A long, detailed look at the elusive orangutan of Borneo's rainforest, by the third of Louis Leakey's protÇgÇes (the others being Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey). Galdikas (Anthropology/Simon Fraser Univ., Canada) went to Indonesia in 1971 to study the orangutan—the sole great ape of Asia and the last arboreal great ape. At that time Kalimantan, the Indonesian piece of the island known as Borneo, was even more a land of endless rainforest, abundant wildlife, and isolated villages than it is today. The terrain was mean, the subject unwilling, the hours punishing. And Galdikas loved it. Her self- appointed task was to rescue captured orangutans—destined for zoos, circuses, petdom, or the laboratory cutting board—and return them to the wild. Her base of operations was the Tanjung Puting National Park, although Galdikas had to spend much of her time chasing poachers and loggers. Her story starts pretty much with day one and runs up to the present: setting up her camp, life with her then-husband, meeting and getting to know the apes, the fruits of her years of intense behavioral study. If nothing else, you have got to admire the sheer tonnage of raw data she amassed. She splices odd snippets of history, Darwinian theory, and behavioral science into her narrative, including smart little blasts of descriptive writing. Then there are the extraordinary recollections of her years as cross-species mother, nurturing, protecting, loving her young charges, tender moments remembered with great warmth: ``I gloried in being a mother.'' As much as Galdikas became attached to the apes, she was set on giving them their freedom and encouraging their independence, thereby forming the deepest and most lasting of bonds. An important contribution to orangutan research, certainly in a league with Goodall's chimps and Fossey's gorillas. (b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 18, 1995
ISBN: 0-316-30181-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
Whether you call this a personal story or nature writing, it’s poignant, thoughtful and moving—and likely to become a...
An inspired, beautiful and absorbing account of a woman battling grief—with a goshawk.
Following the sudden death of her father, Macdonald (History and Philosophy/Cambridge Univ.; Falcon, 2006, etc.) tried staving off deep depression with a unique form of personal therapy: the purchase and training of an English goshawk, which she named Mabel. Although a trained falconer, the author chose a raptor both unfamiliar and unpredictable, a creature of mad confidence that became a means of working against madness. “The hawk was everything I wanted to be: solitary, self-possessed, free from grief, and numb to the hurts of human life,” she writes. As a devotee of birds of prey since girlhood, Macdonald knew the legends and the literature, particularly the cautionary example of The Once and Future King author T.H. White, whose 1951 book The Goshawk details his own painful battle to master his title subject. Macdonald dramatically parallels her own story with White’s, achieving a remarkable imaginative sympathy with the writer, a lonely, tormented homosexual fighting his own sadomasochistic demons. Even as she was learning from White’s mistakes, she found herself very much in his shoes, watching her life fall apart as the painfully slow bonding process with Mabel took over. Just how much do animals and humans have in common? The more Macdonald got to know her, the more Mabel confounded her notions about what the species was supposed to represent. Is a hawk a symbol of might or independence, or is that just our attempt to remake the animal world in our own image? Writing with breathless urgency that only rarely skirts the melodramatic, Macdonald broadens her scope well beyond herself to focus on the antagonism between people and the environment.
Whether you call this a personal story or nature writing, it’s poignant, thoughtful and moving—and likely to become a classic in either genre.Pub Date: March 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0802123411
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Simon (Jupiter's Travels, 1980) chronicles the David-and- Goliath struggle over the fate of a California river valley. Back in the mid-1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers targeted Round Valley in Northern California for inundation. The purpose was flood control on the Eel River, the corps claimed, thinly disguising their mission to send water south to the thirsty (and politically powerful) ranchers of the San Joaquin Valley. California's Department of Water Resources and the Metropolitan Water District, bureaucratic bullies used to getting their way, also liked the idea. The future looked bleak for the pretty, classically proportioned valley, with its cozy sense of place and sedate country pace. But Richard Wilson wasn't happy about the prospect of his farm lying under 300 feet of water, his valley just another notch on the corps's belt. So he engaged the behemoths in battle. It didn't hurt that Wilson had a hefty bankroll he could dip into whenever needed or that he could turn to friends like Dean Witter (yes, the investment house really is named after one person) and Ike Livermore, then-governor Reagan's close adviser. But why quibble? Wilson's cause was just and his instincts true—dams aren't worth their salt when it comes to flood control, as a presidential commission has just recently confirmed. In the end, after much blood, sweat, and tears (and a healthy dose of good luck), Wilson brought the arrogant agencies and bureaucracies to their knees. Simon's reporting of the fight is well paced for all its detail, although much of the deep background material could have been left on the editing floor without hurting the story. An immensely gratifying tale in which small-town America gives its comeuppance to a bloated, blustering federal agency with a self-appointed mission to subdue nature. (Photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42822-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
