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

This is the best book I’ve read in a long time. Beautifully written… very interesting play between personal story and historical science writing.

Why Fish Don’t Exist; as mentioned above in one of the longest write-ups I have read for such a small book, is a book from the NPR reporter Lulu Miller on David Starr Jordan, a taxonomist who was also the first Chancellor of the Stanford University in California, US. The book starts by simultaneously describing her own personal crisis and then introducing David Starr Jordan, a man born during the mid-19th century in the state of New York, who was highly interesting in observing an understanding nature during his childhood. Considering the author’s personal crisis, she wanted to seek inspiration from the life of David Starr Jordan, whom despite his circumstances, had immense levels of confidence and on the face of any crisis, looked for a solution to make the solution better. However, the more she learned about him, the more she learned of a dark side to his personality and the consequences of his actions. I was initially apprehensive about the book considering I had heard of David Jordan, who was the first Chancellor of Stanford University and also an early proponent of eugenics. However, these fears did not last long as the writer explored all sides to him and it did not lead to unnecessary levels of glorification and in fact, quite the opposite. The book did seem directionless in the initial phases and left me confused if the objective was to talk about herself or if this was a biography of David Starr Jordan. Portraying him as someone beating the odds did not sit well with me considering he seemed very successful at quite a young age. But as it went, I enjoyed reading the book, especially the latter half, where we learn a lot of dark aspects which most are unaware of – like the forced sterilisation programmes that were carried out in the United States inspired by scientists like Jordan. The author also brought about her disillusionment over David Jordan very well, considering his work often involved exploiting the locals in Japan or Polynesia without giving them credit for the ‘discovery’ of the fish, a murder allegation against him, etc. The ending justified the title and was also powerful as the author figures her own way to deal with her personal crisis. And I need to mention here that I loved the illustrations by Kate Samworth at the beginning of every chapter. On that note, I would say that the book was an enjoyable read – has a beautiful cover and good illustrations, to add to the reading experience. Would recommend it as a light read (which deals with a lot of heavy topics) and on that note, I would award the book a rating of four on five.

Eine vielschichtige Geschichte, in der es vordergründig auch um die Biografie des Gründers der Stanford University geht. Mit einer frischen Perspektive, die neben den hochgelobten Wissenschaftler seine wenig menschenfreundliche Haltung stellt. Und sich ausführlich mit Geschichte und Sinn der Klassifikation von Lebewesen beschäftigt. Lehrreich, klug und bis zuletzt spannend.

I only read the first few pages and it’s an interesting book…also the cover page is nice

The book itself was great, however the packaging was a bit faulty. When I received the book, the top cover and a few pages were wrinkled and a little damaged. Overall, could have done a better job in the packaging process, but other than that, once again the book itself was a great read.