Starred review from May 15, 2020
Seafaring scrutiny of whales, their oceanic environment, and the dangers to their survival. For Australian journalist Giggs, the sighting of a humpback whale beached on a local shoreline sparked her curiosity for the life and lore of the storied marine mammal. She became captivated by the animal after an informative encounter with the wildlife officer who euthanized the whale. The entire ordeal inspired a research project that encompasses not only physical and ecological elements, but also artistic representations and philosophy. Giggs presents the bounty of that scholarship in crisp, creatively written chapters addressing the many layers of the whale population's unique physiology and evolutionary history, sociality, above-water balletic athleticism, and enigmatic "biophony" of their vocalizations. Most importantly, she analyzes how their behavior can be predictive for the Earth's future. An adventurous explorer, the author immerses readers in an Australian whale watching tour and then dips into the deep international waters of Japan, where whaling ships flourish. With a conservationist mindset, Giggs reiterates that the whale and its life, legacy, and precarious environmental state are reflective of the greater issues the Earth faces, from ecological upheaval to overconsumption. Whether describing the majesty of the blue whale or the human assault on sea ecology due to paper and plastic pollution, the author's prose is poetic, beautifully smooth, urgently readable, and eloquently informative. Her passion for whales leaps off the page, urging readers to care and--even more so--become involved in their protection and preservation. Throughout the book, the author's debut, she brilliantly exposes "how regular human life seeped into the habitats of wildlife, and how wildlife returned back to us, the evidence of our obliviousness." Refreshingly, she also reveals glimmers of hope regarding what whales can teach the human race about our capacity to ecologically coexist with the natural world. A thoughtful, ambitiously crafted appeal for the preservation of marine mammals.
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July 1, 2020
Australian nature writer Giggs bookends her immersive exploration of whales with stories of beached whales, one in Perth and one near Sydney. Exploring varied species of whales, Giggs shares how their anatomy, uniquely suited for their lives as sea-faring mammals, proves lethal when they are on land. The author explains how whales' vertebrae is so heavy that outside of the water they crush the organs lying below; blubber is so insulating that whales smother and cook on land. Building on her theme of environmental concern, Giggs guides readers from the ravages of 19th-century whaling to modern-day chemical pollutants that accumulate in whales' blubber, illustrating the interconnectedness of all life and the ways man's depredations travel from the smallest creatures to this largest of Earth's animals. Giggs notes that while whaling has declined markedly after crusades against it in the 1980s, other dangers remain, especially man's heedless consumer culture. One whale found dead near Spain, for example, had swallowed an entire collapsed greenhouse that had blown into the ocean. VERDICT In lyrical language, Giggs leads readers on a journey through underwater cultures and the place of whales in the chain of life. Recommended for readers interested in nature, ecology, and environmentalism.--Caren Nichter, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin
Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from July 1, 2020
Fathoms evokes depth both as a unit of measurement for bodies of water and as an attempt to understand, science writer Giggs notes at the start of her delving and lyrically precise first book. She then takes sea soundings by focusing on the history and current plight of whales, beginning with a beached humpback whale on her home ground in Perth, Australia. Giggs punctuates this encompassing cetacean chronicle with lists of human-generated objects found in dead whales' digestive systems. Even more alarming is how saturated whales are with toxic chemicals: Inside the whale, the world. With fresh perceptions and cascades of facts, Giggs considers our ancient and persistent whale wonderment, high-tech whale hunting, the 1970s Save the Whales movement, global warming, mass extinction, and pollution, including the oceanic plastic plague. She offers a startling assessment of how smart phones pose new perils for the wild, and ponders the loss to our inner lives if we destroy the mystery of the sea. There is much to marvel at here: the bounty of a whalefall as a descending whale carcass feeds countless ocean creatures; whale mother's milk is pink; whales sequester more carbon than trees. Deeply researched and deeply felt, Giggs' intricate investigation, beautifully revelatory and haunting, urges us to save the whales once again, and the oceans, and ourselves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
February 28, 2020
Rebecca Giggs’ nonfiction debut is a lyrical, wide-ranging meditation on whales and their complex relationship with humanity. Meticulously researched and full of fascinating information, Fathoms is not just limited to cetaceans—for Giggs, the topic of whales is a catalyst for exploring climate change and man’s impact on the planet, as well as broader ideas such as nature’s influence on morality. A meld of genres including science reportage and memoir, the book also includes a meta-narrative of sorts, with Giggs not just relaying her own formative experiences with whales in the past—visiting the blue whale skeleton at the Western Australian Museum as child, witnessing futile efforts to save a beached whale—but also documenting the process of writing. As she embarks on a whale watching trip off the coast of New South Wales and travels to Japan to research scientific whaling, Giggs works through her own thoughts on eco-tourism, anthropomorphism and eating animals. The writing is evocative and beautiful in parts, the prologue (previously published in Granta) especially stunning: in majestic detail she describes the slow scientific process of a whale carcass falling to the ocean floor. In other places, however, Giggs seems to lose her grip on language, with some unwieldy descriptive passages bordering on overwrought. By no means a polemic, the contemplative pace and carefully crafted imagery of Fathoms are a deliberate appeal to readers to slow down and consider the world around them.
Kelsey Oldham is an editor at Books+Publishing