Shawn Thompson

Like many others before me, I was disappointed with this book. I was hoping, as an animal fanatic, to be able to learn more about a species that I have not deeply looked into than I did. I normally don't read nonfiction, however, so my review may not "count" as much as others'.

I already knew about several of the people who were mentioned quite a bit in the book from school, and while I extended my knowledge of them by a bit, I really didn't learn much new about orangutans. I see that this book has failed somewhat in its purpose, educating the reader about the orangutans, but not completely. There was interesting material.

Sad to say, I don't think that I will be picking this up again to read.… (plus d'informations)

As others have said, orangutans are essentially tangential to the story Thompson is telling. Information about the apes is scattered about as asides or as ways to advance the real story being told. It is also unfortunate that the author's focus is repetitive. The book breaks down into biographies of two categories of people: those that go to the jungle and have it ruin relationships and those that can't relate to people and build relationships with orangutans.

Of course the world of orangutan researches very small and centers around the Jane Goodall/Dian Fossey of this great ape, Birute Galdikas. All of the other researchers cross paths with Galdikas and Galdikas's own story is old news by the time Thompson gets around to it near the end of the book.… (plus d'informations)