Customer Reviews

Travels with Our Fellow Creatures

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If you're looking for a good book of animal stories to curl up with by the fire this would be a good choice. The authors are all old favorites and include Cleveland Amory, Jack London, May Sarton, Farley Mowat, John Steinbeck, Dian Fossey and Ernest Hemingway. In that respect, the book is a little too predictable for anyone who has done much reading in the genre. Like me, you will undoubtedly recognize Sarton's "Fur Person," Kipling's "Garm-A Hostage," Amory's "The Cat Who Came to Christmas," and London's "White Fang." However, there were some pleasant surprises, such as the poetry by Walt Whitman, Floyd Skloot and Robert Graves, and the fact that I had read about Mowat's adventures with his wolves didn't make me enjoy them any less.

Expect no great surprises or revelations, with the possible exception of Diane Ackerman's close encounter with a right whale. Even the excerpt from Barry Lopez's ordinarily luminous prose is merely a short, ho hum essay on land ownership. This is bascially a feel good book (best to keep kleenex at your side), and if you take it as such, you won't be disappointed.

This is a diverse collection of literature for animal lovers. Many of the pieces were written by some of our most gifted writers. Some of these are poems and short stores and others are excerpts taken from longer books.

Here's a sampling of some of my favorite selections: In A SNAPSHOT OF REX, James Thurber remembers his American Bull Terrier who was "a tremendous fighter", and completely loyal to Thurber and his two brothers - Cleveland Armory tells about a stray cat who needed rescuing in THE CAT WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS - John Steinbeck's dog , Charley was the best of companions in TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY - in GORILLAS IN THE MIDST, Dian Fossey relates anecdotes about a monkey named Kima, who with Primus, an antelope shared their space with her dog, Cindy, a boxer mix - and in a remarkable story, Rudyard Kipling writes about an extremely intelligent dog who's master gave him as a gift to another man to repay a debt in GARM-A HOSTAGE.

There are also selections from Jack London, Willie Morris, and Ernest Hemingway. Very enjoyable reading!