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Non-fiction. A keen look at primates of all stripes. I expected this to be more about the baboons Sapolsky spent twenty years studying in the African bush, but instead it's mostly about people -- the neighboring Masai, the corrupt game wardens, the con-artists of Nairobi. When he does write about his baboons, he speaks about them as if they're people, though with the added candor of a primatologist: "Eventually, Ruth had to settle for Joshua, a young lanky kid who had transferred into the troop the year before. Quiet kid, didn't make trouble, had a serious unflappable look about him. Masturbated a lot in the bushes." Sapolsky has a way with words, and if that means more sentence fragments than you'd normally find in non-fiction, a little confusion is a small price to pay. It's a funny book, or at least written with a lot of humor, as the subject matter can be frustrating, infuriating, depressing, or in the case of the last chapter, all three. The middle section frequently veers off into the anecdotal, making me wonder where he came across the stories and how much of them are supposition, but for the most part Sapolsky's talking about his own first-hand experience with Africa, his love for his baboons, and his stupid, youthful adventures in the bush. I'm definitely going to read more by him. Four stars for great writing, an enthusiastic narrator, and interesting subject matter.

2020-09-20 07:01