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A review by cinchona
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen
2.0
Disclaimer: I'm only about a third of the way through, I'll update this review as I go. So far:
This book is physically WEIGHTY. At first, I was pleased about this--if it's a good read give me more of it!--but as I went I grew more and more disappointed.
No, the length isn't really important, except that I feel a fine editor could have cut this into a 4-star book with ease. Quammen tells a compelling narrative of interesting, oft-overlooked biologists such as Alfred Wallace, whose story alone was worth the read.
The personal narratives and conversations are hit and miss. I didn't love the author waxing poetic about viewing a pile of giant tortoises with his native guide, but I absolutely adored his conversations with a scientist studying tenrecs. That editor could give Quammen the benefit of the doubt: leave all these colorful digressions in. However, I would humbly suggest that this story need not be punctuated with:
- a solid page of Latin names of island creatures, which the author himself bids me to forget immediately
- the titles of twenty papers on island biogeography that are on the author's desk
- a half-page about a slightly mistranslated English sign in Indonesia
I can't even imagine how those survived the editing process. But they are just symptomatic of the larger problem: decadence. Wherever Quammen could proffer 2 or 3 or 5 examples...he puts 20. A short explanation of the different locations of giant tortoise species becomes a chapter, a showy rug analogy drags on for paragraphs. Editor!
The author is great, GREAT, when in the middle of a chapter on some historical biologist, cutting through the bushy undergrowth to a brilliant scientific discovery. He does a good job summarizing scientific topics in an understandable way. He is pretty decent at throwing in relevant digressions from his personal experience to enrich the story. In fact overall I think the author did everything that an author should be expected to do.
The editor, though, needs to sack up and get out the machete.
This book is physically WEIGHTY. At first, I was pleased about this--if it's a good read give me more of it!--but as I went I grew more and more disappointed.
No, the length isn't really important, except that I feel a fine editor could have cut this into a 4-star book with ease. Quammen tells a compelling narrative of interesting, oft-overlooked biologists such as Alfred Wallace, whose story alone was worth the read.
The personal narratives and conversations are hit and miss. I didn't love the author waxing poetic about viewing a pile of giant tortoises with his native guide, but I absolutely adored his conversations with a scientist studying tenrecs. That editor could give Quammen the benefit of the doubt: leave all these colorful digressions in. However, I would humbly suggest that this story need not be punctuated with:
- a solid page of Latin names of island creatures, which the author himself bids me to forget immediately
- the titles of twenty papers on island biogeography that are on the author's desk
- a half-page about a slightly mistranslated English sign in Indonesia
I can't even imagine how those survived the editing process. But they are just symptomatic of the larger problem: decadence. Wherever Quammen could proffer 2 or 3 or 5 examples...he puts 20. A short explanation of the different locations of giant tortoise species becomes a chapter, a showy rug analogy drags on for paragraphs. Editor!
The author is great, GREAT, when in the middle of a chapter on some historical biologist, cutting through the bushy undergrowth to a brilliant scientific discovery. He does a good job summarizing scientific topics in an understandable way. He is pretty decent at throwing in relevant digressions from his personal experience to enrich the story. In fact overall I think the author did everything that an author should be expected to do.
The editor, though, needs to sack up and get out the machete.