Our book club picked 'Moby-Dick' and the meeting turned into a fight about the whale

Jesse Nguyen · 2026-04-21T00:05:08.594863+00:00

We were at the local coffee shop last month, and one guy kept saying the whale was just a whale, nothing more. Another member got so mad she said he was 'missing the entire point of literature.' It got so loud the barista had to ask us to keep it down. Has anyone else had a book club debate go completely off the rails like that?

barbara844mo ago

Oh man @john_singh, that debate about the whale sounds exactly like my book club's meltdown over "The Road." One lady kept saying it was just a sad dad and son walking around, and my friend Linda started crying about symbolism lol. We had to switch to coffee and gossip for the rest of the night.

6

john_singh5mo ago

So did the guy who said it's just a whale finish the book? Because the whole last part is pretty hard to read as just a fishing trip.

2

leow905mo ago

My friend's group almost broke up over whether Gatsby was a good guy or not (people got way too into it). They had to take a month off before picking another book.

2