The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King

Reading Level
Grade 9
Time to Read
5 hrs 36 mins

Reading Level

What is the reading level of The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King?

Analysing the books in the series, we estimate that the reading level of The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King is 8th and 9th grade.

Expert Readability Tests for
The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King

Readability Test Reading Level
Flesch Kincaid Scale Grade 8
SMOG Index Grade 10
Coleman Liau Index Grade 8
Dale Chall Readability Score Grade 7

Reading Time

5 hrs 36 mins

How long to read The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King?

The estimated word count of The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King is 83,855 words.

A person reading at the average speed of 250 words/min, will finish the book in 5 hrs 36 mins. At a slower speed of 150 words/min, they will finish it in 9 hrs 20 mins. At a faster speed of 450 words/min, they will finish it in 3 hrs 7 mins.

The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King - 83,855 words
Reading Speed Time to Read
Slow 150 words/min 9 hrs 20 mins
Average 250 words/min 5 hrs 36 mins
Fast 450 words/min 3 hrs 7 mins
The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen
Authors
Rich Cohen

More about The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King

83,855 words

Word Count

for The Fish that Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King

9 hours and 1 minute

Audiobook length


Description

A legendary tale, both true and astonishing, from the author of Israel is Real and Sweet and LowWhen Samuel Zemurray arrived in America in 1891, he was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the grandest house in New Orleans sixty-nine years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world. In between, he worked as a fruit peddler, a banana hauler, a dockside hustler, and a plantation owner. He battled and conquered the United Fruit Company, becoming a symbol of the best and worst of the United States: proof that America is the land of opportunity, but also a classic example of the corporate pirate who treats foreign nations as the backdrop for his adventures. In Latin America, when people shouted "Yankee, go home!" it was men like Zemurray they had in mind. Rich Cohen's brilliant historical profile The Fish That Ate the Whale unveils Zemurray as a hidden kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary, driven by an indomitable will to succeed. Known as El Amigo, the Gringo, or simply Z, the Banana Man lived one of the great untold stories of the last hundred years. Starting with nothing but a cart of freckled bananas, he built a sprawling empire of banana cowboys, mercenary soldiers, Honduran peasants, CIA agents, and American statesmen. From hustling on the docks of New Orleans to overthrowing Central American governments, from feuding with Huey Long to working with the Dulles brothers, Zemurray emerges as an unforgettable figure, connected to the birth of modern American diplomacy, public relations, business, and war―a monumental life that reads like a parable of the American dream.