It depended on what sentence I was on.) In The White Bone, a novel imagined entirely from the perspective of African elephants, Barbara Gowdy creates a world whole and separate that yet illuminates our own. But now, thanks to the way Amazon keeps track FOR me --- and even though I did not get it through Amazon. "—Claire Messud, Newsday. Historical Caribbean & Latin American Fiction, Metropolitan Books; First edition (June 3, 2000). Solid world-building scheme, too. It seems to me that there are two approaches to take when writing fiction in which nonhuman animals are the characters and the world imagined is theirs. The White Bone Demon, also known as The Voice in the Shadows or Baigujing, is the main antagonist of the second half of Season 1 of the 2018 Amazon Prime original Dreamworks series Kung Fu Panda: Paws of Destiny. I enjoyed reading this book especially through the perspective of elephants something different and quite good. I decided to give it a read before passing it on and I was so pleasantly surprised. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. White Dragon Bone was an enchanted armor and one of the four treasures of the lizardmen and was in the possession of Kyuku Zuzu, chieftain of the Razor Tail Tribe. Come find out which these people buy. The White Bone is a poignant novel about the effects of poaching on the behavior and psyche of African elephants and how human interference and natural disasters combine to threaten elephants’ existence. (First printing of 50,000; Book-of-the-Month-Club selection; author tour) --. But for whatever reason it didn't work for me. What saves it from archness is a vein of stunning and melancholy lyricism married to brutality. Wow! It was simply too annoying. Young Mud, adopted into the She-S matriarchal group after they found her nearly crushed beneath her dead mother (and named for the life-saving circumstances of her birth), is now just old enough to carry her first calf. The herd is ambushed there by ivory poachers, who kill almost all the cows and their young. 3 ways to boost your virtual presentation skills; Feb. 16, 2021. This item has a maximum order quantity limit. In the end I’m left feeling powerless to have any effect on changing the circumstances of these incredible creatures. Through the years I have often thought back on that book and while I couldn't remember precisely what it was about, I knew it involved elephants and for some reason had captivated me. Wow! Does this book contain inappropriate content? An epic western where law and order faces off against evil. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. I love elephants but I really don't think (or believe) that they can get visions when their calf will be born (after a calf tunnel being dug?!) The traumatized survivors, including a pregnant Mud, set out in search of the talismanic white bone that can lead them to a paradise free from human savagery Map on lining paper Notes. It's told from the point of view of elephants, for god sake. Gowdy's pachyderms include an orphaned visionary, She-Spurns (more familiarly known as Mud), and the "fine-scenter" She-Deflates, not to mention nurse cow She-Soothes and the bull Tall Time. Previous page of related Sponsored Products. Solid world-building scheme, too. Blog. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 18, 2014. Meanwhile, Tall Time, father of Mud's calf, is on a lonely quest of his own for the White Bonea quest that takes him to the land of the Lost Ones, distantly related elephants who have evolved into smaller, mountain-dwelling visionaries. It combines skeletal elements of the second and the third pharyngeal arches associated with the gills of primitive fish. Author does an excellent job of creating a culture and language that is both believable and easy to follow. Some say it's depressing, and I guess it is, but I feel it's also realistic - elephants are being poached, they do die in large numbers every day. This was a fabulous book; one I know I will read again. Now it's worth mentioning early in my review the style of this book is very different from any other I have read, with a perspective of the world coming from the mind of an elephant. ), a mesmerizing journey into the heart of Africa and a maternal society of elephants slipping rapidly into extinction. dazzling . LOL I don't mind, it helps me out! On the one hand, I consider it a thoughtful, well-researched, and rigorous attempt at getting into elephant minds. I read this book years and years ago and remember LOVING it. The main character is Mud, a young female orphaned at birth. It was painful, but so impressive. For a start, as in one of those vast generational sagas, there are endless family trees to sort out, and since the elephant families are whimsically named, always after the matriarchal leaders (the She-S's, the She-B's-And-B's, etc. You will relate to so much of it. Songs, maps, glossaries and family trees should be reserved for epic books and this was not an epic book; it was straight line plot with a lot of unnecessary characters thrown in and not enough time or subplotting to get to know them. A desperate journey with valuable cargo. "—New York Daily News"Brave . Shop the pet store LOVED by families and TRUSTED by champions. Is it worth a read? But despite her skillsAperhaps even because of themAthe reader is disappointed that so talented a writer could have exerted so much effort on so unpromising a subject. The fact that the author managed to even *attempt* to get into the mind of an African elephant is astonishing. June 