Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller is a luminescent account of late 19th and early 20th century taxonomist David Starr Jordan and the consequences of his scientific obsession with creating order in a beautifully chaotic world by assiduously classifying fish and, in doing so, finding moral purpose.
However, Jordan’s single-minded, admirable dedication to his life’s work, his belief in himself, his persistence and drive, which helped elevate him to become the first president of Stanford University, has enormous social ramifications.
Lulu Miller has writes so wonderfully that this exquisite scientific, philosophical, and intellectual personal account of her need to understand David Starr Jordan’s persistence and resiliency reads like a suspense novel, one that might be called great literature.
