As someone who loves Herman Melville's work, I can explain. This rating is ALMOST a three, I swear!

I'll never understand why out of all of Melville's work, this is one that's remained his namesake. At the time of writing, Melville was riding high off of previous works like "Typee" and "Omoo" (even if the latter wasn't nearly as popular). "The Whale" was the beginning of the end for ol' Herman's fall from grace. An estimated less than three hundred copies were sold at its release, and only just recently has it risen from the depths and taken on the title of The Greatest American Novel Ever Written.

Is it written well? You bet! Some of Melville's most gorgeously descriptive prose is littered throughout this monster of a book, you just have to get through all of the chapters about harpoons and rope to find it.

For many people, this will be the only Melville they know. They'll never see his (supposedly true but probably not) high-flying adventures in the Polynesian islands in "Typee". It may have been his first novel, but it's always the one I recommend to people first when it comes to Melville's library. It's either that or his excellent short stories.

"The Whale" certainly has found a deep emotional connection with a lot of people, but I'm not one of them. Never mind the fact that the descriptions of the whaling itself is often as abhorrent as it is beautiful in style, it just has so much riddled in there that it doesn't need.