Jenny Dunfree gets her first hint of some of the difficulties she will face during an ornithological research project in the San Blas Islands, off the coast of Panama, when the ticket agent at the airport refuses to sell her a one-way ticket. Insisting that she will want to return the following day, Jenny is unable to convince anyone that she will be on Sugatupu for an extended period of time. Her duties, funded by a foundation, are to study a nest of harpy eagles, a rare species, and keep notes on their behavior, their feeding habits, and any eaglets which may appear. Exhausted when she makes her way to Sugatupu by canoe, she is immediately accosted by a young boy who drags her to the village meeting house. There, she must list her genealogy for the village elders. They do not want her name, just that of her family. In fact, she is not allowed to tell her name, nor is anyone else allowed to ask it. “Without a name, do I have a soul? Am I a real person?” she wonders. Ultimately, it is Jenny’s respect for the culture and beliefs which make the novel work. Though it is clear that some aspects of the culture of these islands will inevitably change, the author’s own work there as a “cultural guide” and “technical advisor to a women’s cooperative” will help preserve the essence of their way of life.
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First published in France in 1985, The Prospector signaled a change in what had been the author’s style until then. Abandoning the experimental style he employed in the 1970s, with its elusive characters and almost plotless “stories,” author J. M. G. LeClezio here creates an adventure story which is also a coming-of-age story and an exploration of culture. Set in Mauritius, where his French family has deep roots and where he now has a home, the novel is unique—filled with lush descriptions and vibrant characters who appeal to the romantic in all of us while simultaneously evoking the violence and horror which mar their lives and make a mockery of “civilization.” The novel’s exotic setting inspires dreams of lost worlds, mysteries, and lives tied to nature and its beauties. At the same time, however, the author is exploring the damage wrought by foreigners whose sole purpose is to exploit the land and use it for commercial purposes, specifically the plantation owners who have created and cruelly oversee the sugarcane fields worked by underpaid local help.
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Though this delightful aperitif of a novel does not precede the rich and heady “dinner” of memories, adventures, and interesting characters which one finds in A YEAR IN PROVENCE, Mayle’s earlier story of Provence, it does pique the reader’s imagination with its romantic story of a chateau and a vineyard and a wine scam in which a case of great wine may sell for one hundred thousand dollars. Max Skinner, a London investment banker who is dismissed on the day he is about to land a multimillion-dollar contract (which his avaricious boss promptly appropriates with all its commissions), learns that same day that his uncle Henry has died in Provence. Max, the son of a British diplomat, had spent many happy summers with his childless uncle, and though he had not seen him recently, he discovers that he is the heir to Uncle Henry’s farmhouse/chateau and its vineyards.
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Virginia Morell’s astounding level of research reveals paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey individually, in their relationships with their family (also paleontologists), and as dogged searchers for the truth about man’s origins. Through letters, diaries, journals, personal interviews, and family archives, they Leakeys speak to the reader with unprecedented candor about their personal travails, but more importantly, about their early struggles for funding, their fossil discoveries in remote desert locations in Kenya and Tanzania, their constant surprise by the historical record, and their uncertainty, to this day, about modern man’s exact lineage. An absolutely fascinating family biography.
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As much fun to read as any book by Redmond O’Hanlon or Gerald Durrell, A Primate’s Memoir is funny, irreverent, and full of adventure, while also being a serious scientific study of the savanna baboons of Kenya. Sapolsky’s goal is to determine the relationship of baboon stress levels to their overall health over a period of years. A neuroscientist, he observes the social hierarchy and interactions of his baboon group, guesses which individuals appear to be most stressed or most relaxed and then checks their hormones and blood chemistry, not an easy procedure, given his clever and not always co-operative population. Sapolsky describes his travels with enthusiasm, impeccable timing, and great, self-deprecating humor, subtly selecting details which show how similarly he and his baboon population deal with their worlds’ uncertainties. While life may be “nasty, brutish, and short,” Sapolsky shows us it’s a lot more fun if one keeps a sense of humor–and a lot less stressful.
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