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Title: Ghosts of Tsavo: Tracking the Mythic Lions of East Africa by Philip Caputo, Phillip Caputo ISBN: 0-7922-6362-6 Publisher: National Geographic Pub. Date: 01 June, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (10 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Almost made it
Comment: Caputo is pulitzer winner. As such, I expected much more from his book. He seems to pose a basic question, "Are the lions in Tsavo genetically different?" He spends a great deal of time interviewing scientists about this point. He arranges funding for a study to be done. He goes to Africa, to Tsavo with some scientists. Where, according to his own account, he tells them that he doesn't want to know! He doesn't want science to de-mystify his world view.
In the end, he never really gets an answer. He also, seems to find it curious that lions should be man eaters. While in Africa, he is constantly asking professional hunters, long time residents and scientist to explain how this could be. Sorry, I don't understand why the question even has to be asked.
In the end, the book left me frustrated.
Rating: 4
Summary: Engaging look at unusual lions
Comment: "Ghosts of Tsavo" is part travelogue, part natural history, part murder mystery, and part mid-life crisis for its author Philip Caputo. What it is as a whole is a fascinating, engaging look at the lions of Tsavo Park in Kenya. Caputo first became interested in these unusual lions as a result of a visit to the Field Museum in Chicago as a young boy. Therein were "Ghost" and "Darkness" two enormous males lions that terrorized constructions workers building a rail line through Tsavo. In fact terrorized may be too weak a word as they are credited with killing at least 120 people and literarily halting construction until they were eventually hunted down and killed by British Lt. Col. Patterson who was heading up the project. He recounted this effort in his famous memoir "The Man Eaters of Tsavo" and kindled a fascination with Kenya's lions that lingered with Caputo for half a century.
What sets the lions of Tsavo apart from the more familiar ones we know from nature documentaries, is that they are much bigger, and the males are either maneless of have very short manes, in either case nothing like the regal mountains of fur on their cousins from the Serengeti. In the first half of the book, Caputo explores reasons as to why this might by the case. It is possible that since Tsavo is much warmer than the Serengeti, manes are too expensive in terms of internal resources to grow. Another possibility is that the thick scrub brush and thorns of the region wear down manes before they ever become truly impressive.
However, it is a more controversial theory that makes for the most entertaining reading. Caputo encounters several scientists who argue that the lions of Tsavo are genetically distinct from the lions on the Serengeti. Moreover, they argue that the lions of Tsavo are in fact a throw back to prehistoric lions, quite literally walking fossils. The point to the lack of manes, the much larger height and girth and the fact that Tsavo lions hunt the enormous Cape Buffalo as justifications for this thesis.
Ultimately, Caputo, in three journeys to Kenya over the course of eighteen months (once as a tourist and twice with scientific expeditions) is never able to definitively state which hypothesis is correct. However, that in no way detracts from his rambling, conversational narrative. Caputo is not a scientist, and he in no way pretends to be one, although he does (and justifiably so) consider himself a well-informed observer. As such, he is not constrained by the rigors of academia, and can therefore transfer his passion for these lions and the mystery surrounding them onto the page. In fact, towards the end he grows weary of the scientific studies as they somehow detract from the powerful aura that surrounds the lions.
If you are interested in lions in general, or if the prospect of some spine-tingling tales of man-eating lions sounds appealing, "Ghost of Tsavo" is well worth reading. However, beyond the surface elements, Caputo has written a book that captures the raw spirituality of nature, and that bemoans modern man's detachment from the primitive. So it is entirely likely that even if you have no interest in lions at all, you may be drawn to Caputo's lament for something we don't even realize we have lost. Either way, "Ghost's of Tsavo" is well worth reading.
Rating: 5
Summary: Ghosts of Tsavo
Comment: If you have ambitions to be a writer,avoid reading this book since
it,ll just fill you with envy. Every word has the right nuance,the
sentences run like limpid streams , the gentle humor pervasive
and the opinions expressed thoughtful. Can anyone, for instance,
argue with the statement that nearly every problem that we face
is caused or aggravated by the fact that are just too many of us.
The excellence of this book should come as no surprise since
the author is none other than ex-marine who also gave us the best
account by a combatant (on our side) of the Great Crusade in Vietnam.
The subject of the present book are the lions of Tsavo who are
less manely but defintely more manly than the other members
of their species and have developed a taste for the human flesh
and their appetizers include not only the skeletal locals but also
an occasional tourist who had loved nature not wisely but only
too well. Two groups of American academics are engaged in a bitter
fight over the reasons behind the maneaters obvious lack of
etiquette each trying to capture the lion,s share of grants,honors,etc and finally the holiest of all grails-publication in a "refereed" journal. All of this happens
within the shouting distance of the hellhole of Nairobi, where,
if there is a just God, the final resting place for all of those
opposed to population control.Nairobi is also the focal point for the activities of the Christ like figure of rock and roll artist and father of six Bono who wants us
to pay for the sexual recklessness of the locals (Bono,s millions
do not enter into the equation) while he residing in one of his mansions ponders new scams to prove his moral superiority. Never mind the insignificance of
the subjet matter since Captuto can write about yesetrday,s
leftovers and make them interest. After reading this delightful
book my own take is that there is incontrovertible evidence
that human thugs commit their bestialities because of lack of
"self esteem" (it used to be poverty) and it,ll be a great project
for the dogooding bleeding heart animal rights activists to go
to Tsavo and feed Minoxidill to the lions so they could lead
peaceful lives under assumed manes. In the process some of
the actvistis may become canapes for the lions and that,ll
be just wonderful.
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Title: The Man-Eaters Of Tsavo by J. H. Patterson, Peter H. Capstick ISBN: 0312510101 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 1985 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: In the Shadows of the Morning: Essays on Wild Lands, Wild Waters, and a Few Untamed People by Philip Caputo ISBN: 1585745200 Publisher: The Lyons Press Pub. Date: 02 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Lions of Tsavo : Exploring the Legacy of Africa's Notorious Man-Eaters by Bruce D. Patterson ISBN: 0071363335 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Pub. Date: 22 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title:The Ghost and the Darkness ASIN: 6305181926 Publisher: Paramount Studio Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.99 |
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Title: Death In The Long Grass by Peter H. Capstick ISBN: 0312186134 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 1978 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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