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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.
About the author
Matthew Gavin Frank is the author of
Preparing the Ghost and
The Mad Feast. He teaches creative writing and lives in Marquette, Michigan.
