Unfamiliar Fishes

By: Sarah Vowell

Narrated by: Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, John Hodgman, Catherine Keener, Edward Norton, Keanu Reeves, Paul Rudd, Maya Rudolph, John Slattery

Sarah Vowell thinks of Hawaii as the most American state. She argues that it’s “breathtaking in its beauty, sometimes hideously developed, overwhelmingly religious, impoverished (except for pockets of staggering wealth), crass and spiritual all at once.” In Unfamiliar Fishes, she will explore the exceptional history of Hawaii with her personal reporting and trademark smart-aleckiness to find out the odd and emblematic history of Hawaii, and how it got to be that way. She will explain how Hawaii is Manifest Destiny’s plate lunch.

There will be cannibalism. There will be incest. There will massacres. There will be con men and dreamers. There will be racism. There will be Theodore Roosevelt. There will be history and Obama and America and opportunistic missionaries and warring whalers and kings and queens. And there will even be lepers. And therefore it will be a great and entertaining story of American history, told in Vowell’s inimitable voice and in her unconventional style.

Unfamiliar Fishes is a vacation into a colorful and riveting period in history with America’s favorite historical travel companion, Sarah Vowell.

Smart Exposition Marred by Narration

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

For those familiar with, and accepting of, Vowell's voice, the book will be time well spent. However, the idiosyncratic tone can be grating. What I've seen called deadpan irony comes across as self-congratulatory cleverness that would have been muted if the editor used a more professional voice. Too many of her sentences seem to end with an implied rim shot. Moreover, the book's use of celebrity narrators was distracting, though it is a remarkable cast for a mediocre book.By the middle, I lost interest in the narrative itself, with fault to be ascribed equally between the voice, the writing, the subject and my own attention span. I have listened to Vowell's Assasination Vacation, which was more enjoyable, probably because the work covered more familiar and varied ground.

A History of Hawaii

This book is a history of Hawaii. There is really not much about Puerto Rico, Cuba, or the Philippines, which I found disappointing. The synopsis of the book implied that there would be more about the other countries.

Good story, reader - not so good

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Get a different reader

Would you be willing to try another book from Sarah Vowell? Why or why not?

Only if she found another person to read it

Would you be willing to try another one of the narrators’s performances?

NO

Did Unfamiliar Fishes inspire you to do anything?

No

Any additional comments?

This is a tragic case of a good book that the author reads and should not. There are several excellent writers that do not have the right voice to read the books (Stephen King is a good example). PLEASE, just because you know the material, get someone else to read it who has a better voice. Sorry author....

Another Great Book from Sarah Vowell

I love reading Sarah Vowell books as she is so funny (in a dry, sardonic way) and I always learn things that were never discussed in any of my history classes. While I am really intrigued with learning more about my country's history, so many history-themed books are dry and boring. Sure, I learn things but it is difficult to pay attention when I am reading or listening to a bunch of facts that seem to have no relevence to the present day. Sarah Vowell inserts humorous metaphors and asides to make these "facts" resonate a bit more.

This was not my favorite of her books, but there were some very interesting parts and I learned quite a bit, as usual. Kind of sad to find that once again, the U.S. saw a piece of land and set out to steal it using "manifest destiny" as an excuse to trick the indigenous people into giving away their land for very little or no money based upon promises that would never come to be. If you have never read Sarah Vowell, I definitely recommend reading any of her books.

Sound pretty smart on your next Hawaiin vacation

Where does Unfamiliar Fishes rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of my favorites, smart, funny, engaging. I love Sarah Vowell on This American Life so her reading of her book was extra great, with losts of special guests.

What did you like best about this story?

This humor and the history, and it's relevance right now in history.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her quirky sense of delivery. She can deliver her stories the way she writes them, with quick wit and charm. * some people find her voice grating after a while, I can agree to a certain extent, but I love her delivery that I can't imagine anyone else reading it.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The historical accuracy made me feel smart and funny at the same time. I wish my textbooks in History were all written by her.

Any additional comments?

Buy it, listen, be smarter.