Is this a biography of prolific and determined taxonomist David Starr Jordan? A memoir of journalist Lulu Miller? A fascinating science lesson on biological classification? Yes, yes, and also yes.

 

As Miller's life seems to fall apart around her, she delves into research on Jordan, whose job was literally to make sense of the world around him. At first she admires his tenacity in the face of adversity when natural disasters repeatedly destroy his fish specimens, but as her research progresses, she realizes he's not the role model she thought he was. Miller beautifully weaves her personal story with her research on Jordan, but my favorite part of the book is learning and unlearning everything I thought I knew about fish.

 

Publisher description:

David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake--which sent more than a thousand discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life's work was shattered. Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish that he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world. When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool--a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet. Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, this is a wondrous fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.