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rally_t's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
jatkalukemista's review against another edition
3.0
Ei ihan sellanen kuin odotin, mut muuten tosi jees.
gipfelglueck's review against another edition
2.0
A collection of facts and stories about the sea, mostly Norway and the Lofoten islands. The facts feel like a lecture of one of two smart men who want to hunt a shark. They are not likeable at all so in the end I was happy it was over. I do not get why this book received so much praise and awards...
micaela11's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
dsweinstein's review against another edition
I don't know why I got the book based on the topic, but when he started talking about knowing how many hundreds of years old the shark he was going to kill likely was it just angered me and I couldn't read the book.
bonnie9595's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
4.0
This is a really weird book to describe. It's about two Norwegian men trying to catch a Greenland shark, but it's also about being friends with someone you don't see very often, and the history of the ocean.
I found it beautiful and often very moving. Some of the historical passages probably went on slightly too long in a Melville-esque fashion, but I broadly enjoyed the context. These factual, well-sourced sections are distributed through the present-day narrative, which is in turn interspersed with stories, usually told by Hugo, which often take the cadence of folklore. It is in turn soothing, tense, alarming, and interesting.
Despite being someone who gets violently seasick and hasn't eaten fish in 10 years, I have found myself daydreaming about fishing in the fjords.
I found it beautiful and often very moving. Some of the historical passages probably went on slightly too long in a Melville-esque fashion, but I broadly enjoyed the context. These factual, well-sourced sections are distributed through the present-day narrative, which is in turn interspersed with stories, usually told by Hugo, which often take the cadence of folklore. It is in turn soothing, tense, alarming, and interesting.
Despite being someone who gets violently seasick and hasn't eaten fish in 10 years, I have found myself daydreaming about fishing in the fjords.
trin's review against another edition
4.0
Nature is scary. It is vast and strange and unknowable. In Shark Drunk, Morten Strøksnes explores much of what makes nature so captivating -- and so frightening. His focus is on the sea, from which the culture of his native Norway arose, in which his ancestors made their livings and met their deaths. Strøksnes and his eccentric artist friend Hugo embark on a quest to catch a Greenland shark -- a species I had never heard of, but whose mythical-sounding properties include flesh that renders the human consumer intoxicated. (As Strøksnes himself points out, nature can match any fantasy one might choose to invent.) Their self-described Melvillian hunt is, narratively, more of an excuse to survey related -- sometimes tangentially related -- topics of science, history, and philosophy. Strøksnes evokes the cold, isolated landscape and the swirling, often deadly waves, with a sharp eye and a dry turn of phrase that reminds me of [a:Frans G. Bengtsson|72841|Frans G. Bengtsson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1307233870p2/72841.jpg]'s Viking saga [b:The Long Ships|6900710|The Long Ships|Frans G. Bengtsson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327902585s/6900710.jpg|427306] mixed with a [a:Werner Herzog|22565|Werner Herzog|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1208788264p2/22565.jpg] film. (Strøksnes quotes Herzog, too: a typical, delightfully dramatic paragraph that begins: "Life in the oceans must be sheer hell. A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger." That about sums it up!)
Strøksnes' book is definitely more about the journey than the destination, but what a journey it is. This book made me appreciate nature, in all its terror and glory.
Strøksnes' book is definitely more about the journey than the destination, but what a journey it is. This book made me appreciate nature, in all its terror and glory.