A review by mementomaggie
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons by Robert M. Sapolsky

5.0

I wasn’t sure I was going to get into this book for many reasons, the foremost of which being that I have never held an interest in primatology or field biology of any sort as well as a general lack of knowledge about African history, culture, and wildlife which seems common to most graduates of the American public school system. Nevertheless Sapolsky narrates the interactions of the troupe of baboons with such care that I almost felt able to think of the monkeys as old friends. Sapolsky and I share a similar desire to want the world and many people in it to be better than they are now, though in his case age has tempered the intensity with which we want to convince people of the space they have for improvement for improvements sake. If nothing else I think readers will grasp a the motif that compassion and a willing spirit can be powerful tools, and that dried tamarind should not be considered a choice food source.