3rd 2000 While the characters were given human-like abilities to communicate and think, the larger part of their behavior was just elephant-like and how much can you talk about an elephant? Anti-anthropomorphists beware. The White Bone opens with five family trees. I can't do a "real" review, because it's been too long since I read it, but I wanted to write something. Gowdy conjures a vibrantly visceral world . The traumatized survivors, including a pregnant Mud, set out in search of the talismanic white bone that can lead them to a paradise free from human savagery. These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Barbara Gowdy is a Member of the Order of Canada and a Guggenheim Fellow. The book is a series of quests, carried out against the fierce odds of a frightful drought and the occasional murderous intervention of ivory-seeking "hind-leggers." I strongly suggest you use the glossary at the beginning of the book to keep track of elephantese. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, Black & African American Literary Fiction, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. There's a problem loading this menu right now. These promotions will be applied to this item: Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. If, as many recent nonfiction bestsellers have revealed, animals possess emotions and awareness, they must also have stories. as she created a culture, language and landscape that fit well with her story. Without being overly anthropomorphic, Gowdy manages to individualize a number of them as having human-scale emotions, even humor; and they have religious songs (lauding the She) that sound wonderfully like Victorian hymns. There is also a family tree for all the different families that can be referred to to help the reader along. She has been a finalist three times for the Governor General’s Award and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, twice for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and has been long-listed for the Booker Prize. It was necessary reading and a very cleverly written book. "—Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books, "Inspired . some text is closed to the gutter due too tight binding. This book put me inside a different way of thinking. The White Bone. Unable to add item to List. The overall story is one of survival in a landscape where human hunters are rife, threatening the majestic elephant (and other animals). If you listen to NPR regularly, you’ve likely heard the voice of Shankar Vedantam, the longtime science correspondent and host of the radio... To see what your friends thought of this book. I strongly suggest you use the glossary at the beginning of the book to keep track of elephantese. At that point, I was still in middle school and had seen it featured at our library. Looks like it was hot fixed at some point. For years, young Mud and her family have roamed the high grasses, swamps, and deserts of the sub-Sahara. . I couldn’t make it to the book club because I was out of town, but still attempted to read it regardless. The White Bone is a poignant novel about the effects of poaching on the behavior and psyche of African elephants and how human interference and natural disasters combine to threaten elephants’ existence. This masterfully crafted novel is highly recommended for all libraries. (I realize they are likely far more complex, but this is what I got from this book.) The White Bone presents a lyrical educated guess on what elephant consciousness might feel like - including, most sadly and movingly, the perpetual threat of extinction. I thoroughly dislike it, let me assure you! In The White Bone, Barbara Gowdy performs a feat of imagination virtually unparalleled in modern fiction. Editorial Reviews. That's it. There is a great deal of interesting elephant lore, about the nature of their fabulous memory, their scenting and tracking skills, their eating, drinking and fornicating habits. I read this book when it first came out back in 1998. Gape at the she-ones (elephants). Gowdy did a good job imagining the world from an elephant's perspective (I think!) The author has obviously taken a lot of artistic license as well, but it fit well with the story. I just finished my bar for the vicious war spider and did not get the white bonesteed. Baigujing is a shapeshifting demoness, and in her true form she is depicted as a skeleton.. Baigujing was a demon who desired to eat the flesh of Tang Sanzang. Grab this western today. . This prophet is riding to hell and back. It is obvious the author researched the plight of elephants in Africa but she didn't leave off there. You will either love or hate it, if like me you opt for the latter, stick with it to around the third chapter. It is a unique book - written from the perspective of elephants - and it may not be for everyone. To win you must do the follow 1. Elephants being slaughtered by humans are looking for their promised land. Of course, if you have "trunk," you possess "soulfulness; depth of spirit"--something every participant in Gowdy's fourth novel desperately needs. Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2016. So I'd chalk this up more to my shortcomings as a reader than any failures on Gowdy's part. The white bone a novel This edition was published in 1998 by Picador USA in New York. In The White Bone, a novel imagined entirely from the perspective of African elephants, Barbara Gowdy creates a world whole and separate that yet illuminates our own. Throughout the novel, you the reader are travelling along with these different elephant characters through their daily lives (and all that that encompasses) and what a ride it is. Barbara Gowdy's The White Bone (1998), a kind of tragic epic of African elephants narrated from the perspective of the elephants, undertakes to cross the boundary between species in an extraordinarily visceral, sensuous, and poetic rendering of language unparalleled in contemporary literature. I wasn't expecting anything stunning from it, but I liked the concept and thought it would make a good present. by Barbara Gowdy. I just finished a second read of the book (first one in 2003). They are separated when, [ the older cows are killed by poachers while the herd lingers at a watering hole. Please try again. The ones in The White Bone certainly do. In the top five books I've ever read. In real life, we know that female elephants are capable of so many things – they mourn their dead, communicate with … Witness Mud's take on jeeps: "On their own, vehicles prefer to sleep, but whenever a human burrows inside them they race and roar and discharge a foul odour." Readers who make it through will never think the same of elephants and their ‘appalling resilience.’"—Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today"Gowdy [has a] great gift for sensual description...The novel is plenty funny and plenty odd. I'm tempted to say it's because I just found the narrative arc, dialogue, and naming system tedious, but these are also the elements that give the novel its legitimacy as a genuine attempt to empathize with being-elephant. . It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Barbara Gowdy is the author of seven books, including, “She and Mud were calves then. Hollywood sells dreams…and death. But with abduction, torture, and murder. The story was quite boring and even in this short book, took too long to tell. At first I found the elephant 'lingo' to be irritating, but once I got past that I was completely absorbed. You need not believe that elephants can think in language—in this case, a highly lyric English—to be enthralled by the author’s imaginative immersion in her subject, a brilliantly inspired melding of research into the lives of African elephants and the creation of a distinctly original, indeed sui generis alternative world. Please try again. Gowdy attempted the impossible feat of getting into the head of another creature--an elephant. Lou Prophet: The Complete Western Series, Volume 1, The Undercover Resort Billionaire (A Falling for You Clean Billionaire Romance Book 1), In My Father's Basement: A Serial Killer Novel. A fantasy about elephant families where some of them can read minds and some can talk to other animals. Amazing book. There is no denying Barbara Gowdy's talent in evoking the world of elephants, their mythology, and their emotions. So as spec/animal-fic I respect this novel a lot. It is bewildering to be brought down under their little weight." Barbara Gowdy is the author of seven books, including Helpless, The Romantic, The White Bone, Mister Sandman, We So Seldom Look on Love and Falling Angels, all of which have been met with widespread international acclaim and critical praise. This novel is beyond impressive! This is one of the few books I've read that never quite made it into popularity, or onto any bestseller lists, but was still a great read. The entire book is overall very somber, with moments of being heartbreaking. This is, afterall, a story of a species hunted nearly to its end. "Barbara Gowdy’s The White Bone (1998), a kind of tragic epic of African elephants narrated from the perspective of the elephants, undertakes to cross the boundary between species in an extraordinarily visceral, sensuous, and poetic rendering of language unparalleled in contemporary literature. The main character is Mud, a young female orphaned at birth. Yet a slim prophecy of hope is passed on from water hole to water hole: the sacred white bone of legend will point the elephants toward the Safe Place. He may be an older Marshal, but his skills can’t be topped. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. . I truly wish this bo. But for whatever reason it didn't work for me. Haunting, moving, surreal and incredibly imaginative. This already is a huge stretch and its incredibly difficult to do it well, and to do it in a way that the reader feels comfortable taking the narrator seriously. Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2014. White bone definition is - a lower class Lolo; especially : a free descendant of Chinese captives —distinguished from black bone. In fact, if all creatures with intelligence could exchange cultural knowledges, how RICH our worlds would be! And, hey ... if they didn't do this, I would go for years longer not knowing the title of this moving, so REAL book about sentient beings. All day long." Tormenting dreams. Chose to read this for our uni assignment. She lives in Toronto. Gowdy, the prodigiously talented Canadian author who caused a stir with Mister Sandman and We So Seldom Look on Love, writes with such immediacy and vigor that she can take a reader almost anywhere. But on the third try I was enthralled. Nothing-not the once familiar terrain, or the age-old rhythms of life, or even memory itself-seems reliable anymore. Heart-breaking and wise. The ending is almost reminiscent of the ending of "The Handmaid's Tale", at least in my opinion. Is he leading her to the truth, or plunging her deeper into her nightmares? And so begins a quest through Africa's vast and perilous plains-until at last the survivors face a decisive trial of loyalty and courage. