Finished 11/21/2019 at 9:15 pm

I got interested in the subject matter of 'The Feather Thief' after listening to a great This American Life podcast that roughly, told the story of an insane heist, stealing something incredibly valuable to science for use in a completely superfluous context by a prodigious flute player who wanted to buy a golden flute.

Yes, the story is insane. And true. And honestly, sad.= in many ways.

Johnson does a brilliant job mixing memoir, a fascinating story with a creative non-fiction take on a perplexing story. He dives deep into the fly-tying subculture and tries to pry out the true motivations of Edwin Rist, who in 2009 stole hundreds of rare bird skins from a British Museum to dismantle and sell on the feather black market.

In the end, the a mix of futility (of the search for a true answer) and nihilism (why Rist decided to dismantle literally priceless objects) leaves a bit of sad taste, which I think is the point.

I recommend the book for any who are looking for a fascinating read, on a subject I'd venture to guess they know next to nothing about. Johnson is a great writer as well -- I'm looking forward to reading whatever comes next of his work.