Customer Reviews

Ivory Hunters: A Novel of Extinction

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ivory Hunters was suspenseful, exciting, thought-provoking, and educational. But at the same time, it had a way of making me feel emotionally drawn to the characters, especially to its main character--the ivory-billed woodpecker. Reading this novel made me want to know more because it make me care. I will be first in line when Greg Lewbart's next book hits the shelves.

The descriptions of the terrain of Florida's Big Cypress Preserve, and the various habitats, and of the woodpecker sightings, made me believe that I was there too...

While most reviewers have given this five stars, I have to agree with Mr. Severson. The book has a good plot, and it's a decent read, but one wishes that Carl Hiaasen, another South Floridian who writes rather similar novels, had penned it. The writing is awkward and cliche-ridden and lacks the sense of irony or humor that Hiaasen does so well.

For example (and as noted by Mr. S.), after transcribing an elegant (if flowerly and very 19th-century) passage from J.J. Audubon (p. 83-84) we get this exchange between "the Harvard boys [!]": "Christ, that guy could put together a run-on sentence. He must have had something against periods." "Yeah. But he did have a way with words as well as a nice touch with the paintbrush." On p. 74, we are told that aviary owners Tab and Julie "were well equipped, each with a pair of Nikon 7x35 Action binoculars and Julie carried an Olympus OM-4 SLR with a Vivitar F 2.8 120-600 mm zoom telephoto lens." So what? (At least we weren't given the prices.) Unfortunately, there are countless other examples.

While the story, as noted, is generally rather engaging, there are inane moments: in one, the male ivory-bill stalks the bad guys and kills one of them by jabbing its beak through an eye and into the brain (ouch!). Reminiscent of the 1950s movie classic The giant claw, but certainly not a probable avian behavior. The book is nicely bound and printed, with a reasonably helpful map at the beginning, but it might better have been published as a paperback, for about half the price.

I happened on this rather obscure little novel from a citation in Jerome Jackson's extraordinary 2004 book, In search of the ivory-billed woodpecker; he describes Dr. Lewbart's book briefly, and without judgment. Another publication from last year that can be recommended without reserve is Phillip Hoose's The race to save the Lord God bird, and of course there is Dover's 2003 reprint of James T. Tanner's 1942 work, the Ivory-billed woodpecker (mentioned by Lewbart). And we can expect another book, The grail bird, this summer. Why all the recent flurry of writing on Campephilus principalis, especially taking into account the lack of books between 1942 and 2004? Perhaps it was the alleged 1999 sighting of ivory-bills in the Pearl River bottomlands that trigged a thorough and technologically advanced (if unsuccessful) expedition three years later.

Whatever the reasons, those fascinated by the ivory-billed woodpecker saga happily have much to chose from. The Lewbart book certainly belongs on that list, but at $22 or so one would be better off spending the money on the others, and perhaps hope that a more skilled writer tackles another fictional account at some point. (Jackson said that he had received various inquiries from fiction writers, but only the Lewbart novel had appeared.)

Chuck Herrold (Pittsburgh, Pa.)

I bought Ivory Hunters because it's the only book I know of where the fiction centers on the ivory-billed woodpecker, a species that truly fascinates me. But the novel is one of the most poorly written books I've ever read.
Referring to the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Department, Lewbart says on p. 72, "They were a diverse lot and utilized every trick in the book." The author fills Chapter 16 with long quotations from Audubon. Dan, a character of Lewbart's, says on p. 84 about Audubon's writing, "Christ, that guy could put together a run-on sentence. He must have had something against periods." On p. 89, Lewbart refers to a character with a felony record as a man with a "checkered past." On p. 96, the author refers to another unsavory character "with a bit of a checkered past" who had been arrested but had "a nice little nest egg somewhere." Then there's dialogue like this on p. 99: "OK. Bye Hal." "Bye Jasper."
After mortgaging his house, spending $25,000 to learn the location of the ivory-bill, then discovering that the bird has been stolen while he was gone, a character (Tab) feels "this was too much to deal with before his first cup of coffee." (p. 135)
The bad guy is named Grimes. The good guy is named Noble. Julie, a character notices this: "Noble! His last name was Noble," Julie said. "I remembered because I thought what a good name for a guy in such a noble profession. Pretty corny, I know. But it worked." Except, this book doesn't work. Lewbart had the perfect species around which to center the action; he just didn't have the writing ability to do the story justice.

I read this book on my way home from Germany. I had to spend a lot of time in airports getting home and this book made my wait much more pleasant. It was a real page turner. I finished before I got back home. Pavillion Key was also a great read. I read that one on my way down to North Carolina last summer. I hope Dr. Lewbart writes another book starring Hal Noble before my next trip!

Ivory Hunters' fictional aspects are exciting and well-paced. But what makes this book different is its educational value and centering its conflicts around environmentally sensitive areas.

Ivory Hunters was suspenseful, exciting, thought-provoking, and educational. But at the same time, it had a way of making me feel emotionally drawn to the characters, especially to its main character--the ivory-billed woodpecker. Reading this novel made me want to know more because it make me care. I will be first in line when Greg Lewbart's next book hits the shelves.