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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I thought this was a fun concept, to be told from the tortoise’s perspective. It took me a minute to get into the author’s writing style, and I never fully got into the 18th century language. It was more philosophical than I originally expected, but I enjoyed the commentary on silly little humans and the silly little things we do.
Isn't the title enough to make you want to read it?
Just finished book. I liked it more and more as I read it. I'd actually give it a 3.5 as it was an interesting tortoise-focused philosophy on humans, but had a fluid timeline.
Just finished book. I liked it more and more as I read it. I'd actually give it a 3.5 as it was an interesting tortoise-focused philosophy on humans, but had a fluid timeline.
Thinly veiled excoriation of the human race as seen through the eyes of a tortoise. If you are unfamiliar with the devastation caused by humans to the planet and all wildlife, perhaps you should read this book. If you have been awake for even a small portion of your adulthood and already are well aware of the havoc we have wreaked, don't bother with this book - it's just a sad rehash of our failings.
What a curious book! This reads from the perspective of an 80-year-old-ish tortoise living in an English garden in the 18th century. "Timothy" seems all-knowing, sharing wry observations about nature and humanity that will provoke your thoughts while making you laugh. This tortoise certainly suffers no fools! I was particularly delighted to learn that Timothy was actually real, and this book is based on journals from the man who knew Timothy (or at least thought he did) for much of Timothy's life.
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Can’t rate this since the publishing house I currently work for mean to publish the translation very soon. Just gonna write it really grew on me.
I loved this lyrical book, written as the musings of Timothy, a tortoise relocated from the Mediterranean to England in the eighteenth century to live out his life in the garden of the naturalist Gilbert White. The author's observations on the human condition as seen through the eyes of a tortoise are perceptive and poignant. This is a lovely and somewhat sad little book.
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 5
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 5
Overall rating: 4.5
Favorite quotes
"So it is with humans. Quickness draws their eye. Entangles their attention. What they notice they call reality. But reality is a fence with many holes, a net with many tears. I walk through them slowly. My slowness is deceptively fast."
"I wish to be out of human reach. Out from under the constant stir. Laborious turmoil of this breed. Endless bother of humans. Toil inherent in their mere existence. Dizzying inability to bask or muse."
"But I wish to live in the ancient disorder of nature again. Where everything grows according to its kind. As it will or won't, without the work of human hands."
"I wish to live again in a place that is not a map of the gardener's mind. Book of nature, as humans love to think of it. But where I wish to live is not a book at all. Not an argument for the being and attributes of an unnecessary god. Not a theorem, hypothesis, or demonstration. Merely itself."
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 5
Plot: 4
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 5
Overall rating: 4.5
Favorite quotes
"So it is with humans. Quickness draws their eye. Entangles their attention. What they notice they call reality. But reality is a fence with many holes, a net with many tears. I walk through them slowly. My slowness is deceptively fast."
"I wish to be out of human reach. Out from under the constant stir. Laborious turmoil of this breed. Endless bother of humans. Toil inherent in their mere existence. Dizzying inability to bask or muse."
"But I wish to live in the ancient disorder of nature again. Where everything grows according to its kind. As it will or won't, without the work of human hands."
"I wish to live again in a place that is not a map of the gardener's mind. Book of nature, as humans love to think of it. But where I wish to live is not a book at all. Not an argument for the being and attributes of an unnecessary god. Not a theorem, hypothesis, or demonstration. Merely itself."
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It took a while to settle into Timothy's chelonian voice, because my first thought was that a tortoise's narration should be slow and unwinding. But as Timothy's personality emerged, her direct, deliberate sentences and the way she take the world in one specific observation at a time made that voice perfect and inevitable. Klinkenborg takes the traditional naturalist's method of making order of the world through observation over time, looking for systems and secrets in all that occurs, and turns that method on its head by giving it to a character with an unfamiliar (to humans) sense of time and mortality. That creates a gentle but stinging critique of the shortsighted hypocrisies through which humans observe and imagine animals, and also of the way we tell stories -- what counts as worth telling is very different when you see the world from a different angle and at a slower pace. So while I began with some readerly anxieties about what the "story" was here, once I settled into Timothy's voice that became an irrelevant question, and I was immersed in life on her terms and low to the ground.