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A review by erinflight
The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson
3.0
This book is incredibly well written for a non-fiction book, a genre which often struggles with being overly dry or factual. It's also very engaging. I tend to read non-fiction books in much smaller bursts than fiction books, just because they have a harder time holding my attention, but I read "The Book of Eels" in a few big chunks.
That said, the quality of writing is the only thing preventing this book being a 2 star book.
Because it's not really about eels. Not biologically and not historically.
Don't get me wrong, there are interesting tidbits here and there, the first chapter about the bizarre life-cycle of eels is good, the occasional mention of one of the scientists who advanced knowledge of eels is good.
But the rest is a mix of a memoir of the author's childhood (but only the parts peripherally involving eels, which doesn't give him much to work with), and a philosophical treatise about various historical figures who maybe mentioned or worked with eels once or twice in their life.
Like, the book spends a lot of time on Freud (yes, that Freud). Is this because Freud advanced the world's knowledge of eels? No. It's because Freud spent one summer dissecting eels, trying to find their testicles, and failed. He then went on to have an unrelated career.
But that doesn't stop the author spending a chapter talking about Freud's time in the city where he (failed to) advance humanity's knowledge of eels, sharing letters Freud wrote while in this city, his opinions on the women living in that city, and a story about the one time Freud got super lost there. It also doesn't stop the author from returning to him again and again throughout the rest of the book.
I've spent more than enough of my life reading about Freud for various psychology classes. I didn't pick up a book on eels because I wanted more of his delightful opinions on women.
But, more seriously, I read non-fiction because I want to learn something new about the world, whether that's a fresh perspective from a person who's quite different than me, or a brief education about a part of the world I'm ignorant about.
This book offers neither, and instead mostly succeeds on being a semi-philosophical treatise and half-memoir loosely tied together by the concept of eels. It is really well written though.
That said, the quality of writing is the only thing preventing this book being a 2 star book.
Because it's not really about eels. Not biologically and not historically.
Don't get me wrong, there are interesting tidbits here and there, the first chapter about the bizarre life-cycle of eels is good, the occasional mention of one of the scientists who advanced knowledge of eels is good.
But the rest is a mix of a memoir of the author's childhood (but only the parts peripherally involving eels, which doesn't give him much to work with), and a philosophical treatise about various historical figures who maybe mentioned or worked with eels once or twice in their life.
Like, the book spends a lot of time on Freud (yes, that Freud). Is this because Freud advanced the world's knowledge of eels? No. It's because Freud spent one summer dissecting eels, trying to find their testicles, and failed. He then went on to have an unrelated career.
But that doesn't stop the author spending a chapter talking about Freud's time in the city where he (failed to) advance humanity's knowledge of eels, sharing letters Freud wrote while in this city, his opinions on the women living in that city, and a story about the one time Freud got super lost there. It also doesn't stop the author from returning to him again and again throughout the rest of the book.
I've spent more than enough of my life reading about Freud for various psychology classes. I didn't pick up a book on eels because I wanted more of his delightful opinions on women.
But, more seriously, I read non-fiction because I want to learn something new about the world, whether that's a fresh perspective from a person who's quite different than me, or a brief education about a part of the world I'm ignorant about.
This book offers neither, and instead mostly succeeds on being a semi-philosophical treatise and half-memoir loosely tied together by the concept of eels. It is really well written though.