I, Lobster: A Crustacean Odyssey (UNH Non-Series Title) - Hardcover

Frazier, Nancy

2.73

11 ratings by Goodreads

9781584659624: I, Lobster: A Crustacean Odyssey (UNH Non-Series Title)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1584659629 ISBN 13: 9781584659624

Publisher: University of New Hampshire Press, 2012

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Consider the lobster. An improbable icon, Mesozoic revenant, surrealist fetish, nightmare ornament, and gastronomic adventure, it has fascinated people throughout history. It may be an exaggeration to say that lobsters are a cultural obsession—but only slightly. I, Lobster dissects the place of the lobster in human affairs, through history, science, myth, art, literature, music, movies, and, of course, cuisine. Though not generally beautiful to human eyes, lobsters star in some of the most gorgeous works of art in the world, the still-lifes painted in the Low Countries during the seventeenth century. And while many of us would question their sex appeal, lobsters carried an erotic charge for artists of the twentieth century who, inspired by Freud, found many opportunities to think of them in that way.

Nancy Frazier explores diverse facets of our fascination with the lobster, whether in art, myth, or science. She describes how the lobster lives in its natural surroundings: its food, sex life, social life, predators, and general behavior. But I, Lobster goes beyond what we think about and do to the lobster, to explore how lobsters speak to us as signs, symbols, metaphors, code words, myth, lore, and fantasy. With recipes drawn from such notable lobster connoisseurs as M. F. K. Fisher, Alice B. Toklas, and Craig Claiborne, I, Lobster is a quirky, charming, and weirdly fascinating compendium of lobster lore.

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About the Author:

NANCY FRAZIER is a former researcher and writer for Newsweek magazine and is the author of The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, and Waldoboro, Maine.

Review:

“I, Lobster: A Crustacean Odyssey written by Nancy Frazier, is a newly published consideration of the lobster represented throughout history as anicon, subject of art, and delicacy, among other things. Frazier’s comprehensive exploration of lobster lore is fascinating, scholarly, and humorous—and, it’s prompted me to take pause to stop and gawk again.”—Cape Cod Magazine

“This is a quirky, amusing book that explores many diverse aspects of the ways that people think about, write about, portray, cook, and eat lobsters.”—Maine Antique Digest

“This work may be thought of as a thick description of the lobster; it serves as the focal point for Frazier’s wide-ranging observations about a variety of topics, with surprises and unexpected connections in every chapter. It is impossible to think that any fact, thought, feeling, or perception involving the clawed crustacean has been left out of this deftly written and at times whimsical study.” —Choice

“Author Nancy Frazier shifts gears well from erudite discussions of lobsters in art to films (Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall’ kitchen lobster escape) to science fiction, fantasy and horror literature (Stephen King’s ‘lobstrocities’) to the creatures’ behavior in the natural world. . . . The wide array of topics covered in each chapter never failed to surprise me.”—Providence Journal

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