Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer

by Matthew Gavin Frank

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Shelf Awareness Memory, mythology, and obsession collide in this “slyly charming” ( New York Times Book Review ) account of the giant squid. In 1874, Moses Harvey―eccentric Newfoundland reverend and amateur naturalist―was the first person to photograph the near-mythic giant squid, draping it over his shower curtain rod to display its magnitude. In Preparing the Ghost , what begins as Harvey’s story becomes spectacularly “slippery and many-armed” (NewYorker.com) as Matthew Gavin Frank winds his narrative tentacles around history, creative nonfiction, science, memoir, and meditations about the interrelated nature of them all. In his full-hearted, lyrical style, Frank weaves in playful forays about his trip to Harvey’s Newfoundland home, his own childhood and family history, and a catalog of peculiar facts that recall Melville ’s story of obsession with another deep-sea dwelling leviathan. “Totally original and haunting” ( Flavorwire ), Preparing the Ghost is a delightfully unpredictable inquiry into the big, beautiful human impulse to obsess. 15 drawings

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Essays, Nature, Animals, Memoir

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2014

About the author

Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of the nonfiction books, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers, The Mad Feast: An Ecstatic Tour Through America’s Food, Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer, Pot Farm, and Barolo; the poetry books, The Morrow Plots, Warranty in Zulu, and Sagittarius Agitprop, and 2 chapbooks. “Preparing the Ghost” was a New York Times Editors' Choice, an NPR Notable Book, and a New Yorker Book to Watch Out For. “The Mad Feast” was selected as a Staff Pick by The Paris Review, a Best Book of 2015 by Ploughshares, The Millions, and Paste Magazine, and featured in The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and Entertainment Weekly. His work appears widely in journals and magazines, including The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Guernica, The New Republic, Iowa Review, Salon, Conjunctions, and The Normal School. After spending 17 years in the restaurant industry, he now teaches at Northern Michigan University, where he is the Nonfiction/Hybrids Editor of Passages North.

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusual and entertaining, Preparing the Ghost is an original essay of creative nonfiction. An investigation, memoir, science, myth, history, and ice cream come to play in this wonderfully strange account of "the giant squid and it's first photographer." I went in to it expecting one thing, and left completely surprised. I would highly recommend this book-length essay to fans of Consider the Lobster (specifically that essay) but that's all I can really compare it to.

Even though I'm a lifelong giant squid enthusiast (which began with a visit to the National Museum of Natural History, and a subsequent purchase of a squid stuffed animal* that Frank actually mentions in the book) you don't have to be to enjoy this book. Though nonfiction, the storytelling and prose are bright, page-turning, and read much like a work of fiction due to the creative nature of the connecting narratives. Frank is erudite and at times hilarious while still respectful of his subjects. I most enjoyed his skill of weaving his family's own history into the story, in fact I almost wish there had been more of this it was so well done and interesting.

Hard to categorize and completely fresh, Matthew Gavin Frank is certainly on to something, and one to watch. Recommended to those who like their nonfiction lyrical and creative.


*In my young excitement I instantly named it "Squidy"

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this was like listening to a schizophrenic tell you about the dream he had last night. The only real storyline is the author's trip to Newfoundland to find out what he could about the first man to photograph a Giant Squid washed up on one of the beaches there, but he wanders far afield, to say the least. Some of the sentences are so long, with so many dependent clauses that have nothing whatsofrikkinever to do with what I thought he was talking about, that I was forced to go back & re-read fairly often, just to keep my bearings. This little book -- which the author calls an "essay" -- has far less to do with the Giant Squid than with the effect that mysterious specie has on her biographers. It's the perfect Squidmas read, and indeed I got this for Squidmas a couple of years ago, but it's not nearly as good for reading while you soak in the tub as Ellis's The Search for the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the World's Most Elusive Sea Creature. It's just too incoherent.

[TK421 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great example of how creative non-fiction can be engaging and witty and artistic. That being said, this book would have been so much better if it had cut 100 pages from its mass.

[Steph Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightfully unexpected! Yes, it contains the biography of Moses Harvey, the first man to obtain a photograph of a giant squid, but from that jumping off point the discussion alights on topics ranging from family, death, insects, ice cream, pain, guilt, commerce, obsession, otherness, and mythology. Miraculously, no matter how bizarre the subject matter, Frank connects each element so organically that it seems perfectly natural that the giant squid, butterflies, and death by chocolate ice cream occupy the same space in thought. Preparing the Ghost is an eye-opening, mind-bending whirlwind that you don't want to miss.

[Agatha · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the idea of the book is intriguing, I struggled to finish this book. The essay is about the giant squid and its first photographer, Moses Harvey. Parts of the book were informative. However, in my opinion the author got distracted and digressed in topics that were a far stretch from the purpose of the essay, which is the squid and its photographer.

[Stasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, this had potential!! The title, the bait on the jacket...and it turned out to not completely be about the first photographing of a squid. Though the parts that DID actually focus on the squid, facts, Moses Harvey, etc., were very interesting. The author should have just stuck with the squid history.

[Laurel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the concept and I love, in theory, the approach -- and I thought I was going to love this because I'm a big fan of creative nonfiction in this vein.
But the execution made for a sloppy and distracted reading experience for me, unfortunately.

[Brandon Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first disclaimer here is that I've also read Pot Farm by MGF, and I loved it. So that says something about my taste and expectations. The second disclaimer is that I have had food and drink with the author and I enjoyed myself while doing so. The third disclaimer is that I've read things by authors I adore that I would never in a million years recommend to anyone else (True at First Light by Hem-dog), and I've eaten food and pounded beers and had a downright debauching good time with writers whose work I wouldn't recommend either.

This book is fantastic. If you are at all interested in the giant squid and the kind of obsession it can create for those who hunted it, and for those who now hunt the hunters' stories, you must read this. MGF gives us an opportunity to live the myth of the people who tried their damndest to concretize the spectre of the squid back in a time without digital cameras spilling out of every pocket.

This is not a book that focuses on the facts or science as much as it focuses on the truth of how the lack of facts and science can impact a person's obsession.

It's likely that once you finish reading this you will want to know more about the giant squid. That is not an accident. This book tempts you to obsess, and it's up to you to decide whether you are capable of dealing with the repercussions of the obsession, should you choose to accept it.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs more squid.. More mythology too. It was enjoyable but too often I felt like I was at a concert where the musician was only playing difficult pieces to impress with his virtuosity rather than to entertain. " the half moon frowned,voltaic, longing for it's other half ," is a little too consciously poetic for me.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waiting on confirmation from my brother that we did indeed watch the 1996 NBC miniseries "THE BEAST" about an evil giant squid, but my feelings are pretty trustworthy here--I am way too freaked out and have way too keen of memories of the giant hard beak in the middle of all that tentacley weirdness to not have some origin story of my own re: the giant squid.

This book is bonkers and I dog-eared it up and busted the spine and will return to it, someday--it's the kind of mad labor of love peak-memoir-research-braided-essay nonfiction that reminds me of the good parts of my MFA days.

Some of the language, hoo-whee: "The sky held its thrilling blue, and the street lanterns' flames did pirouettes, and the half-moon frowned, voltaic, longing for the rest of itself." But it's so self-aware and so infectiously enthusiastic--reminds me of another dude writing about a sea creature with long-winded ardor but this one was white and a whale, or another dude writing about his time on a cruise ship. Did no one use the Melville meets Foster Wallace comp blurb?

Good quotes:
"Nothing says domestication like a giant squid strung over a clawfoot bathtub."

"We will pass on the narrative: sure, we are mediocre and tiny. Sure, we are insignificant. Regardless, our lives, if only in this myth, remain delicious, disturbing, and downright huge."

[Harold Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gem-dandy book. See more in my Book ReMarks column. Follow the link below.

http://www.thepacket.ca/living/None/b...

[Emma]

what a strange way to tell this story! equally baffling and enriching, though I did find myself wishing it was more about the squid and less about the author

[Evan Beazley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The subtitle of Matthew Gavin Frank's book length essay about the nature of the myth that surrounds the giant squid does not do justice to the contents of these pages. Although the editor can easily be forgiven for not being able to sum up the nature of Frank's writing in a succinct enough sentence.

This book looks at myth building and the nature of obsession through the lens of Moses Harvey's pursuit of his giant squid, and does in a bewildering fashion. I was regularly shocked at how easily Frank was able to relate stories of his own grandfather's scars and an insect-obsessed Newfoundlander to Harvey's unflinching dedication to his study and eventual retrieval of an elusive species of oceanlife. Yet, even with his tangents (although this word is a little unfair), Frank remains totally on task with his themes, portraying humanity's creation and grasp of myths as a force which keeps us, as a group, living and hoping and pursuing greater things.

Towards the end of the book Frank discusses the first-ever filmed images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat. He looks at this achievement as the melancholic dispelling of a myth, leaving everybody involved, from the individuals on the expedition to the casual viewer on YouTube, wondering "what's next?" After finishing such an enthralling work of nonfiction, I am left feeling much the same way, wondering what book will next create in me such an impression of awe and discovery.

[Damona · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book sounded fascinating. Normally, I love one-topic non-fiction, and I don't know much about giant squid, so I thought I'd give it a go. Especially since Simon Winchester, whose writing I love, gave it such glowing reviews!

Unfortunately, once I started reading it, it was just... blah. It left me completely cold. I got about 35 pages in and realized that I just did not care.This is going on my "just can't finish it" shelf.

[Shandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very close to being a two-star rating, but Frank finally hooked me (so to speak) in the final 50 pages. Up to that point, it's just a bit too rambly and freewheeling for my taste. It's unquestionably well-written and -crafted, but it definitely tried my patience for a couple of hundred pages. Definitely goes on the "it's not you, it's me" shelf.

And now I really want to read a book that's properly about the giant squid.

[Logan Plonski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical nonfiction, scientific exploration, and stream-of-consciousness musings on the nature of love, obsession, life, and death. This book may be a bit weird/admittedly kinda pretentious for some, but I think it's perfect.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much creative writing, not enough giant squid. A never-ending post on the Awl.

[Jack H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book after finishing Lulu Miller's Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life. The two creative nonfiction books are very similar, both concerning a relatively obscure late 19th century naturalist who becomes obsessed with a marine species. Between the two, I enjoyed this one more, which probably has more to do with the scientist put under the microscope (Moses Harvey in this book vs. David Starr Jordan in Miller's book) than anything else. Also, giant squids are just cooler than fish.

This book kind of follows an inverted trajectory from Miller's book. At the beginning of both books, we're introduced to the scientist through a particularly poignant scene: Moses Harvey photographing a giant squid in his bathtub and David Starr Jordan cleaning a mess of ethanol, dead fish, and broken jars in his Stanford office. The writers proceed to dissect the life of the scientist while sharing some aspects of their personal life that fueled their own interest in the subject. However, unlike David Starr Jordan, Moses Harvey isn't a eugenicist. Both men were certainly liars, and known to embellish their stories and contributions to their fields. David Starr Jordan didn't personally gather all his fish, in the same way that Moses Harvey didn't take the famous picture himself. By the end of the book, I had a great deal of sympathy for Moses Harvey (the story of the seal in his backyard is particularly heartbreaking). He just seems like a lovable, harmless guy and I'm glad that I know his backstory. I hope to read some of his essays in the future.

If you have any interest in the history of giant squid, this is required reading. I loved it.

[robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty little book, with a touch of foil on the cover, and a lovingly chosen font, nice wide spaced pages - and you can see where the germ came from, when you look at the picture of the giant squid hung carefully over what turns out to be an old fashioned shower ring, like a bizarre beaded curtain. The story itself though is extremely brief, a small kernel in an embroidered bed of creative writing. It's very creative. It's wandering, inventive and sometimes downright beautiful, and either quite a lot of research was done or Frank made up a LOT of small details about the town where the squid was brought to land.

I wish there had been less of fancy and more of fact, but then it would be a completely different book. SO. Two stars because this is not a book for me.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 10% - I cannot emphasize how mean-spirited, judgmental, and genuinely uninformed the author comes off. I believed this book would be about giant squid, the first photographer of the giant squid, maybe the author’s path to curiosity about the subject, or maybe even just this particular part of Newfoundland. I’m here for the ride! Let’s go! But when you start to go as far afield as cultural discussions on ice cream with some bigoted fat-phobia and classism thrown in? I’m out. And you now count as a DNF, because I need to tell everyone how terrible you sound.

[Rebecca Pierzchala · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meandering, exhausting, pretentious, fever-dream-ish, entirely too theoretical and borderline stream-of-consciousness for me. This *small* book took me almost a month to read and I finished several other books in the meantime because they held my attention longer and with much less (i.e., none) eye-rolling than this did.

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads like a Rebecca Solnit style book about the search for the first photographer of the giant squid (and other things, always other things). I liked it but I agree that it could have been more robust if a bit shorter.

I need to read more fiction.

[Sarah Key · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been wanting to read this book for years and finally made it a point to order it earlier this month. To say the least, I wasn't disappointed. I loved the style of this book, its laughter, and its honest obsessions. Highly recommended.

[Patricia Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about obsession, and how the giant squid may very well be the only mythological creature that is both real and know, yet still largely a mystery to us. At its best when describing concrete things, at its worst when author indulgently speculates what might have happened.

[Jason Gemmill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a book for learning anything about giant squid. The author has written a book that meshes beat poetry, fiction and biography. Not for everyone as it feels like more of an exercise in writing than meant for reading. Still though I found it interesting.

[Lena Riemersma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A giant essay about the giant squid that mixes science, poetry, history and personal memoir with its ink.

[Michelle Sprague · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this. The person who recommended it to me has introduced me to many of my now favorites, but I think I prefer my nature books with more science.

[Gail Kennon · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyable though sometimes i got lost following the labyrinth tangle of his thoughts.

[Brendan C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good! Weird too!

[Tk · Rating 4 out of 5]

a deliciously briny romp in myth making, giant squid, and guys being waaaay too horny