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. I truly wish this book was more widespread and well-known. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold. Needless to say, such speeding tends to precede a killing fest. Through the years I have often thought back on that book and while I couldn't remember precisely what it was about, I knew it involved elephants and for some reason had captivated me. Just your average father-son story. I believe I know where Amazon got this information, and it proves that all these big sales companies buy and sell US and our shopping habits! If, as many recent nonfiction bestsellers have revealed, animals possess emotions and awareness, they must also have stories. For me however, the book was quite depressing even though there is always a shred of hope and long memory to guide the elephants over the landscape. Please try again. Additional gift options are available when buying one eBook at a time. Start by marking “The White Bone” as Want to Read: Error rating book. I couldn't remember the title and mentioned the concept to many friends over the years but never found the book again. . Gowdy renders this arid African landscape with a subtle gorgeousness reminiscent of Isak Dinesen. Baigujing (Chinese: 白骨精; pinyin: Báigǔjīng) is a demon from the 16th century novel Journey to the West.The name is translated into English as White Bone Spirit in the William John Francis Jenner translation. At the same time, the book is less of a quest-based plot than a series of episodes, with mixed in flashbacks. I'm tempted to say it's because I just found the narrative arc, dialogue, and naming system tedious, but these are also the elements that give the novel its legitimacy as a genuine attempt to empathize with being-elephant. It is like nothing I have read, and made me think about how the animals we share the planet with experience life. With Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt, Isaiah Stone. This is the perfect mode of transportation for going to the Bone Train.....Would you like to ride the Bone Train? as she created a culture, language and landscape that fit well with her story. The White Bone. A worthwhile read and I recommend The White Bone to all and sundry. . Warning: character deaths. This book beautifully led me into the world of the elephant, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2017. A billionaire forced to work undercover. The stars are for her imaginings. I could go on & on. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Though the White Bone is eventually found, death continues to claim those seeking it, and in the end nearly everything depends on the ability of Mud and her newborn calf merely to survive. One of my favorite books ever. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Inevitably, in a time in which African elephants are being ravaged by poachers and their species endangered by incursions into their natural habitat, The White Bone is not a casual reading experience. "—Jelena Petrovic, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune"A richly detailed novel. The characters are complex and convincing and their struggle for survival is heartbreaking. Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2012. I probably would have been able to get through the written version but I doubt I would have enjoyed much more. She is gifted with the ability to hear other elephant's thoughts, and she has the somewhat unenviable ability to have visions of the future. And it changed the way I think about animals in the world. Like and Share this post 3. Doctors order bone scans related to a number of conditions and complaints Absolutely compelling. Does this book contain quality or formatting issues? (Was I reading about real elephants or was I reading a fantasy/fiction story? Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2013, To think, I had forgotten the title of this book after reading it years ago! any decent human being that wants a good book. After reading again, I can see why I was intrigued by the book, but didn't think it was anything complet. Then there were the She's - She Snorts, She Screams, She Scavenges, She Distracts, She Sees, She Scares, She Drawls and Drawls ...She S's, She D's, She M's, She B's - heck even She DD's or was it She BB's? "—Entertainment Weekly"Fascinating . Find all the books, read about the author, and more. Then, before her tragic narrative even begins, Gowdy offers a second feat of empathy and imagination, a glossary of elephant language. Even though I didn't enjoy it, I nevertheless recommend this to anybody interested in spec-fic that confronts our ecological/extinction crisis. I just cannot get into books from an animals perspective. When Tall Time, for instance, hears a helicopter, nothing, not even Gowdy's poetry, can save him: "The shots that pelt his hide feel as light as rain. It is probably an important read, but is deeply triggering for animals lovers. The mysticism and majesty of the African elephant loses no honor in Gowdy's new novel. Please try your request again later. Like the White Bone Custom Creations page 2. "—Sarah Boxer, The New York Times Book Review"Compelling . I know this book is nuts. So, instead of immersing the skull, we decided to wrap it in white cloth soaked with hydrogen peroxide, then cover it with plastic wrap a… This is a hard book to review. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists.

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