{"product_id":"9780871402837","title":"Preparing the Ghost: An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/em\u003e Best Book of 2014\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Memory, mythology, and obsession collide in this strikingly original and enigmatic account of the first man to photograph a giant squid.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  Moses Harvey was the eccentric Newfoundland reverend and amateur naturalist who first photographed the near-mythic giant squid in 1874, draping it over a shower curtain rod to display its magnitude. In \u003cem\u003ePreparing the Ghost,\u003c\/em\u003e what begins as Moses’s story becomes much more, as fellow squid-enthusiast Matthew Gavin Frank boldly winds his narrative tentacles around history, creative nonfiction, science, memoir, and meditations about the interrelated nature of them all. In a full-hearted, lyrical style reminiscent of Geoff Dyer, Frank weaves in playful forays about his research trip to Moses’s Newfoundland home, Frank’s own childhood and family history, and a catalog of bizarre facts and lists that recall Melville’s story of obsession with another deep-sea dwelling leviathan. Though Frank is armed with impressive research, what he can’t know about Harvey he fictionalizes, quite explicitly, as a way of both illuminating the scene and exploring his central theme: the big, beautiful human impulse to obsess.","brand":"Liveright Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47018847797488,"sku":"9780871402837","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780871402837_p0.jpg?v=1763841581","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780871402837","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}