The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea

So this book was, like, $1. And I was heading to Japan, meaning 28 hours on a plane, plus many more on trains, etc. I like whales. I like whale watching (most recently in Maui last March at right and below), and I like science writing. (See my review of David Quammen's brilliant essays, for evidence of this). So, I figured why not? The answer is that, I'm sorry, but it was really, really boring. As in, at one point I was hoping that hour-after-hour might lull me to sleep, but no dice and so I continued, awake but bored all the way to Detroit.

Much of the book - or at least of the first half - read like an erudite book report on Moby Dick, which I didn't read for a reason. The history of whaling in America was fascinating, especially knowing a different side of the industry from The Richest Woman in America.  Occasionally, Philip Hoare would offer some nice insight, such as his observation that, "through whaling, America reached across the world for the first time; whaling exported its culture and ideas," but mostly I was bored. Also, his case -  or mine - was not helped by my visions of whale bacon, a Japanese delicacy on display at the Tsukiji Fish Market (and whose picture I have helpfully included below), and which I could not sufficiently banish, especially during Hoare's descriptions of rending the blubber. On the other hand, the comment about America exporting itself through whaling probably stuck because of the way our Tsukiji market guide noted that it was the Americans who taught the Japanese to hunt whales. Whatever the case, between my visions of whale bacon and the tiresome Moby Dick, I was done for.