What do you know about the knobbily armoured, scarlet
creature staring back at you from your fancy dinner
plate? Since there are species of lobsters without
claws, then what exactly is a lobster? To answer these
questions Richard J. King, a former fishmonger and
commercial lobsterman, has chronicled the creature's
long and complex history. Lobster takes us on a journey
through the history, biology, cuisine and culture of
lobsters, and their economic and environmental status
worldwide. King describes how the lobster is an
international commodity, and how the American lobster
fishery is arguably one of the last healthy wild
fisheries left on Earth. The author describes the
evolution of technologies to capture these creatures,
and addresses the ethics of boiling them alive. He also
explores the salacious lobster palaces of the 1920s, as
well as the animal's thousand-year status as an
aphrodisiac, and how it has inspired numerous artists,
writers and thinkers including Aristotle, Dickens,
Thoreau, Dali and Woody Allen. Lobster is an essential
read for anyone with an appetite for the world's
best-known and most delicious crustacean.In this
carefully researched and highly readable account for
both the scholar and the more casual reader, King
travels from Hawaii to Maine, and from Scotland to
Western Australia, to describe the human connection with
the lobster, from ocean bottom to buttery plate. |
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