Irrespective of what Penguin Books claims ("White-Jacket is one of the greatest novels of the sea. . ."), Herman Melville's book about life aboard a USN frigate in 1843, and, by extension, life in general (the Neversink is to be viewed "as a microcosm of the larger world") -- hardly merits consideration, let alone commendation. However, it is an exercise in drudgery. Indeed, upon completing the semi-autobiographical account one feels as if having personally made the grueling fourteen-month voyage. The few gripping anecdotes are hardly sufficient to keep the reader involved, their underlying meanings being either diffuse, dry, trite -- or all of the above. Verdicts such as "shallow," or "dull reading," as posted by similarly frazzled readers, are accurate, if euphemistic. Typically marvelous Melvillian prose, though.

Irrespective of what Penguin Books claims ("White-Jacket is one of the greatest novels of the sea. . ."), Herman Melville's book about life aboard a USN frigate in 1843, and, by extension, life in general (the Neversink is to be viewed "as a microcosm of the larger world") -- hardly merits consideration, let alone commendation. However, it is an exercise in drudgery. Indeed, upon completing the semi-autobiographical account one feels as if having personally made the grueling fourteen-month voyage. The few gripping anecdotes are hardly sufficient to keep the reader involved, their underlying meanings being either diffuse, dry, trite -- or all of the above. Verdicts such as "shallow," or "dull reading," as posted by similarly frazzled readers, are accurate, if euphemistic. Typically marvelous Melvillian prose, though.

While White-Jacket seems to have little overall relation to Melville's other works in the sense that it appears as a self-contained, highly enjoyable novel, Redburn is one of those central turning points in this great writer's life that makes it extraordinarily important. Forget "adventure" or "romance." This is a novel of psychological destruction, a disasterous novel of "growing up" that displays the shattering of a young mind and the destruction of "young America." Any reader who loves Moby-Dick should devour Redburn again and again as one of Melville's most important works.