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dspawn10 's review for:
What a wonderful touching story of a man and his father told through the metaphor of the eel (Anguilla anguilla) and the story of its known and lesser known history. I'm sure that some will compare it to "H Is for Hawk" by Helen Macdonald in its focus on a relationship between father and child but this has much more of a scholarly feel (not to diminish "H Is for Hawk" in any way).
The structure of the book is set up in mostly alternating chapters between the natural history of the eel (of what is known) and the story of a young boy in Sweden who grew up casually fishing for eels with his father. This lends the book a more obvious personal touch, but the author also uses the eel as a looking glass to hold up to his own and others situations to see what one can divine about the nature of life and death. The eel itself is a very odd and secretive animal about which surprisingly little is known in terms of its reproductive process and death and therefore it is well suited to its use as a metaphor for human lives.
The structure of the book is set up in mostly alternating chapters between the natural history of the eel (of what is known) and the story of a young boy in Sweden who grew up casually fishing for eels with his father. This lends the book a more obvious personal touch, but the author also uses the eel as a looking glass to hold up to his own and others situations to see what one can divine about the nature of life and death. The eel itself is a very odd and secretive animal about which surprisingly little is known in terms of its reproductive process and death and therefore it is well suited to its use as a metaphor for human lives.