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A review by samidhak
Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales: A Memoir by Doreen Cunningham
3.0
What a marvellous, engaging, and interesting read. I loved every second that spoke about whales. It dives deep (pun intended) into climate change, human- animal relationships, whales and other intelligent sea mammals, love stories, indigenous culture, and some great work of investigative journalism.
I shaved off two stars because even though it’s a great book, it’s not a memoir. The timeline that follows Doreen and her son Max along the whale migration route is written in short bursts of emotionless sentences that was jarring to read. It didn’t emotionally move me like I would expect from a memoir, I’d rather call it a brief and factual biographical narrative of the author’s life.
Although, I do recommend this book I also believe it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. For me the highlight of the book was at the beginning and the last chapter - the rest of it was journalism at its best but memoir writing at its most tasteless.
I shaved off two stars because even though it’s a great book, it’s not a memoir. The timeline that follows Doreen and her son Max along the whale migration route is written in short bursts of emotionless sentences that was jarring to read. It didn’t emotionally move me like I would expect from a memoir, I’d rather call it a brief and factual biographical narrative of the author’s life.
Although, I do recommend this book I also believe it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. For me the highlight of the book was at the beginning and the last chapter - the rest of it was journalism at its best but memoir writing at its most tasteless.