My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
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Book Reviews of My Family and Other Animals
Book Review: On the Radical Nature of Happiness
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Quite simply the funniest book I have read.
Summary: 5 Stars
As a young boy I was forced, with some considerable reluctance, to read 'My Family and Other Animals' by one of teachers at my school in England, 'in order to improve my vocabulary'. All is forgiven, Mr Cox, for within my rather battered copy lurked, without doubt, the most hilarious account of familial eccentricity, and light-hearted feuding that I have ever come across.
The book, as Mr Durrell explains in introduction, was intended to describe the glorious flora and fauna of Corfu, a greek island where he spent some time as a child. In this goal, he has succeeded admirably, as the whole atmosphere of the island is exquisitely recreated, to an extent that even on a rainy afternoon in Sidcup, it is not difficult to be transported to a sunny morning in the Aegean watching a young Gerry discovering a nest of a trapdoor spider, or perhaps discovering something of the mating rituals of the greek tortoise.
It is in the descriptions of the family, however, where this book really comes to life. As Mr Durrell describes in the introduction, the family, as in life, once they had begun to appear, muscled their way into the rest of pages as well. From tales of the rotund, pretentious Larry (Lawrence Durrell, of the Alexandria Quartet fame), the gun-mad Leslie and the 'muslin and gauze' swathed sister, Margot, to the desciptions the long-suffering mother, the family had me laughing out loud at the most inopportune moments.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I read it regularly, and am still crying with laughter all the way through. Not only a splendid book for the evocative descriptions of the natural history, this is the most witty book I have ever read.
Book Review: If one could "fall in love" with a book, I did!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have never written a book review, and I am hesitant to do so now as whatever I say will certainly be redundant. But I am so enthralled with this little book that I can't contain my enthusiasm.
This is a quick read, but that is not to indicate any superficiality in the story or story telling. The author reveals a world of discovery in his life on Corfu. Far from dull, his time there is filled with small adventures and big lessons. There is nothing the least preachy or even "teachy" in the story line, but the learning for the reader takes place in such a pleasant fashion that you don't realize until the end how much knowledge you have gained.
His eccentric family provides light and very humorous moments, but, for the most part, I found them and the stories about them quite unnecessary.
The author's curiosity about the animals, amphibians, birds and world around him drive the story. His observations of human kind, especially the island people he meets, are equally compelling.
I could not put this book down and, as it was lent to me, I am now on a quest to purchase my own copy.
It only makes me wonder why children in modern day society need the enormous amount of stimulus and involvement to be content. Young Gerald Durrell spent much of his time alone, save the companionship of his "zoo", and was quite happy. No soccer games, no little league baseball, no hang-outs at the mall necessary. Oh, for the simple life.
Book Review: A must-read book THIS year!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am sometimes hesitant to read books that were written in the 1950's. I have a bias that says perhaps the book will be irrelevant or somehow dated. While this book was written in that time period, it is an absolutely timeless book! This book can be read anytime, anywhere, by anyone regardless of age, reading preferences or genre preference. I just loved this book. Never before has a book made me laugh out loud as this one did. The author has a story-telling style that will reel you right in. He tells stories about his very unique family in a very respectful, albeit hilarious way. When you read the book, (and yes, you absolutely SHOULD read it) pay special attention to the stories about the scorpion and magpies. I had to read these excerpts out loud to my family as I just had to share the hilarity. Aside from the outstanding humor, the author writes with exquisite detail about the flora, fauna and landscapes on Corfu. At times, while reading the descriptions of the ocean or olive grove or mountain lake, I wished I could step into the imagery and experience the loveliness. The author is unsurpassed in descriptive writing. This quality, paired with the humor and light-heartedness, makes this book a one-of-a-kind must read book. Read it! You really will not be disappointed.Book Review: ....Tears-running-down-cheeks, hysterically funny
Summary: 5 Stars
I too read this book in my childhood as a compulsory exercise in English class. Years later when I reread it out loud to my children, and was reduced over and over, frequently on the same page, to helpless, tearful laughter, I wondered how we managed to get through it in school. The book is an autobiographical rendering of the author's boyhood experience as his family of five travels from dreary, cold England to the sunny, whimsical reality of Corfu. The pristine island and colourful inhabitants embrace the family and all its idiosyncrasies. Gerry, the little boy, lives a blissful, completely free existence as he explores the flora and fauna of the island with the occasional French lesson thrown in as a silly gesture to seriousness. The day-to-day experiences of the whole family rush with sparkling hilarity through the pages, leaving the reader gasping for air from laughing too hard. This is a completely delicious book, the kind of book you want in your library forever. I have misplaced or lost several copies, and I've just ordered my latest. I think it is just about my favorite novel of all.