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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Read this with Nate since I never read it in school (ok, did I miss something or did my high school really suck that much??) I didn't care for this story too much but that's because I hate reading nature stories (and I reallllly wanted to like Walden, too) and I don't like how Buck was treated most of the time. Was slightly pleased with the ending, though.
2.25/5 … my first thought when I finished this book was “thank goodness it was short”. I’m not sure I would have made it through if it was a longer book. I just did not enjoy it. I can’t exactly express why, though. I just didn’t find it to be an interesting read or have a point. That’s probably a me problem though because it is a classic.
For a classic, I’ve never read this story. It’s a beauty.
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Listened to the audiobook with the kids - Jeff Daniels does an outstanding job in reading it. His French Canadian character was excellent. A fantastic story.
15 A book becoming a movie in 2020. - The Call of the Wild - Jack London
*warning animal cruelty*
This was not at all what I expected. I thought this was like going to be like many other books about dogs; dog gets waylaid from owner and the ultimately finds their way home, sweet, innocent, happy ending.
This was not that.
Buck starts his life as a domestic dog in a happy home, where he trust everybody. It's this trust that leads him to being sold by a worker of his master's, in an attempt pay his debts. Buck then passes through a series of dog sellers and is beaten into submission by the evil man in the red sweater.
"The club of the man in the red sweater had beaten him into a more fundamental and primitive code."
This event was the catalyst for Buck slow but steady transformation from domestic house pet, to working dog on the trail, to ultimately following 'the call of the wild' and leading a wolf pack.
" His development (or retrogression) was rapid. ... And not only did he learn by experience, but by instincts long dead became alive again. The domestic generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest, and killed meat as they ran it down. ... in this manner they had fought their forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, the old tricks which they had stamped into the hereditary of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always."
Buck goes through a series of different masters: two relatively OK workers of the gold rush; a completely inept, dysfunctional and abusive family trio; to ultimately being saved from death by his final master, John Thornton.
On the whole this was a well written, fascinating read. The writing style of omniscient narrator while still being told from Buck's perspective, was really interesting. This was quite graphic and raw in places, but really honest.
It would have been 5 stars but I deducted one for the Animal cruelty and the graphic scenes of both dog fighting and human attack, while well written, not my cup of tea.
*warning animal cruelty*
This was not at all what I expected. I thought this was like going to be like many other books about dogs; dog gets waylaid from owner and the ultimately finds their way home, sweet, innocent, happy ending.
This was not that.
Buck starts his life as a domestic dog in a happy home, where he trust everybody. It's this trust that leads him to being sold by a worker of his master's, in an attempt pay his debts. Buck then passes through a series of dog sellers and is beaten into submission by the evil man in the red sweater.
"The club of the man in the red sweater had beaten him into a more fundamental and primitive code."
This event was the catalyst for Buck slow but steady transformation from domestic house pet, to working dog on the trail, to ultimately following 'the call of the wild' and leading a wolf pack.
" His development (or retrogression) was rapid. ... And not only did he learn by experience, but by instincts long dead became alive again. The domestic generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest, and killed meat as they ran it down. ... in this manner they had fought their forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, the old tricks which they had stamped into the hereditary of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always."
Buck goes through a series of different masters: two relatively OK workers of the gold rush; a completely inept, dysfunctional and abusive family trio; to ultimately being saved from death by his final master, John Thornton.
On the whole this was a well written, fascinating read. The writing style of omniscient narrator while still being told from Buck's perspective, was really interesting. This was quite graphic and raw in places, but really honest.
It would have been 5 stars but I deducted one for the Animal cruelty and the graphic scenes of both dog fighting and human attack, while well written, not my cup of tea.