A review by allarminda
The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen

4.0

I enjoyed this book. I learned a lot. I'm now fascinated by America's storied (who knew) history with bananas, commerce, American government sub-plots, and the timely relevance of this story to our current political environment. It's a fascinating listen/read and I definitely recommend it. I didn't love the seemingly haphazard way Mr. Cohen jumped from back story to back story. One new character is introduced and down the rabbit hole again we go to learn all the details (oftentimes unnecessary) of that person's entire life history that brought them to the point in the story I'm here to read. So the book read more like a game of Frogger than a cohesive and (mostly) linear telling of Sam the Banana Man's story. I had a lot to ponder while I ate my banana this morning.