This was a book that I was torn on while reading, finding myself liking certain parts but then really not liking other parts. The book discusses the successful Makah whale hunt, which revolves around Makah (a Native American tribe) and their decision to establish a gray whale hunt after the species was removed from the Endangered Species List (due to a rise and recovery in the population). In such, one would assume that the book is about the issues surrounding this hunt, reported to us by Robert Sullivan--a witness to these events.

Here are the positives:
1) The book *attempts* to remain neutral. I side with many other reviews and suggest that Sullivan doesn't entirely know where/when to take a stance on this. Yet it does become clear that he supports the Makah whale hunt, or at least he does not outwardly dismiss their treaty rights and cultural need to do so.

2) There are chapters that offer insight to anti-whaling protests, including Watson from the infamous Sea Shepherd and other members/founders of Greenpeace.

3) Short chapters. A quick read. It moves rather quickly.

Here are a few of the problems that I had:
1) The story has moments where it goes all over the place. While I appreciate Sullivan's musings about his different trips in the Seattle region, some of these passages have very little to do with the Makah and/or whaling. I suppose these are interesting moments to some. To me, seemed like page fillers.

2) Lots of references to [b:Moby-Dick or, The Whale|153747|Moby-Dick or, The Whale|Herman Melville|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327940656s/153747.jpg|2409320]. Problematic because I don't like the idea of paralleling Makah culture with Melville's work. Again--there are some interesting references that Sullivan pulls from Moby Dick but only via footnotes. Interesting? Not necessary? It was hard to tell throughout the book.

Overall
A decent book that is at least 50% about the Makah and whaling, although there are moments where Sullivan wanders off and talks about other things that take away from the main theme of the book. Still worthy of a read.

A good and interesting book about a 21st century whale hunt, an event I had previously heard nothing about - so much for the German documentary mentioned. I really enjoyed the writing style (even though I'm not a huge fan of first perspective writing, in this case, it was fitting) and the author seemed to genuinely care about what he was writing about - namely the whale hunt of the Makah and the people involved. The many positions, people and places mentioned were described in an interesting and (in my opinon) respectful manner. Especially the conflict between tradition and modern morals really came across well. While I was at first confused at the mentions of Moby Dick in the footnotes, later the author's intention was made clear and I enjoyed them even without knowing it. Overall, a good book and I was very happy to read this informative work for uni.