Why Fish Don't Exist

February 1, 2020

Journalist Miller is probably best known for her work on NPR's Invisibilia and Radiolab. Her first book follows previously written biographies of David Starr Jordan (1851-1931), ichthyologist and educator. Piqued by the story of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that shattered the glass jars containing Jordan's meticulously curated fish collection and his perseverance in re-creating the collection, Miller focuses on the many tragedies that befell Jordan during his life, as well as his tenacious spirit in handling ongoing hardship. Her subject's persistence led Miller to ruminate on what makes someone resilient, while simultaneously relating findings to her own life. Part biography, part natural history, and part memoir with the intrigue of a murder mystery, this slim work is also a philosophical exposition on the human inclination to make order out of chaos as seen through Jordan's life work, whose mission was to document and discover every freshwater fish in North America and beyond. VERDICT Recommended for those interested in ichthyology, natural history, or musings on the meaning of life.--Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Science Lib., Athens

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2020
A Peabody Award-winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence. Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering "a full fifth of fish known to man in his day," Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members' deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on "positive illusions" to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in "a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]...toward better." Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan's beloved taxonomic category--fish--does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller's existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence. A quirky wonder of a book.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 10, 2020
NPR science reporter Miller, in her scattered debut, relates the life of influential taxonomist David Starr Jordan (1851–1931) to struggles in her own life. During early adulthood, as “I made a wreck of my own life,” she became fascinated with Jordan’s “stand against Chaos,” in a career which saw him collect and name many thousands of species of fish. Her account of Jordan’s boyhood passion for science conveys gentle naïveté: “In the privacy of his room he’d sit... discerning which flower was which, unbuttoning its genus, its species.” As Miller discusses her teenage depression, which culminated in a suicide attempt, the writing turns raw: “I woke to bright lights... the humiliation of a nurse, paper sheets beneath my ass.” The narrative then—rather jarringly—turns back to Jordan, as he scours the Pacific Coast for new fauna and becomes president of Stanford. Covering the darker chapters of Jordan’s life, Miller discusses his murky involvement in a possible cover-up around the death of the university’s “founding mother,” Jane Stanford, and, following his dismissal from Stanford, his key role in popularizing the racist pseudoscience of eugenics. Jordan is a fascinating figure, but Miller’s rapid shifts in subject and perspective result in a frustratingly disjointed work. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie.

Starred review from March 15, 2020
Scientist David Starr Jordan was obsessed with the natural world from childhood; Radiolab contributor Miller was fascinated by Jordan for nearly as long. Jordan studied under some of his era's greatest naturalists before becoming the first president of Stanford University and a dedicated collector of new species. A 1906 earthquake sent hundreds of jars of Jordan's fish specimens crashing to the ground. Rather than allowing nature to alter the course of scientific history, Jordan scrambled to gather and retag the fish from the floor of his lab. Jordan's lifelong unwillingness to succumb to chaos drew Miller in. The book that emerges from her research reads like a podcast episode, blending investigative journalism, biography, and a dash of memoir. The questions posed by Miller's dive into Jordan's life are profound and open-ended: do any species truly exist on a planet where species evolve so rapidly? Do species exist without humans who name them? Does anything exist without a human to name it? As a younger woman, Miller was enchanted by Jordan's ruthlessness, but became less enamored as she uncovered Jordan's involvement in the American eugenics and forced sterilization movements. Gripping, and sure to be on readers' minds long after the final pages.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)