Three Singles to Adventure is about Gerald Durrell's travels in search of exotic animals in South America."Adventure" is the name of a small village near Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. This early book by Gerald Durrell chronicles his 1950 expedition to what was then called British Guiana, to bring back a living collection of birds, mammals, reptiles and fish indigenous to that part of South America. His first sighting from the ferryboat is of a vividly coloured lizard - an iguana - in its natural habitat. Durrell immediately contrasts this with the "dull lethargic greyish creatures in zoos" and the book continues in this vein, with breathtaking descriptions of the natural flora and fauna. The wild at that time was clearly very different from now with its unspoilt diversity. Durrell has a way of describing in full technicolour; yet turn a few pages and his sense of the ridiculous is in full sway, with yet another hilarious anecdote about how a certain animal got the better of him, or how he found himself in a very dodgy situation. (view spoiler)[The horses for instance unexpectedly seemed to have a will of their own and were often uncontrollable. (hide spoiler)]
Dad had been pressing me to read Durrel’s My Family and Other Animals for many years, but I could never get into it. This book, found at the Livingstone backpackers, was short enough to commission my interest. It was actually a very appropriate book to read for me, as I kept comparing it jealously with my blogs. It follows the author and his friends’ capture and collection of wild animals in South America and described is vivid detail all the many humourous animal anecdotes associated with these adventures. The language is my favourite kind of verbose, with descriptions of scenes so well-worded it made me want to read them aloud. Half-way through, though, having arrived back in Australia, I found it difficult to re-engage with the narrative – the stories don’t really lead into each other and are more stand-alone. The title seemed pretty non-grammatical but there's an explanation for that.
Do You like book Three Singles To Adventure (1969)?
3½ stars. While I enjoyed this audiobook very much, I consistently had the feeling that I was missing something - illustrations of the animals mentioned, maps to indicate where they were collecting, etc. I don't know whether these things are in the print versions, but the sensation was strong enough and persistent enough for me to drop this rating by a half star.
—Leslie
the edition i have, published in '64, is titled Three Tickets to Adventure. i recently read My Family and Other Animals and found the author's description of the natural world very entertaining. I know for others this became a bit tedious but not for me - so i felt comfortable jumping into his books that are focused more on his life as an animal collector. there are still entertaining humans as well but his tales of the animals he encounters and the environment in guiana are wonderful. i plan to read even more durrell!
—Peggy
I have several Durrell books Rosemary has given me, she likes them. I think this is the first I have read of his.He is certainly a skilled writer.The content is shocking -- plenty of people continue to hunt wild animals to sell to zoos today, but I guess publishers would hesitate to sell stories about this politically incorrect activity.But in 1954, when this book was published, the Great White Hunter was not yet politically incorrect. Durrell seems to have dealt with local people quite humanely and with an unusual degree of self-reflection, and it is interesting to read between the lines and imagine how he comes across to those he meets.Here's an upper-class gentleman with bags of money to pay people to take him collecting, to build all kinds of cages for his animals and food to feed them. But he certainly gets his hands dirty in catching animals himself, and caring for them. Impressive.I am glad today's tendency is more towards photographing wild animals than catching them, but there is no denying Durrell makes for a good read.
—Rita
