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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
A very interesting exploration of a world I don’t know much about and an obsession that I cannot understand. And a good old fashioned thievery.
This is history written like a heist. It's done very well. I had no idea the fly-tying underground was such a big deal. Fantastic read!
I first heard of this book from an episode of This American Life. It is a non fiction book about a man who stole bird skins from the Tring Museum in England. He was a master fly tyer and stole them for the purpose of making money by selling them to other fly tyers. The author of the book worked for years to bring translators to the US as refugees from Iraq. He had heard about Edwin Rist on a fishing trip and he was angered and moved to seek him out and to find out what happened to all the bird skins that were never returned.
While this may seem like a boring subject, it really is a very good book. Kirk Wallace Johnson gives a very good history of fly tying, as well as a history of the impact of both fly tying and fashion on the bird populations. Once again, we see white cultures decimating “faraway lands” for their own ridiculous fetishes. If that wasn’t enough, the man who stole the museums skins was also pursuing his own ridiculous fetish, and was able to get away with his crime by claiming he had Asperger’s l. He served no jail time. As well, he and the fly tying community never gave back the majority of the skins, which were at this point useless to the museum.
I highly recommend this book.
While this may seem like a boring subject, it really is a very good book. Kirk Wallace Johnson gives a very good history of fly tying, as well as a history of the impact of both fly tying and fashion on the bird populations. Once again, we see white cultures decimating “faraway lands” for their own ridiculous fetishes. If that wasn’t enough, the man who stole the museums skins was also pursuing his own ridiculous fetish, and was able to get away with his crime by claiming he had Asperger’s l. He served no jail time. As well, he and the fly tying community never gave back the majority of the skins, which were at this point useless to the museum.
I highly recommend this book.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
True crime meets natural history. An interesting story about three flawed and obsessive men reaping the wages of whiteness. The last third fell a bit flat, but I enjoyed it overall even if no one was likable.
We start with a Victorian gentleman scholar hoping to make a name for himself by collecting exotic bird specimens. Fast forward to the 1990s. Our thief, Edwin, is growing up to be an entitled young man, to the extent that he decides he can make better use of some dead birds than the museum can. Our narrator, suffering from PTSD and looking for a win, refocuses his savior complex onto changing the conclusion of Edwin's story to one that matches his own sense of justice. This last part becomes a bit of a slog, as it is mostly the story of how the author finds out the information that leads
Part of me really enjoyed the storytelling, or at least the first two thirds, and part of me struggled because I came to despise almost everyone in it. Our "brilliant" criminal is a smug, entitled white man, who is given an odd amount of reverence just because he has the necessary skills and childhood privilege to be notable in the fields of fly tying and flute playing.And of course, he gets off scot free because of his *promising* future and a highly questionable mental health argument. Our "noble" narrator is so obsessed with carceral justice that he spends years researching the crime and asking its victims whether they wouldn't feel better if the thief had served time. And how can he afford all this international investigative travel? And why is he dragging his new family along on this goose chase? And of course our historic scholar carries all the dubious standing of being a European explorer in "exotic" lands.
We start with a Victorian gentleman scholar hoping to make a name for himself by collecting exotic bird specimens. Fast forward to the 1990s. Our thief, Edwin, is growing up to be an entitled young man, to the extent that he decides he can make better use of some dead birds than the museum can. Our narrator, suffering from PTSD and looking for a win, refocuses his savior complex onto changing the conclusion of Edwin's story to one that matches his own sense of justice. This last part becomes a bit of a slog, as it is mostly the story of how the author finds out the information that leads
Part of me really enjoyed the storytelling, or at least the first two thirds, and part of me struggled because I came to despise almost everyone in it. Our "brilliant" criminal is a smug, entitled white man, who is given an odd amount of reverence just because he has the necessary skills and childhood privilege to be notable in the fields of fly tying and flute playing.
For those interested in the audio version, I'll mention that the narrator sounds like Matthew McConaughey without the twang.
A good, fast paced read with a sadly unfulfilling conclusion. Enjoy it for the journey, not the destination.
Fly tiers are some weird mother f’ers. No disrespect.
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
The first 30% of the book really dragged and I was not engaged but when the heist finally happened I was very interested in the story. I find it so annoying when I get referrals for criminals to assess if they have autism. Who knew the underlying world of fly fishing and feathers?
Really bizarre and fascinating. The story itself read like a novel and the history of the feather industry and fly tying was just so weird and eye-opening (that part did drag a bit for me, being a fiction girl who is really into a plot or character driven story but I was glad to have the knowledge after I slogged through it). I hated that we didn’t get a neatly tied up end but u guess that’s real life - and I’ll be keeping an eye out for updates about Edwin Rist in the future. There’s gotta be more out there to be figured out and he totally got away with it on a technicality - maybe he’ll try something again someday because boy is that kid cocky!