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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide
Our modern day Moby Dick. Man vs Nature, with nature as a small god. The ending was tragic, tbh, but besides that this book is a tale of glory. It drags on a bit in the beginning, and took me a while to get fully committed to reading. The book gets on a lot of tangents, but I grew to truly love them by the end. The book weaves philosophy, history, mythology, evolution, etc., all into the story of one brave tiger refusing to submit to ever encroaching civilization. Our Gilgamesh.
informative
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
A tiger eats a man. What is so special about that?
Nothing in particular, except if you look at it from John Vaillant`s point of view which is this astonishing book. Vaillant has the talent to take smallest of stories, and crosscut it to wide net of ideas, facts and images. Man-eating tiger endangering a close nit Russian taiga community can be a big deal, if you look at it close enough, and Vaillant gladly gives you the opportunity to take a closer look.
This book is not simply about ecology, Vaillant explains the principle of connectivity in nature with his engaging writing style. Whole book is written as an ecological system - it shows you every aspect of the story, leaving no blind spots; he anatomy of the animal, its behavior; the attacker; victims; hunters; other people involved, their backgrounds; possible scenarios - what went wrong, who to blame; myths; historical background; geographical background; lots and lots of backgrounds - with this book, "the ground is covered" all and over again, and then some - basically everything you would want to know to see the big picture. But besides hundreds of facts that will probably confuse your mind if you overdose with reading, this book gives you opportunity to think along the way, I know it made me for sure. In Latvia we have a saying - with bees, you never know. I guess it goes with animals everywhere, and especially with a man eating tiger - you can only suppose, it is not like you could ask him, no matter if he is alive or dead. So you use your brain to follow the story, see all connections, correlations, think through your previous experience - as in what you have read/seen/heard, and what you would believe, and try not to forget Vaillant`s "method" of taking every little detail into consideration, whatever you are thinking about.
I would call The Tiger a documental thriller. The suspense, the horror! I imagine reading the decisive moments (the final attack) was nothing compared to being attacked by an actual tiger, but some episodes were so masterfully written, even in my Latvian small town, sitting in a modest bedroom, with door open to next room where Dad is watching TV, I felt the cold terrifying presence of the mighty animal.
After reading, you can figure out your own verdict - what is the problem, who`s responsible, what to do? Like in court, all details of the case are being brought up for consideration, except the author is not really defending any side, he is beyond that, or - John Vaillant is on both sides, humans and the tiger, but more than anything, on the side of common sense.
I stumbled upon Vaillant`s first book "The Golden Spruce" few years ago at a used book store, and among cheap romantic novels, bold historicals and common classics, "Spruce" caught my eye with a compelling story, unobtrusive intelligence and smart writing, and I have been wanting to read just about anything by this author ever since. The Tiger was nothing less than its predecessor, and I can't wait to follow John Vaillant to his next literary adventure, where ever that may lead and sooner rather than later.
Nothing in particular, except if you look at it from John Vaillant`s point of view which is this astonishing book. Vaillant has the talent to take smallest of stories, and crosscut it to wide net of ideas, facts and images. Man-eating tiger endangering a close nit Russian taiga community can be a big deal, if you look at it close enough, and Vaillant gladly gives you the opportunity to take a closer look.
This book is not simply about ecology, Vaillant explains the principle of connectivity in nature with his engaging writing style. Whole book is written as an ecological system - it shows you every aspect of the story, leaving no blind spots; he anatomy of the animal, its behavior; the attacker; victims; hunters; other people involved, their backgrounds; possible scenarios - what went wrong, who to blame; myths; historical background; geographical background; lots and lots of backgrounds - with this book, "the ground is covered" all and over again, and then some - basically everything you would want to know to see the big picture. But besides hundreds of facts that will probably confuse your mind if you overdose with reading, this book gives you opportunity to think along the way, I know it made me for sure. In Latvia we have a saying - with bees, you never know. I guess it goes with animals everywhere, and especially with a man eating tiger - you can only suppose, it is not like you could ask him, no matter if he is alive or dead. So you use your brain to follow the story, see all connections, correlations, think through your previous experience - as in what you have read/seen/heard, and what you would believe, and try not to forget Vaillant`s "method" of taking every little detail into consideration, whatever you are thinking about.
I would call The Tiger a documental thriller. The suspense, the horror! I imagine reading the decisive moments (the final attack) was nothing compared to being attacked by an actual tiger, but some episodes were so masterfully written, even in my Latvian small town, sitting in a modest bedroom, with door open to next room where Dad is watching TV, I felt the cold terrifying presence of the mighty animal.
After reading, you can figure out your own verdict - what is the problem, who`s responsible, what to do? Like in court, all details of the case are being brought up for consideration, except the author is not really defending any side, he is beyond that, or - John Vaillant is on both sides, humans and the tiger, but more than anything, on the side of common sense.
I stumbled upon Vaillant`s first book "The Golden Spruce" few years ago at a used book store, and among cheap romantic novels, bold historicals and common classics, "Spruce" caught my eye with a compelling story, unobtrusive intelligence and smart writing, and I have been wanting to read just about anything by this author ever since. The Tiger was nothing less than its predecessor, and I can't wait to follow John Vaillant to his next literary adventure, where ever that may lead and sooner rather than later.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
I think I heard about this book on a list of "books that will change your life". I think it is true. Some of the ideas about how man and other primates manage to exist within the range of large carnivores will always stick with me. I wanted to tell everyone about what I read and how it changed my understanding of living at the edge of civilization.
medium-paced