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My Family and Other Animals
by Gerald Durrell
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$15.00 |
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$10.20 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$4.80 (32%) |
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Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ISBN13: 9780142004418
Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
Notes:
When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrell’s family’s experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the ceaseless procession of puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies into their home.
As a self-described "champion of small uglies," English writer Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) devoted his life to writing and the preservation of wildlife, from the Mauritius pink pigeon to the Rodriques fruit bat. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the Greek island of Corfu, but ended up as a delightful account of his family's experiences that were, according to him, "rather like living in one of the more flamboyant and slapstick comic operas." As a 10-year-old boy, Gerry left England for Corfu with "all those items that I thought necessary to relieve the tedium of a long journey: four books on natural history, a butterfly net, a dog, and a jam-jar full of caterpillars all in imminent danger of turning into chrysalids." Durrell's descriptions of his family and its many eccentric hangers-on (he stresses that "all the anecdotes about the island and the islanders are absolutely true") are highly entertaining, as is the procession of toads, scorpions, geckos, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, the puppies Widdle and Puke, and the Magenpies. This is a lovely book.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| One of my All Time Favorites |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I first read this book at age thirteen and proceeded to re-read it when ever I wanted a lift. Some of the stories made me laugh out loud and I found myself in love with Greece and even Dung Beetles.
I recommend this book to everyone I know.
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| On the Radical Nature of Happiness |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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If you're lucky, an acquaintance loans you this book and thereby becomes a good friend. That's what happened to me, anyway. I was not in the mood to read a "romp" or an "idyll" (such patronizing terms!) and was in a particularly dark mood when this book was pressed on me. I was heavily reading and researching electromagnetic pollution after my daughter began exhibiting curious neurological symptoms and was brooding about topics like altered DNA and blood-brain barrier permeability. And this happy little book seemed like something to get through quickly and return.
And then I found I couldn't not read it. I began reflecting on the radical nature of happiness and in particular on the link between empathetic intelligence (a young boy's loving gaze on the natural world) and wholeness. As I alternated between my readings on EMFs and Gerry Durrell's "idyll" or lost world, there seemed to be a link, on the one hand, the joyful specificity of flora and fauna on the island, on the other, the cognitive impairment of people in our fragmented wireless world who lack "awareness of the fragile dimensions of living systems."
I'm an unlikely nature lover. (I remember an ill-fated "English Department hike" during which I cursed nature and longed to see it all paved over and replaced with P.F. Chang's bistros. I never liked the curious mix of kill-joy Marxism, Puritanism and Environmentalism I found in English departments, and I remember how the English prof who led that hike wanted us all to pose for an arty photo holding rocks in front of our faces, and I just hated that symbolism.) But having children radically changes one's awareness of the fragile dimensions of living systems.
Can you imagine a child ranging over an entire island like Gerry Durrell does, feeding himself from the land, living with such intensity? I guess I'm saying, this is a funny, funny book, but I take it seriously. Not seriously enough to sell my possessions and move to Corfu, as I've heard some have done.
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| Magical! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This is my favourite book, bar none. I first studied it in school which should have been a reason for disliking it; instead I have fallen in love with Durrell's autobiographical description of his somewhat dysfunctional family, their gang of eccentric friends, and the fauna and flora he studies and collects ardently and for the seemingly magical island of Corfu. Overall a hillarious and very warmly and beautifully written book. My only regret is in not having a similarly magical childhood.
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| An excellent read |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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"My Family and Other Animals" is one of the best books I have read in a long time (and I read a lot of books). Not only is it entertaining and very funny, but it is also incredibly well written, with impeccable use of adjectives on every page. It is a fairly quick read, but also one of those books that you can open up and read just a few pages if you need a smile.
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| A curious and clever tale of boy and his family |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Though perhaps too often slowed down by the detailed description of an insect or bird and its behavior, Durrell does a fine job of balancing autobiography and his naturalist-writing tendencies.
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