In this day of trophy hunting and ivory poaching, a timely and soulful elephant tale with complex characters.
A novel recounts the experiences of an eclectic group of conservationists, scientists, and safari guides sent on a dangerous expedition to Tsavo National Park in Kenya.
It is 1979, a decade after overpopulation followed by a major drought resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 of the 30,000 elephants in Tsavo. In their search for food and water, the elephants knocked down trees and trampled foliage, leaving behind a barren wasteland. Now the animals appear to be back. Nobody knows how many there are, but they are once again being hunted by poachers. The International Endangered Species Consortium is funding a safari to count the herds and to determine whether the environment is viable as an elephant sanctuary. Four scientists, two leading conservationists, three experienced guides, and one Maasai game warden make up the diverse coalition of American, British, and African adventurers crossing into the hot and dusty plains of Tsavo to save the elephants. Bruce Airley, a British-American in his mid-40s who was raised in Africa and has a complicated backstory, leads an ensemble cast of characters who find themselves threatened by lions, leopards, deadly poachers, and a hostile indigenous tribe (the Waliangulu) fond of shooting small poison arrows. Plus there are personal challenges—conflicting egos, long-standing rivalries, inner demons—that must be overcome if the group is to survive. Botkin (25 Myths that Are Destroying the Environment, 2015) and debut author Melcher weave together the former’s own field experiences and observations, creating a realistic fictional overlay for the discussion of ivory poaching and human interference with nature. The most beautiful—and most painful—passages center on the magnificent “jumbo” elephants, especially Zamani Baba, the biggest of the big, oldest of the old. He is powerful, fierce, intelligent, and tender: “As the old bull approached, the other two turned their heads toward him. He came alongside and stopped, and, putting his trunk over each, one at a time, rubbed their backs.” The human drama is action-filled and engaging, but it is the elephants that will likely bring readers to tears.
In this day of trophy hunting and ivory poaching, a timely and soulful elephant tale with complex characters.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-949574-04-3
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Book Vine Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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