About book An African Love Story: Love, Life And Elephants (2013)
Since I served in the Peace Corps in Kenya and visited the Sheldrick Orphan Project when I visited Kenya in 1991, I was most interested to read this book. I was not disappointed. I thought the book was excellent and that would be of interest to anyone.The book is a memoir recounting Dame Daphne's life in Kenya, her marriage to David Sheldrick and how that changed her life, and, most importantly, her love of and commitment to the wildlife of Kenya. She became the first person to be able to raise elephants from birth. Orphan elephants were left at the Tsavo home, which were headquarters for the Tsavo Game Reserve that David established. Many were orphaned due to poachers. Other animal orphans were left there, including rhinos, bushbucks, and antelopes, and they joined a myriad of other wild animals that frequented the area around their home. Later, she moved to the Nairobi Game Reserve and, after David died, she continued her work with orphans and established the David Sheldrick Trust.Her stories of the wildlife are absolutely fascinating. I loved the photo and story of how some ostriches became enamored with the training of wildlife rangers at their home headquarters in Tsavo and showed up as soon as their training starting to prance around behind the rangers. Her stories following Eleanor, the elephant who was a surrogate mother to orphan elephants before they returned to the wild were fascinating. Her understanding of elephants and of rhinos will change how you view them. The fight against poachers is heart-rending but readers will better understand that issue.Most importantly, readers live through the days before Independence and up to today in Kenya. And, also, this is a love story on two levels: her love and relationship with the wildlife of Kenya and her relationship with the love of her life, David.I highly recommend this book. Part love story, part travel book, part All-Things-Great-and-Small-James-Herriott, Dame Daphne's story of her extraordinary yet simple life in Africa is, at most times, an engaging read. I especially enjoyed her descriptions of Africa during her youth and the early part of her marriage to David. Her descriptions of land and beast are so compelling and make me want to hop on a plane RIGHT NOW to experience Africa. In some ways, her writing about the African landscape reminded me of Alexander McCall Smith's descriptions of Botswana he embedded in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective series - descriptions of rich flora, fauna and landscape that have caused me to add an extensive trip to Africa to my bucket list.While the African descriptions enthralling and the stories of the many orphan animals endearing, I have to admit that my first thought when completing this book was "Whew! That is done!" Unbelievable to think that the original manuscript was over 1,000 pages because the 300-and-so pages that it is now is still about 100 pages too long. I didn't need to know about EVERY little animal Dame Daphne nurtured. Some were definitely included just to ensure they were mentioned as they undoubtedly hold a special place in her heart but their stories were not even fleshed-out. Occasionally an animal's name or some side comment would be repeated at different times during the text. And, in my opinion, some of the most perplexing obstacles to overcome, like how they eventually found a milk formula that worked for milk-dependent elephant orphans, were not fully addressed. All we know is that coconut milk is a key ingredient but no mention of further development of the formula once the original recipe was discovered. For instance, did their experience translate into research to improve formulas used now? Were they not in touch with zoos that hand-reared elephant babies? For me, these kinds of details were part of the story I was so hoping to read in this memoir. So, a little less on the details of the menagerie and on the love story with David and more on how the experience led to improvements in saving elephants and the orphans would have been appreciated.A few nitpicky things: Impressions were made upon me by some thoughts expressed which are certainly a reflection of the generation she grew up in. Her love for her husband is written about extensively but also mentioned is how he handled everything, made decisions, "cleaned up messes." One sentence about Apartheid really stuck with me. Mrs. Sheldrick was discussing how her daughter went to South Africa for her education and Kenyans were not allowed because of Apartheid but then, when Apartheid was abolished, she makes a statement that "overnight the stigma of Apartheid no longer applied." I see this as an extremely naive worldview of the societal and cultural struggles that still exist today in South Africa. Lastly, being a science advocate, her disdain for "real" scientists left a bad taste in my mouth and her section about her miraculous broken leg recovery seemed to be more attributed to alternative therapies received in Japan than the hard work of the 2 South African doctors who operated on her to save the leg.Minor complaints aside, I would recommend the book for those who are interested in the plight of the elephant (and rhino) and who want to read a little more about the beautiful African landscape. In my opinion, the real grit of the book was the last paragraph where she delves into some details of the growth of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, although again, to me, this is where the real story should have been focused. Remove some of the animal stories (this coming from an animal-lover!) and add some more about the struggles of the early days of the Trust and the trials and tribulations of finding a successful formula for hand-rearing elephants, and this book would have easily gained 4 star status.
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This book made me laugh and cry and see the world in a whole new way.
—Icecream
C'était magnifique, j'ai adoré et j'ai été transporté!
—Vannie
There are so many things I loved about this book.
—catzladygold
