- Mass Market Paperback: 430 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc; Reprint edition (27 April 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140239340
- ISBN-13: 978-0140239348
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.7 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 137,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Peter Matthiessen gives a detailed account of his travels in East Africa from the Sudan, through Uganda and Kenya to Tanzania. He describes the wildlife and the game reserves of the Serengeti, Maasai Mara and the Ngorongoro Crater, and the archaeological sites at Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli in the Rift Valley. During these travels he meets Iain and Oria Douglas-Hamilton, George Adamson and George Schaller, who all dedicated their lives to studying and protecting animals.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Matthiessen is as perceptive in his observations as he is in his writings. The attention to detail - to colour, movement and sound - brings every sensation of being in the Bush back to mind. He is one of the few African writers who not only understands much of what is African, both of man and of animals, but is able to convey this 'African-ness' to the armchair reader. To read descriptions of both flora and fauna is utterly exhilarating; the vast knowledge that Matthiessen has of these things is combined with an ability to recount these experiences in a way that is not only beautiful and convincing, but breathtaking, and sometimes, frightening. Despite not promoting overt conservation, Matthiessen describes an Africa that reminds us of what we risk losing should we continue headlong to destroy the areas he describes. The power of vast open spaces of Africa is tantalisingly balanced against a desperate fragility of a truly wild place. This eats gently at a conscience that is otherwise overawed with the beauty of his descriptions.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The "tree where man was born" is the ancient baobab, the thick-trunked 'upside down' tree (as if its roots spread out from its top). This arboreal oddity saw our oddity of a species descend from the branches and out onto the African plains.
This book will bounce you over Africa's washboard roads. It describes Africa's broad 360-degree panoramas, the intimacies of its wildlife, and its crazy locals (of all colours). Matthiesson is naturalist poet and this book is as beautiful to read as it is informative. More than any other it evokes the spirit of Sub-Saharan Africa.
I still have my paperback that I read on on the road from Nairobi down to South Africa. Since then I have also since picked up a hardback copy which entwines Eliot Porter's equally resonant "African Experience" photography. Definitely, though, pack the paperback in your rucksack should you set off to discover, or to rediscover, Africa.
P.S. Africa fans will also love Africa: A Biography of the Continent and Congo Journey
This book will bounce you over Africa's washboard roads. It describes Africa's broad 360-degree panoramas, the intimacies of its wildlife, and its crazy locals (of all colours). Matthiesson is naturalist poet and this book is as beautiful to read as it is informative. More than any other it evokes the spirit of Sub-Saharan Africa.
I still have my paperback that I read on on the road from Nairobi down to South Africa. Since then I have also since picked up a hardback copy which entwines Eliot Porter's equally resonant "African Experience" photography. Definitely, though, pack the paperback in your rucksack should you set off to discover, or to rediscover, Africa.
P.S. Africa fans will also love Africa: A Biography of the Continent and Congo Journey
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
10 reviews
56 of 65 people found the following review helpful
A loving and detailed account of a difficult journey
27 Jun 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Is there anyplace wild enough to lift the weight that Occidental culture has placed on our shoulders? Africa, where the first man walked erect, may be the last place where man can feel awed enough by Nature to try and remember that he, also, is just another among the millions of other species that populate the planet. Paul Bowles, Bruce Chatwin, Doris Lessing, Isaak Dinesen and Peter Mattieshen found that answer, and shared the experience. In Mattieshen's poetic account, the tragic and fabulous beauty of a continent that has been devastated by greed and war is revealed, as the impossibility of traveling Africa and not falling in love with it and being changed by it forever.
31 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Good combination of natural atmosphere and history
18 July 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I wasn't certain what to expect when I got this book. I was a bit concerned that since it was written about experiences in the 1960's that it would feel a bit dated. Although the 1960's view of the future of East Africa's peoples and wildlife is not entirely accurate, I am finding the book to be an excellent way to prepare for a trip to Tanzania--for someone wanting a combination of background on the peoples, landscape and wildlife. Matthiessen's usual subdued, to me, dry style seems leavened a bit by his awe. And the account of the elephant researcher who's 'close encounter' approach puts Matthiessen off his feed, was really enjoyable to me--a departure from his usual, very dry approach. I recommend this one to anyone interested in the peoples and wildlife of Eastern Africa.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Transcendent Prose
8 Feb 2007
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is one my very favorite of Matthiessen's impressive canon, ranking easily with Far Tortuga and The Snow Leopard. Indeed, I think some of the passages in The Tree Where Man Was Born might surpass the stunning Himalaya descriptions in the latter book. Matthiessen's eye for landscapes is unparalleled, and his lyric evocations of beast and horizon have an otherworldly quality. A prime example, and one to look out for, is his account of finding rhinoceros tracks on the high volcanic slopes of Mt. Lengai. Another highlight are his crystalline observations of ecological moments during a vigil atop an East African kopje.
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