Book Review: The Fruit Hunters by Adam Leith Gollner

The Fruit Hunters

Jessica gave me this book, The Fruit Hunters: A Story About Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession by Adam Leith Gollner, for my birthday, and I was a little confused by it. I like fruit as much as the next guy but am in no way obsessed. I probably have had more than my fair share of fruits, mostly by getting to travel to Southeast Asia and sample things like jackfruit, dragon fruit, mangosteen, durian, and more. There is something to be said for having some nice juicy fruit on a hot summer day, and I actively try to grow raspberries and blackberries in my backyard until the birds eat them all. But little did I know what magic awaited me in this book.

I should start by saying that I feel Adam and I share a few common interests, as he would give anecdotes about food, intersecting them with references to folks like Nick Drake or making passing Norwegian black metal comments. This is not your father’s book about fruit. Adam was formerly an editor at Vice magazine, a magazine I have paid to place advertisements in, which solidifies his hip credentials at a certain level, at least to me (and probably half of Brooklyn).

Through the chapters of this book, Gollner weaves an interesting picture of many aspects of fruit. Most interest to me would be his quest for the ultra exotic fruits, his trip to Hawaii to visit fruit growers producing some of the strangest and most elusive fruits on the planet, his trip to Southeast Asia to seek out durian, his trip to the Seychelles to find Coco de Mer, and his trip to West Africa to find the source of miracle berries. The author tells an interesting tale that is half travelogue, half character study, as he encounters truly strange and eccentric fruit lovers. 

Through the book, he finds the strangest sorts of people, from fruititarian cultists who believe eating only fruit will lead to eternal life to those who brush with the underbelly of the fruit world through smuggling. While not a comprehensive book on fruit (if there could be such a thing), this is a very interesting read. On some pages I could almost taste the delicious fruit. In fact, having tasted durian fruit on at least three occasions and smelled them on several more, the segments on durians made me reconsider my stance against them based on their stinkiness. There were several people ALG met in Thailand who abandoned their regular lives to become durian seekers somewhat in the style of Deadheads, following the road to durian wherever it might lead.

Perhaps my only gripe about the book would be that it doesn’t contain any photos or isn’t a video documentary. I made mental notes to find out more information about fruits presented in this book. Several of the characters presented seem so much larger than life that I would be intrigued to watch their idiosyncrasies on camera. In fact, passing references were made to both filming and photography, which makes me wonder where the companion pieces are. 

I can’t recommend this book enough if you have even a mere passing interest in fruit, exotic traveling, traveling specifically in search of exotic fruits, or fascinatingly odd individuals with very specific interests. Thanks to Adam Leith Gollner for writing this interesting book and inspiring my imagination to dream more often of fruit.

Tags: books, coco de mer, durian, fruit, miracle berry