A Primate's Memoir: Love, Death and Baboons in East Africa
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Product Description
Review
Lynn Yarris"Newsday""A Primate's Memoir" flies along like a well-paced and finely crafted novel...[giving] us a cast of characters as memorably colorful as any that Dickens ever created.
Book Description
Keynote/Publisher's CommentsOne of the world's leading primatologists reinvents the traditional field research study with this exhilarating, hilarious and daring memoir of twenty-plus years studying a troop of baboons in Kenya.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As much fun to read as any book by Redmond O'Hanlon or Gerald Durrell, A Primate's Memoir is funny, irreverent, and full of adventure, while also being a serious scientific study of the savanna baboons of Kenya. Sapolsky's goal is to determine the relationship of baboon stress levels to their overall health over a period of years. A neuroscientist, he observes the social hierarchy and interactions of his baboon group, guesses which individuals appear to be most stressed or most relaxed and then checks their hormones and blood chemistry, not an easy procedure, given his clever and not always co-operative population.
The title of A Primate's Memoir is deliberately ambiguous--it is both Sapolsky's memoir and that of his baboon population, and his experiences and interactions with the outside world are remarkably similar to theirs. Leaving the relative safety of the game reserves and hitchhiking into dangerous territories during his "down time," Sapolsky describes his travels with enthusiasm, impeccable timing, and great, self-deprecating humor, subtly selecting details which show how similarly he and his baboon population deal with their worlds' uncertainties. Kenya is experiencing civil unrest and corruption; Uganda has just deposed Idi Amin; the Sudan is in the midst of a long civil war; the border of Zaire is under siege; and the Somalis refuse to accept any borders at all, stealing lands and property wherever they go--all dangerous and stressful atmospheres for their populations and for visitors like the author.
Sapolsky is a great story teller, however, equally entertaining in presenting both his adventures and his research, his world and that of his baboons. While life may be "nasty, brutish, and short," Sapolsky shows us it's a lot more fun if one keeps a sense of humor--and a lot less stressful.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Which is exactly what the author has done over his long career studying baboons. Starting with his early reasons for fascination with our close primate relatives, and narrowing down onto the particular baboon troop he studied, Robert Sapolsky has described with love and fervour the individuals he met, both human and baboon, during his stays in Africa. The lives of 'his' families, their relationships with each other (and occasionally with him), their trials and triumphs, and, finally, their destruction as a group through the carelessness and cupidity of their human neighbours, are all described with passion and outrage and fascination. A book to read and lend to as many people as possible!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One of the best books I ever read!!!
Is it a biography?... NO! Is it a science book?... NO! Is it a romance?... NO! Is it a traveller's account of Africa?... NO! Is it a creative writer's diary?... NO! IT'S ALL OF THAT IN JUST ONE BOOK!
Is it a biography?... NO! Is it a science book?... NO! Is it a romance?... NO! Is it a traveller's account of Africa?... NO! Is it a creative writer's diary?... NO! IT'S ALL OF THAT IN JUST ONE BOOK!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gerald Durrell on Yiddisha steroids
What a read! Baboons! Who cares? Nasty, smelly thugs of the Savannah. Read this book and you will care, and laugh a lot along the way. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Noel
Great book
Interesting book - very entertaining sections about both the Baboons and travel in Africa generally. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Katy
A fantastic read
Everyone should read this book. It tells you all you need to know about baboon behaviour and probably human behaviour as well. It is funny and tragic. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Helen
This professor always leaves me impatient for more...
If you've ever experienced one of Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky's splendid neuroscience lectures you'll already know what a great communicator he is for both scientists and... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Alan Lovejoy
One of those books that you lend that never gets returned
I first heard a chapter of this book on the radio, It was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Unfortunately i was driving at the time, and was soon laughing so much I had to pull over... Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2009 by Miti
Entertaining and enlightening memoir of primate life.
As much fun to read as any book by Redmond O'Hanlon or Gerald Durrell, A Primate's Memoir is funny, irreverent, and full of adventure, while also being a serious... Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2006 by Mary Whipple
Africaphile or not, I recommend this book.
During the course of this book, which is also a partial biography of the author's life and career, we follow Sapolsky's research in Kenya as he studies "his" baboons. Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2004 by Kavey
Baboon love...
I have bought and given this book to five people as a present and they have all said that it is one of the best books that they have read in years. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2004 by Mr. A. Shah
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