Richard J. King’s Lobster is part of a series on “Animals” from Reaktion Books, and, in spite of what we might expect when dealing with a creature mainly interesting for its gustatory qualities, the culinary history is a minor part of the story.
What forms the bulk of the book is the surround — the process by which the various kinds of lobsters are brought to table. It reads as an anecdotal history, a memoir, and there is almost too much information. We learn of the various types of lobsters found in the different lobster fisheries, with pride of place given to the North American clawed lobster, Homarus americanus, and its European cousin, H. gammarus, which between them make up the overwhelming bulk of the lobster trade. We get first-hand accounts of lobster-fishing through the ages in Maine and the British Isles, with asides on the success of managing fishers in South America and the South Pacific.
Woven into this are references to the appearance of the lobster in art and literature, including a woodcut of a gigantic, man-eating lobster from Albertus Magnus’ De Animalibus (1545) to a gorgeous color woodcut by Hiroshige, Iseebi and Ebi (Lobster and Shrimp) to a sixteenth-century lobster effigy from Belize to a New Yorker cover depicting lobsters escaping from a restaurant, culminating in a chapter on “Lobster Tales,” which, yes, does include Lewis Carroll’s “Lobster Quadrille.”
There’s almost too much information here — it’s a small book, surprisingly heavy, profusely illustrated, touching on every aspect of the lobster, although, and admittedly this is my own personal preference, I would have been happy to see more about lobster evolution, particularly the divergence of the various types. (Although according to King, lobster taxonomy is still a matter for some debate among specialists.) Happily, King’s style is engaging and fluent. The volume also includes extensive notes, a bibliography, an index of resources on lobsterdom, and an index.
There is so much here that I’d recommend this one be taken in small doses, if you can manage to put it down.
(Reaktion Books Ltd, 2011)
