My dad gave me this after I read and loved Douglas A. Chadwick's The Fate of the Elephant. I couldn't help but compare this book to that one, which is actually one of my favorite books. I like Matthiessen's writing--he has some really beautiful and vivid descriptions of Africa's plants, landscape...
Enjoyable in places but fairly uneven on the whole. I was also distracted by Matthiessen's admitted, though only occasional, hypocritical forays (more of a personal gripe on my part, perhaps, than anything else). Example: he decries in one moment how the constant groan of his group's outboard mot...
I never was able to shake the feeling that there was something missing in this novel. Maybe it was a soul or heart that it lacked? Hard to say because it was, at times, quite beautiful, and the ending was very well done, but I felt empty after I was done with the book.One of the biggest problems ...
This is a much revered book which I was looking forward to reading. It’s not a climbing book, though the long trek two man expedition contains its fair share of ardours that you’s expect to find at Himalayan altitudes. And actually, of course, the expedition is one of many men, the porters and S...
I have often heard Peter Matthiessen described as one of the all-time best nature writers, but my first experience with his work (The Cloud Forest) didn't do as much for me as I had expected it to. This one though? This one got me. While reading The Cloud Forest, I mostly had the impression that ...
Far Tortuga is one of my favorite novels. I've read it many times and will continue to read it. It's a simple story in which little happens except that men, without really understanding it as such, confront nature and existence and the unwavering progress of time. It's April of a year in the m...
This collection of Peter Matthiessen's short fiction is presented in chronological order according to publication date. The themes of race relations, the South, and violence loop through and around each short story like an uncoiling snake felt slipping over one's bare ankle. You know its there, ...
A field diary written by a (poetic) naturalist for naturalists & other extremely patient people who will tire through detailed descriptions of various fowl (peafowl, water fowl, rock fowl), stone partridges, francolins, laughing doves, pranticoles, etc for Matthiessen's tiny shocks of lovely, dre...