Customer Reviews

Crow (Reaktion Books - Animal)

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In CROW, Boria Sax compiles a veritable treasure-trove of material about crows and other close relatives such as ravens, jackdaws, and other corvids. Sax organizes the information into mostly chronological chapters, beginning with "Mesopotamia," which deals with corvids in Biblical and ancient lore, and eventually progressing to chapters about American Indian traditions and eventually Romantic and modern treatments of the birds. Although Sax's writing style is ordered and logical, it sometimes flows a little unevenly - but I think this is largely because there is no easy way to segue between some of the anecdotes and historical accounts in CROW. Overall, however, these small quibbles don't detract from the larger picture that Sax paints of these mysterious, mischievous, and sometimes misunderstood birds. There's a good proportion of folklore, legend, and fact in CROW, and it's presented alongside appealing images of paintings and other historical works of art.

In the end, CROW is a great book to have if you're interested in learning more about corvids and their ever-changing relationship with humans throughout history.

I picked up this book in a Half Moon Bay bookstore hoping to expand my collection of symbology and history books. The author presents her subject well and it does give a decent overview on how the crow has been represented in history. The problem lay with the 'facts' the author used to link many of the myths or point out uses of the crow in ancient stories/artwork. From the areas that she talked about and I was familiar with, the author routinely exaggerated and/or relied on suppositions. I read the book all the way through, but I didn't feel like I could trust any of the information in the book.