpaper and background noise. Whether intended or not, the author has left me with the impression that her fatal obsession with Edgar, the hospital's murderously dangerous patient, has in fact nothing to do with Edgar. Edgar is simply the catalyst for the release of Stella's pent up frustration and hatred for her dead emotional life with Max. It could well have been anyone else. The disappointment is that Edgar started off as a fascinating Hannibal Lector type character until McGrath lost interest in him midway and decided to write him out of the plot. Well, almost. You keep waiting and waiting for his return but he doesn't quite show up. The use of Peter as first person narrator is, on the other hand, an eerily effective technical devise. You keep guessing at his possible entanglement in the whole sordid business and this works wonders in keeping up the suspense. Whatever the novel's shortcomings, McGrath makes up for the small disappointment of its underwhelming ending with his spellbinding way with words. He is such an accomplished writer I would gladly read anything by him anyday. His prose is smoooth as silk and always magnificently crafted. Not quite the stunner I expected but still, a worthy and enjoyable read.

I like the idea of the gothic thriller: dank, roaming vistas, be they an insane asylum or windswept North Wales landscapes, coupled w/ depressed, furtive movements by the main players. Asylum seemed to hold that promise when I saw it. This is my first McGrath book, but won't be the last. The narrative was taut and controlled, but also interestingly languid, one could sense the mental disintegration and exhaustion on all players as the story wore on and slowly rose to its crescendo. I caught myself thinking of Poe's "the Fall of the House of Usher" a couple times later in the story as the landscapes were described [black pools of water, barren landscapes] and the characters inner turmoil prodded their own heightened sense of self-awareness to come bubbling up. Considering the fact that most of the characters are either psychiatrists, or immediately influenced by them [wives, patients] one can see where they would have the vocabulary and insight to adequately describe their mania. Make no mistake, this is Stella's story. The madman Edgar Stark is along for the ride, but isn't fleshed out to make him a star ala Hannibal [the current read]. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it for those seeking a subtle, sublime entry into this genre.

I can't believe I reached my 30's (even majored in English) without reading Moby Dick. I was turned off on Melville during college when an overzealous teacher assigned us what he called Melville's "worst book," Pierre, Or the Ambiguities. I still don't remember WHY he chose that one, but it was not particularly good. So, while I hunted down many classics, this was not one of them. Then, after finding an old edition in a library sale for $.10, I decided it must be a sign. I was completely enraptured from the beginning. The opening chapters that describe Ismael and Queequog's relationship are stunning. Then, the focus shifts and like the crew, we become accustomed to life on the ship. In fact, the process of reading Moby Dick mirrors the process of getting your sea legs. The years at sea drag on almost as long for us, but I don't mean this in a bad way. I found the whaling chapters fascinating although I did expect to be bored by them. Looking back, it's interesting that Ishmael becomes so secondary in the middle of the book we feel a kind of literary illusion that he disappears until the end. Instead, we take on the characteristics of the crew watching with horror as fixation takes over Ahab. My favorite scene takes place when Ahab is so crazed in his single minded pursuit that he turns down the captain of the Rachel's request to look for his lost son. Though reading Moby Dick is a struggle, lots of great literature doesn't come easy (Magic Mountain comes to mind) -- if you're up for the challenge, go for it. It's infinitely rewarding for a strong reader. Plus, you can always rent the movie with Gregory Peck which is pretty damned good and much shorter!

I first read Moby Dick; or The Whale over thirty years ago and I didn't understand it. I thought I was reading a sea adventure, like Westward Ho! or Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym. In fact, it did start out like an adventure story but after twenty chapters or so, things began to get strange. I knew I was in deep water. It was rough, it seemed disjointed, there were lengthy passages that seemed like interruptions to the story, the language was odd and difficult, and often it was just downright bizarre. I plodded through it, some of it I liked, but I believe I was glad when it ended. I knew I was missing something and I understood that it was in me! It wasn't the book; it was manifestly a great book, but I hadn't the knowledge of literature or experience to understand it.

I read it again a few years later. I don't remember what I thought of it. The third time I read it, it was hilarious; parts of it made me laugh out loud! I was amazed at all the puns Melville used, and the crazy characters, and quirky dialog. The fourth or fifth reading, it was finally that adventure story I wanted in the first place. I've read Moby Dick more times than I've counted, more often than any other book. At some point I began to get the symbolism. Somewhere along the line I could see the structure. It's been funny, awesome, exciting, weird, religious, overwhelming and inspiring. It's made my hair stand on end...

Now, when I get near the end I slow down. I go back and reread the chapters about killing the whale, and cutting him up, and boiling him down. Or about the right whale's head versus the sperm whale's. I want to get to The Chase but I want to put it off. I draw Queequeg with his tattoos in the oval of a dollar bill. I take a flask with Starbuck and a Decanter with Flask. Listen to The Symphony and smell The Try-Works. Stubb's Supper on The Cabin Table is a noble dish, but what is a Gam? Heads or Tails, it's a Leg and Arm. I get my Bible and read about Rachel and Jonah. Ahab would Delight in that; he's a wonderful old man. For a Doubloon he'd play King Lear! What if Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of The Whale? Would Fedallah blind Ishmael with a harpoon, or would The Pequod weave flowers in The Virgin's hair?

Now I know. To say you understand Moby Dick is a lie. It is not a plain thing, but one of the knottiest of all. No one understands it. The best you can hope to do is come to terms with it. Grapple with it. Read it and read it and study the literature around it. Melville didn't understand it. He set out to write another didactic adventure/travelogue with some satire thrown in. He needed another success like Typee or Omoo. He needed some money. He wrote for five or six months and had it nearly finished. And then things began to get strange. A fire deep inside fret his mind like some cosmic boil and came to a head bursting words on the page like splashes of burning metal. He worked with the point of red-hot harpoon and spent a year forging his curious adventure into a bloody ride to hell and back. "...what in the world is equal to it?"

Moby Dick is a masterpiece of literature, the great American novel. Nothing else Melville wrote is even in the water with it, but Steinbeck can't touch it, and no giant's shoulders would let Faulkner wade near it. Melville, The pale Usher, warned the timid: "...don't you read it, ...it is by no means the sort of book for you. ...It is... of the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hausers. A Polar wind blows through it, & birds of prey hover over it. Warn all gentle fastidious people from so much as peeping into the book..." But I say if you've never read it, read it now. If you've read it before, read it again. Think Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, Goethe, and The Bible. If you understand it, think again.

It's always dangerous to label a book as a "masterpiece": that word seems to scare away most readers and distances everyone from the substance of the book itself. Still, I'm going to say that this is the Greatest American Novel because I really think that it is--after having read it myself.

Honestly, Moby Dick IS long and looping, shooting off in random digressions as Ishmael waxes philosophical or explains a whale's anatomy or gives the ingredients for Nantucket clam chowder--and that's exactly what I love about it. This is not a neat novel: Melville refused to conform to anyone else's conventions. There is so much in Moby Dick that you can enjoy it on so many completely different levels: you can read it as a Biblical-Shakespearean-level epic tragedy, as a canonical part of 19th Century philosophy, as a gothic whaling adventure story, or almost anything else. Look at all the lowbrow humor. And I'm sorry, but Ishmael is simply one of the most likable and engaging narrators of all time.

A lot of academics love Moby Dick because academics tend to have good taste in literature. But the book itself takes you about as far from academia as any book written--as Ishmael himself says, "A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard." Take that advice and forget what others say about it, and just experience Moby Dick for yourself.