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A review by kscrimshaw
Alex & Me by Irene M. Pepperberg
2.0
I have been hearing bit and pieces for years about Dr. Pepperberg and the amazing research she was doing on the cognitive abilities of African Grey parrots, most notably one named Alex. So, when I heard about this book, a memoir of sorts about her 30 years working with him, I immediately put it on my to read list. Unfortunately, I found it very disappointing. Irene Pepperberg may be a brilliant and extremely tenacious scientist but she is not a good writer.
The first 50 or so pages are filled with a collection of the calls and email condolences she received upon Alex’s death. On page 46 there was one from the woman who said that despite having never met Alex, or even Irene, for that matter, she felt his death as keenly as the loss of her only child some four years previously. This apparently was to show just how important Alex was rather than how crazy some people with access to email can be.
Pepperberg has another book called The Alex Files, Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots, which focuses on the research and the results. It is apparently very academic and quite a heavy read. I expected this book to highlight the bright spots in her research while giving us some insight into the human side, something she wouldn’t have been free to do in her professional publications. However, rather than telling her story, the book feels more like a grocery list of the places she lived and worked (by the ocean - good, small lab - bad, got a grant – good, lost a grant – bad). I got no sense of her life whatsoever, just a constant reiteration that she was hard done by. Her husband wasn’t supportive, her co-workers weren’t supportive, the universities where she worked weren’t supportive etc.
I’m sure it was very difficult for her; she was after all, a woman with a doctorate in chemistry doing research in a totally unrelated and unpopular field. But I just couldn’t find any human being under the complaining to relate to so it just came across to me as constant whining. Alex fared much better on that score. He seemed far more, well, human. But, even when talking about him I didn’t get a good sense of their relationship.
All in all, I think this could have been a really good book, had it only been written by someone else.
The first 50 or so pages are filled with a collection of the calls and email condolences she received upon Alex’s death. On page 46 there was one from the woman who said that despite having never met Alex, or even Irene, for that matter, she felt his death as keenly as the loss of her only child some four years previously. This apparently was to show just how important Alex was rather than how crazy some people with access to email can be.
Pepperberg has another book called The Alex Files, Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots, which focuses on the research and the results. It is apparently very academic and quite a heavy read. I expected this book to highlight the bright spots in her research while giving us some insight into the human side, something she wouldn’t have been free to do in her professional publications. However, rather than telling her story, the book feels more like a grocery list of the places she lived and worked (by the ocean - good, small lab - bad, got a grant – good, lost a grant – bad). I got no sense of her life whatsoever, just a constant reiteration that she was hard done by. Her husband wasn’t supportive, her co-workers weren’t supportive, the universities where she worked weren’t supportive etc.
I’m sure it was very difficult for her; she was after all, a woman with a doctorate in chemistry doing research in a totally unrelated and unpopular field. But I just couldn’t find any human being under the complaining to relate to so it just came across to me as constant whining. Alex fared much better on that score. He seemed far more, well, human. But, even when talking about him I didn’t get a good sense of their relationship.
All in all, I think this could have been a really good book, had it only been written by someone else.