This is an amazing book, though I jokingly like to describe it as the best beginning and ending prose ever written with 100 chapters of whalefacts.tumblr.com sandwiched in between.

I was surprised nobody told me about (spoiler) the quite sincere same-sex interracial marriage early in the book, in which the one groom gives half of his worldly wealth to the other, and then they sleep together. Even if it isn't about sex, I'd think that scene would be better known if more than a few nerds like me read the book. It's in one of the greatest American novels, we've just gone through a great debate around marriage freedom, but actually reading it was the first time I came across it.

.. and how sudden the ending was right?

It's one of my favourite books too. I dip into it a few times a year reading specific chapters, I find it incredibly evocative.

This is the third book I am reading in my sequence of naval adventures.

Another great sea story: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.