Trevor Corson's The Zen of Fish, a tastier-than-fiction tale about "the fast food of old Tokyo," follows California sushi-school students through their 12-week transformation from aspiring apprentices into full-fledged chefs — training that takes five years to complete in Japan.
The story focuses on the emotional and physical trials of 20-year-old Kate Murray as she learns to wield some of the world's sharpest knives — yes, they're the descendants of samurai swords — and battles to make a home for herself in the male-centric world behind the sushi bar.
Interspersed with Murray's story are surprising morsels on the history, preparation and science of sushi: Who knew that the freshest fish isn't usually the tastiest? Or that the bluefin tuna belly we prize was once considered to be a garbage fish, unfit for human consumption?
Corson, once a graduate student with an interest in East Asian religions, had no intention of becoming what he now calls "Seafood Guy." But in his mid-20s, he took a two-year breather as a commercial lobsterman, fulfilling a fascination with lobster boats that went back to childhood summers in Maine.
The experience spawned his first book, The Secret Life of Lobsters, which he says is "full of exciting sex and violence under the sea." The story originated as an essay in the Atlantic Monthly that was later collected in The Best American Science Writing 2003.
Corson was an award-winning editor at the Harvard quarterly Transition, and he's written about international politics and Chinese-American military affairs for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Wall Street Journal.
This reading of The Zen of Fish took place in June 2007 at the Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.
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