Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 3,111 ratings

Price: 11.8

Last update: 07-16-2024


Top reviews from the United States

Lark of The Bookwyrm's Hoard
5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, surprising, and ultimately hopeful
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2024
WHY FISH DON'T EXIST is a short but well-written and captivating book which combines biography, memoir, science (particularly taxonomy), and philosophy. Written by Lulu Miller, who cohosts both RadioLab and NPR’s Invisibilia podcast, the book recounts Miller’s fascination and subsequent disillusionment with David Starr Jordan, a prominent scientist and scholar during the late 19th and early 20th century. An ichthyologist, passionate about taxonomy, Jordan rose to become the first president of Stanford University and, following his retirement, an outspoken advocate for peace. But as Miller shares her discoveries about Jordan with the reader, a darker side of the man emerges.

Miller’s writing is engaging, even poetic at times, and she certainly knows how to tell a story. She punctuates the biographical chapters with sections on her own life and her struggle to find meaning and order in a universe where chaos reigns supreme. Despite some darker sections*, it’s ultimately a hopeful book, and one I am glad to have read.

*CW: Readers should be aware that the book includes discussions of some difficult topics, including suicidal ideation, eugenics, and murder.
C. M. Godfrey
4.0 out of 5 stars Provocative
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2021
This is a book in three parts, memoir, philosophy, biography. The memoir is of a thirty year old on a quest of self-discovery. The philosophy is a deep analysis of the interrelation of all things in nature and the uniqueness of each one. The biography is of David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University and an ichthyologist who identified and catalogued over 2500 species of fish.

The author's insights are provocative and her point of view is interesting to read and appreciate without regard to whether it can be accepted in whole cloth. She is intrigued by David Starr Jordan and his tenacious pursuit of his objectives regardless of the hardships, disappointments set-backs that he encountered. She tries to incorporate that tenaciousness into her own quests.

The book is admirable for the amount of research she put into its writing. Its one major flaw is the author's need to "cancel" David Starr Jordan because of his adoption of eugenics. As odious as we view the eugenics movement today, a century ago it was "accepted science." David Starr Jordan may have been one of the more prominent proponents of eugenics, but he was not the only one, by far. To the contrary, the eugenics movement largely drove American immigration policy in the late Nineteenth Century and early Twentieth Century. To dismiss Jordan because of his views on eugenics deprives us of the breadth of his other notable work.
Emmessey
5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be missed!
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2024
Science, mental health, and personal fulfillment topics merge in this beautifully and brilliantly written book. Not to mention revealing information on the sad chapter of American history, eugenics, and one of its most ardent supporters.
Jim Reed
5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorites!
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2024
The last time I raved about a book was Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude--and that was over 25 years ago. I'm always hesitant to push a book strongly, but this book was well written, heavily (but not too) detailed, full of twists and turns, and just took my breath away as it ended. Read it!
David T. Johnson
3.0 out of 5 stars Good biography, bad memoir
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2020
This book tries to do three things, and does one of them well. (1) As a mini-biography of taxonomist David Starr Jordan, it rocks. Among other fascinating findings, who knew that the (exceedingly gritty and persistent) first President of Stanford University may have murdered the wife of Stanford's founder? (2) As an account of fish and science and life, the book is OK, but it is not deep or original. (3) As a memoir, it belly-flops. On p.34 we are told that the author (at age 7) asked her father "What's the meaning of life?" And we are told that he told her, "Nothing!... as special as you might feel, you are no different than an ant. A bit bigger, maybe, but not more significant, except, do I see you aerating the soil? Do I see you feeding on timber to accelerate the process of decomposition?" How's that for realistically describing how a dad speaks to his first-grade daughter? And then at the the end of the book (p.190), after the author has told us about her frequent suicidal ideations and attempts, we are told that her enlightenment came in a flash, when she went swimming with her girlfriend in Bermuda, and the girlfriend removed her bikini shorts and "swam out before me, liberated, frog-kicking just to let me look...through the clarity of a snorkel...to look" (p.190). This, we are told, is when the author knew that she was done. In her own capital letters: "I NEVER WANT A LIFE WITHOUT THIS PERSON." After describing this remarkable event (which I paraphrase as "I saw her genitals underwater and now I feel fine!"), the author informs us that the best way of ensuring that *we* do not miss the gifts of life is "to admit, with every breath" that we have no idea what we are looking at (p.191). Given what was described on the preceeding pages, the conclusion would have more coherence if it recommended that readers go to Bermuda and find some genitals to look at through a snorkel.

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