This is an absolutely fantastic novel. I am a natural history fan and an unmitigated species geek, so appreciated the level of detail and accuracy in terms of elephant life history and behaviour. A female elephant. Not too long ago I remembered the title and knew I had to read it again. A family of elephants, also known as the We-F's, who are forest elephants. The author has obviously taken a lot of artistic license as well, but it fit well with the story. This book was a book club selection. Buck, a huge, four-year-old half-Saint Bernard and half-Scottish shepherd dog, is living a life of civilized ease in California's Santa Clara Valley in the home of Judge Miller. The main character is Mud, a young female orphaned at birth. Author does an excellent job of creating a culture and language that is both believable and easy to follow. Definitely not a light book - but very interesting. 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. She is one of the few elephants of the She-S family who accepts Mud. I wonder if perhaps it would have been better to stick with anthropomorphic behaviors instead of this disparate sharing of traits. any decent human being that wants a good book. ), the resources below will generally offer The White Bone chapter summaries, quotes, and … W all Street, the 80s. Auden. Me-Me She-Snorts Ridley Pearson. It is a unique book - written from the perspective of elephants - and it may not be for everyone. Mud finds herself drawn to him. For this, he … Analysis. The story was quite boring and even in this short book, took too long to tell. The fact that the author managed to even *attempt* to get into the mind of an African elephant is astonishing. Amazing book. In two of her previous novels, Falling Angels and Mr. Sandman, Barbara Gowdy made hay with the post-war suburban family. 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? White Bone Emily Downs Marissa Reed Alyssa Spear Andrew Cortazzo Jon Leitzel What do you think a quest is and what is needed in order for a book to be a quest? Elephants being slaughtered by humans are looking for their promised land. Even though I didn't enjoy it, I nevertheless recommend this to anybody interested in spec-fic that confronts our ecological/extinction crisis. As the novel progresses, she becomes more grave and severe, and more single-mindedly focused on finding her daughter. Not too long ago I remembered the title and knew I had to read it again. I was so disappointed in what I thought would be a great book and clearly I am not in the mainstream with my opinion of this book that so many are giving 5 stars to. When She-Screams slapped Mud, it was Date Bed who squealed”, Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Nominee (1998), A Debut Novelist's 2020 Reading that Mirrors Our Timeline. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. At that point, I was still in middle school and had seen it featured at our library. The whole "tunnel digging" description of a male impregnating a female was discussed far too often and had nothing to do with the plot. How an author can think up a novel based on elephants and turn them into characters is simply beyond imagination! The ending is almost reminiscent of the ending of "The Handmaid's Tale", at least in my opinion. When trash talk turns to fist-fighting, Jim picks up a mule bone and uses it to render Dave unconscious. 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. Although she is highly unpleasant, Mud cannot help feeling some kinship for She-Screams, because both are out-of-place in the She-S family. It opened up another world. 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? From the enormously gifted Gowdy (Mister Sandman, 1997, etc. That's it. The characters are complex and convincing and their struggle for survival is heartbreaking. I treasured returning to this book and comprehending the revelations on nearly every page -- of the fact that there was a different way of observing things. Winter's Bone is a 2010 American mystery drama film directed by Debra Granik. This is a work of fiction that is told from an elephant’s point of view, as it follows African elephant, Mud, and her family as they navigate perils that befall elephants, including drought and poaching, while they try to find someplace safe. After a slaughter which leaves most of Mud's adoptive family dead and her best friend, Date Bed, missing, Mud and the remaining She-S elephants set off to find the White Bone and Date Bed. Much like real elephants, all female elephants (cows) and prepubescent males (bulls) live in matrilineal family groups, and mature male elephants are loners. He is the father of Mud's baby, and loves Mud to an unnatural extent, wanting to start a herd with her although this custom is unheard of amongst elephants. I gave up on the audio less than halfway through. [5], The novel includes a map of the section of African landscape that the story occurs in, as well as several family trees of the elephant characters and a glossary of terms used in elephant speech (unlike in Watership Down, the characters do not speak their own language, but use certain words to define objects not found in their language, such as "big grass" for bamboo and "delirium" for estrus).[6]. (approx. Mule Bone Analysis. [2] Sometimes compared to Richard Adams's Watership Down,[3] it is an adult fantasy story about animals—in this case, African elephants—in a realistic natural setting but given the ability to speak to one another throughout the book. Gowdy attempted the impossible feat of getting into the head of another creature--an elephant. Print Word PDF. Although she is able to have visions of future events, and current events taking place elsewhere, she is rather sullen and antisocial and is only readily accepted by several members of the She-S's. They decide that the birthmark over her eye represents Hannah's ashes. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. So as spec/animal-fic I respect this novel a lot. The work itself, however, an epic world of myth, belief, hope, and sacrifice, is what makes it more stunning. A summary of Part X (Section7) in Richard Wright's Native Son. Summary The community mulls over the plague of robins,which preceded Sula's return, and the story about her reaction to Hannah's fatal accident. Not an easy, or a fun, but a deep, important, thought-provoking read. It's told from the point of view of elephants, for god sake. The elephants are capable of remembering every minute detail of their lives, unlike humans, who tend to remember important events most strongly. However, thereis less agreement regarding whether racism, even absent adeveloped race concept, may have existed in the ancient Greek andRoman worlds. It all. The song-singing and mythology did not work in this short, linear plot line. Start by marking “The White Bone” as Want to Read: Error rating book. 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.. She is a ruthless demon who was defeated and imprisoned in the spirit kingdom of Sun Wukong. She is the mother of the partially crippled infant, Bent, and is fiercely protective of him. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. The film stars Jennifer Lawrence as a teenage girl in the rural Ozarks of Missouri who, to protect her family from eviction, must locate her missing father. after any tragedy. I know this book is nuts. Mud is blessed with visionary powers and can occasionally see into the future. She-Snorts is an alluring, droll, sensual elephant, with the most powerful sense of smell in the family, and the mother of Date Bed. I had high hopes for this because I love elephants. However, he shows little attachment to the rest of his family, especially his mother, She-Screams. Some folks found the book to end on a positive and hopeful. Using elephants as main characters was a nifty idea, but I did not think it was done well. These elephants live in a war zone - they are refugees. In the top five books I've ever read. They are separated when, [ the older cows are killed by poachers while the herd lingers at a watering hole. But it's magical and heartbreaking. The "White Bone," a rib of a newborn elephant, is rumored to be lying somewhere in the savannah and is said to point in the direction of the Safe Place. Thrown into a drought, with human poachers becoming increasingly common, Mud and her family must find the legendary "Safe Place" where drought and poachers do not come. So I'd chalk this up more to my shortcomings as a reader than any failures on Gowdy's part. When she becomes separated from her family during a slaughter, she spends much of the book trying to find them again, as well as the White Bone. The author devoted far too many sentences to describing dung sniffing, trunk sucking, urine tasting, and mating behaviors. He is rather antisocial and sardonic, but is surprisingly motivated to help Hail Stones after the two become friends. What I actually came away with was "These big beautiful animals are actually kind of gross. The novel is told entirely from the points of view of its elephant characters. How an author can think up a novel based on elephants and turn them into characters is simply beyond imagination! by Picador USA. 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