A review by monikasreadingadventures
Is That a Fish in Your Ear? The Amazing Adventure of Translation by David Bellos

informative

4.0

Is That a Fish in Your Ear is a somewhat interesting read, with some parts more interesting then others. I haven't ever thought about the act of translation as deeply as Bellos has, which made this for an interesting reading choice! 

I enjoyed most of the book but some of it was a slog to get through as Bellos would sometimes take 8 pages to say the same thing over and over again but in other parts of the book, he would introduce an idea and quickly dismiss it. At some points, Bellos would also quickly change between different ideas and not spend enough time expanding on them. In short, you can easily sense where Bellos' interests and opinion lies in the way that he structures the chapters and arguments of the book.

I have to say that this book was a bit of a slog to get through so, if you have a slight interest in translation then I would probably recommend a YouTube video as the book is a bit too much, especially with Bellos' writing style.