Review: Of Tigers and Men
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsTigers are not just an endangered species in India and Thailand and Nepal, writes field naturalist and safari guide Ives. Their goose (so to speak) is pretty much cooked. Tigers are awesome beasts, and for a naturalist such as Ives they are near mythic creatures--ancient, solitary, living on the margins. Ives knew that they once roamed the subcontinent in great numbers. But what was their current lot? Did their protected areas really give them a chance at survival, or were they doomed by circumstance? Ives takes up with three very different souls--a legendary champion of the tiger; a violent, inspiring, globe-trotting naturalist; and a tiger dilettante (like Einstein was a dilettante of physics), all of whom offer Ives little more than a tale of woe for the tiger's chances: Its habitat is too far gone. An American born safari leader, Ives knows the tiger's terrain, and the Western imagination, well enough to convey a landscape rife with dark magic--of Rajput castle, ghost forests, and panoramas of romance and antiquity. He wears his naturalist's training lightly, offering throwaway comments like this one, along a riverbank: ""There are two distinctly different . . . deer hoofmarks, the smaller belonging to chital, the larger either to sambar or to the very rare swamp deer."" For all the story's subcurrent of despair, Ives has managed to infuse it with a bouncy, adventurous air, full of daring episodes, reckless happenings, even a love story, not to mention run-ins with the big guy himself. Still and all, a sense of doom hovers everywhere. This isn't so much a caution as it is an elegy--beautifully etched, picaresque even, but a sadder song for all that. One just has to trust and respect a guy who lets you know up front that you won't be seeing any tigers on his tiger safaris.
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Judith - GoodreadsI was alternately discouraged and encouraged by this beautifully written book. It makes me sad to think that the reality of man and beast being able to coexist peacefully on this earth is about as ... Read full review
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Meli - GoodreadsThis is a great book. I would definitely recommend it. Although its about tigers it's really a metaphor for so many species on our planet so near the brink of no return. Read full review
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Jeffrey - GoodreadsI purchased and read this book after I was contacted by the author about a problem he had in tracing the whereabouts of a long lost relative. Ives was a tour guide for people who wanted to visit the ... Read full review
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Carl - GoodreadsA strange book. The author writes about his quest to walk up to a wild tiger in the jungle. The book is partly a book about tigers, partly a travelogue, describing the places in the world that he ... Read full review
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Cat - GoodreadsFantastic!!! A must for anyone who cares about the tiger population and their conservation. For a factual account it is so well written and flows really well. Excellent!!! Read full review
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Tony Taylor - GoodreadsThe author was a naturalist and tour guide in Asia, especially conducting tours in Nepal, in the late 1980s. During the later part of the '80s until the early '90s he had an interest in researching ... Read full review
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Teresa - GoodreadsBeautiful read. An autobiography of Richard Ives. The realization of the eventual extinction of one of the tigers of the world. Read full review
Review: Of Tigers and Men: Entering the Age of Extinction
User Review - Susan - GoodreadsThis book is reminiscent of Ruth Padel's Tigers in Red Weather or even Peter Matthiessen's Tigers in the Snow. If you are looking for a book that gives you good information on tigers while telling you ... Read full review
