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themodvictorian's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
gardnerhere's review against another edition
5.0
Think I love this? First of the 2024 Tournament of Books longlist that has really snapped for me. It moves unlike anything I've ever read, and I'm fascinated to peek behind the curtains and see how this was made. It's a collaboration between a husband and wife that reads like an quarantined auto-fictional research adventure. Let's just make that a genre, k?
It's arranged like a series of Post-It notes (textually, not visually) that move through Melville's biography and the fraught marriage between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick and Emily Dickinson and being married in quarantine and and Melville's Hawthorne crush and marshaling kids through Zoom school during quarantine and the obsessiveness of Melvilliana and...and it's riveting? I couldn't wait to get back to it every time I put it down. I think it's structurally magnificent. It makes me want to (finally) power through the whale book, during which time I may read this three more times. I don't often read library books and then buy them. Here's one.
It's arranged like a series of Post-It notes (textually, not visually) that move through Melville's biography and the fraught marriage between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick and Emily Dickinson and being married in quarantine and and Melville's Hawthorne crush and marshaling kids through Zoom school during quarantine and the obsessiveness of Melvilliana and...and it's riveting? I couldn't wait to get back to it every time I put it down. I think it's structurally magnificent. It makes me want to (finally) power through the whale book, during which time I may read this three more times. I don't often read library books and then buy them. Here's one.
moosegurl2's review against another edition
2.0
"Mosterin, hoping to learn the novel's secrets, is tweeting Moby Dick, one sentence per day. She began 10 years ago and is not yet halfway through."
moosegurl's review against another edition
2.0
"Mosterin, hoping to learn the novel's secrets, is tweeting Moby Dick, one sentence per day. She began 10 years ago and is not yet halfway through."
jennpellecchia's review against another edition
I don’t know if I will ever understand this country’s obsession with Herman Melville, but this is beautifully written.
beatniksafari's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
craftbuzz's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
leonarkr's review against another edition
2.0
For a few semesters, I taught Melville's 'Moby Dick.' No matter how hard I tried, this was not a novel I could get my lit students to enjoy. It probably came through that I didn't love this bloated ode to whaling, whaling vessels, cutting up whales, though there's a small bit of a decent plot somewhere in this 400-page novel.
It was with a certain amount of hesitation that I approached 'Daywork,' a novel regarding one woman's pandemic-inspired fixation on learning more about Melville, his relationships (particularly his friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne), and other inspirations for MD's creation and writing, but 'Dawywork' wasn't much more interesting. I get going down a rabbit hole of researching and especially during the pandemic, but it's still the Moby Dick thing I cannot connect with. Also, Melville's letter correspondence with Hawthorne better illustrated their relationship and was published years ago in 'The Divine Magnet.'
It was with a certain amount of hesitation that I approached 'Daywork,' a novel regarding one woman's pandemic-inspired fixation on learning more about Melville, his relationships (particularly his friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne), and other inspirations for MD's creation and writing, but 'Dawywork' wasn't much more interesting. I get going down a rabbit hole of researching and especially during the pandemic, but it's still the Moby Dick thing I cannot connect with. Also, Melville's letter correspondence with Hawthorne better illustrated their relationship and was published years ago in 'The Divine Magnet.'