At least I was right about the beard.
Also, I hate it when writers do follow-ups. I haven't even touched "Penguin Lost" and I won't any time soon, unless I can be persuaded by another glowing review.
However if Yann Martel ever dares to come up with a follow-up on "Life of Pi" some books will need some burning.
But -and I am an animal person- I struggled throughout with the book's portrayal of and attitude toward animals. Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
A book can't really fail me if it makes me think and re-assess my world view - and it did, quite severely.
Interestingly, the portrayal of wild animals in the book struck me actually as quite astute - when I picked it up, I had just come back from my volunteering in a game reserve in South Africa and the similarities were quite striking. A lot of facts sounded correct, too. (A tiger can drink salty water without risking immediate dehydration, a hyena has the world's record on jaw strength, taming of lions (and dogs) comes by establishing alpha male superiority and so on.) I can't comment on the portrayal of animals in zoos, though.
Anthropomorphizing animals is a severe problem for wild preservation. Perhaps I should write about Moholoholo.
