Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
by Christopher Moore, Irwin Bill
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher Moore, Irwin BillEdition: Audio Cassette
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2003-05-31
ISBN: N/A
Book Reviews of Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
Book Review: Why Do Whales Sing? The Answer Will Surprise You
Summary: 5 Stars
Not content with finishing his most recent novel, Fool, I required some earlier novel by Christopher Moore to immerse myself in more over-the-top, bawdy fiction. Looking at the synopsis of Fluke, provided me with the inspiration to read the novel. Whales, feuding researchers, Hawai'i, what isn't there to love?
Nathan, "Nate," Quinn has been researching whales off the Hawaiian Islands for many years. He hopes one day to finally be able to determine the reason whales sing. In his group of researchers, his long time photographer, Clay Demodocus, has hired two new additions - Amy, a young, very attractive research assistant and Kona, a pot smoking surfer dude that thinks he's a Rastafarian (even though he is really Preston Applebaum from New Jersey). On a research trip to study the whales, off the town of Lahiana, Maui, Nate sees the words "Bite Me" on the tail of a humpback, and is able to get a picture of it. But the picture disappears. Even though he is unable to rationalize how those words came to be on the tail of whale, it pales in comparison to the break-in at their research compound. Years worth of data is missing, and his computer hard drive has been erased, where Nate stored his digitalized whale songs. Adding to his misery, their wealthy benefactor reports that one of the whales has caller her, on the telephone, requesting a pastrami and rye sandwich. Nate may be losing his sanity, spending too much time on the water and in the sun. There are plenty of suspects; the Navy, who hope to create an underwater torpedo testing ground, a researcher in the pocket of the tourist industry, that wants to open a dolphin park, and competing whale researchers. Staying up late one night, reviewing his latest whale songs, Nate stumbles upon an answer to his lifelong quest - he may have discovered the reason whales sing. But that is just the start of his adventure.
Pardon my pitiful pun, but Fluke is a whale of a story. At the surface, it appears to be a wonderful, rollicking, ribald work of fiction. But on closer examination, it is sharp poke in the eye on the plight of whales, conservation, and the business of science. Nate explains "good science" and "bad science," makes comments concerning industry funded scientific research, and the reason whale is served in certain countries school cafeterias. While never heavy handed, this is Christopher Moore after all, do not be surprised if you learn something while reading this novel. At times, it really stretches the imagination, but hold on - Moore does excellent work and the payoff is top notch. Adding to the mix of fact and fiction, Moore adds quite a bit to the entire story by the inclusion of three sections after the novel concludes: Author's Notes, Conservation, and Acknowledgements. Those sections contribute to the novel by revealing Moore's research, contributions of key members of the scientific community, and an opportunity for you, the reader, to donate to research on humpback whale song and behavior research. I knew that Moore had excellent sources, when, early in the novel, Nate answers a question Amy poses; "Why do you do this?" Nate replies, "It might be out on the boat, as you're coming in for the day-or it might be in the lab at four in the morning after working on the data for five years, but there comes a point where you'll find something out, where you'll see something, or where something will suddenly come together, and you'll realize that you know something that no one else in the world knows yet. Just you." That is an answer which I was hoping-it is the same answer I received from a researcher friend of mine. Moore does his homework, spins a wonderful, funny tale, and after you are done, you will realize that you have learned something.
Summary of Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings
Marine biologist Nate Quinn is in love with the majestic ocean-dwelling behemoths who have been singing their haunting song for twenty million years. But why do the humpback whales sing? That's the question that has Nate and his crew filming, charting, and recording every whale that crosses their path. Until one day when a whale lifts its tail to display a message spelled out in foot-high letters: Bite Me....
No one has ever seen such a thing; not Nate's longtime partner, not world-renowned photographer Clay Demodocus, not their saucy young research assistant, Amy, not even spliff-puffing white-boy Rastaman, Kona. And when the film returns from the lab missing the crucial tail shot--and their research facility is trashed--Nate realizes that something very fishy is going on.
It only gets weirder when a call comes in from Nate's big-bucks benefactor, saying that a whale has phoned her, asking for a hot pastrami and Swiss on rye. Suddenly the answer to the question that has driven Nate throughout his adult life is within reach. And it's not what anyone would think.
In his entertaining adventure-in-whale-researching, Fluke, or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings, Nathan Quinn, a prominent marine biologist, has been conducting studies in Hawaii for years trying to unravel the secret of why humpback whales sing. During a typical day of data gathering, Nate believes his mind is failing: the subject whale has "Bite Me" scrawled across its tail. Events become even stranger as the self-proclaimed "action nerds," Nate, photographer Clay, their research assistant Amy, and Kona, a white Rasta (a Jewish kid from New Jersey), encounter sabotage to their data and equipment. They also observe increasingly bizarre whale behavior, including a phone call from the whale to their wealthy sponsor to ask that Nate bring it a hot pastrami and Swiss on rye, and discover both a thriving underwater city and the secret to what happened to Amelia Earhart.
Thoughtful, irreverent, and often hilarious, Moore has crafted a tale that contains a bit of the saga of declining whale populations due to hunting and habitat destruction, as well as his over-the-top, decadent wit as applied to scientific methodology and professional jealousies. Moore notes a pasty, rival scientist "looked like Death out for his after-dinner stroll before a busy night of e-mailing heart attacks and tumors to a few million lucky winners," and that killer whales (which are all named Kevin), are "just four tons of doofus dressed up like a police car." Smart, sincere, and a whale of a story, Fluke is terrific. --Michael Ferch
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