Zoo World: Essays

by Mary Quade

We contain the elements of our world in archives, boxes, collections, mausoleums, history books, and museums, trying to stave off their eventual disappearance from our memory and from the earth in a futile attempt at redemption for our violence against them. In  Zoo World,  Mary Quade examines our propensity for damage, our relationships with other species, our troubling belief in our own dominion, and the reality that when you put something in a cage, it becomes your responsibility. Her subjects are as eclectic as mallard ducks, ancient churches, monarch butterflies, classrooms, tourism, street markets, zoos, and dairy cows and as global as migration, war, language, and climate change. Whatever the topic at hand,  Zoo World  considers how our stewardship of the earth and one another falls short, hoping that a more humble understanding of our place on the planet might lead not only to our mutual survival but also to the extinction of our hubris as human beings. Replete with Quade’s lyrical and observational gifts and refusing to let any of us off the hook in the name of inspiration or comfort, these essays are a fresh take on travel and nature writing, pushing both in thrilling new directions.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

230 pages, Paperback

Published September 19, 2023

Reviews

[Crystal books_inthewild · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am over the moon that I was able to read an advanced copy of Zoo World- in short, it is one of the most clever, poetic, and interesting nonfiction books I’ve read.

In each essay, author Mary Quade essentially tells two different “stories” back and forth, juxtaposing some sort of theme or topic or opinion… and it just works. As you hop from one unique topic, to the next, and back again, everything starts to click & you begin to see a creative connection, and think… “ah- that’s why”
For example, bug collecting and her religious experience growing up. That line at the end of that essay, I just thought, wow.

From oil spills and the vulnerability of baby ducklings, to Monarch butterflies & endangered animals, plastic bags & humpback whales, Vietnam, caged birds, and prisons, Ecuador and chicken foot soup. Each and every essay brought an interesting story, a unique piece of history, or some bit of science that really made me think.

My favourite essay was “The Galapagos Shooting Gallery”-
When she writes about the “salvage” expeditions of hunting critically endangered creatures for the sake of research & preserving them.. she really presents it in a way that makes you think critically about the treatment of endangered animals: do the “ends justify the means”? Were their methods wrong, but for the right reasons? Are we learning from mistakes of the past?

This was truly a remarkable book- and I will absolutely be looking for more from this author.

If you enjoy science, history, nature- thinking critically about the world around you- poetic writing- nonfiction essays that tell a story… there’s something in this for every reader.
Available September 2023

[Eddie Pollau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book Experience - Zoo World

Zoo World is a moody collection of essays of varying quality concerning the desire for control over nature, memory, and other human beings.

The summary on the back cover sucked me in immediately, but it took a couple essays for me to warm up to the book. I was not impressed with the first three essays, Hatch, The Box, andThe Collection, so much so that I set the book aside for a few weeks while I read other books on my shelf. WhenI finally picked it back up again, I read picked up where I left off, at Songs of the Humpback Whale and Project Monarch, which drew me back in.

The essays vary pretty wildly in quality. None of them are bad, quite a few of them are underdeveloped, and a select few are excellent. I selected an excerpt of the Galapagos Shooting Gallery as the epigraph to my fourth nature journal: “I think to myself, if only I had a camera ready at all times to take this down so I could come back to it, so I could be here again. A device that would grab these things, sort through them, and line them up for me to revisit. Then I realize what I’m imagining is memory.” (Page 85)

My essays in order from favorite to least are as follows: Project Monarch, Songs of the Humpback Whale, Galapagos Shooting Gallery, In the Classroom, Hatch, In Harmony with Nature, The Collection, Cage, (Paradise, Earth), Zoo World, The Box, Fonoteca Nacional, Patas, Gall, Steel: Products of Cleveland.

P.S. I read Zoo World last summer. I’ve wished on a few occasions that I’d finished and posted my book experiences closer to the time at which I’d finished their respective books. However, I think that what I lose in short-term memory I gain back in long-term contemplation. I do feel that the experiences that I take the longest to write about are my most accurate and honest opinions about the books I read.

I mentioned that the first three essays turned me off to the book initially, but Hatch, a chapter about ducks nesting on the author’s property and the ducklings meeting horrible ends, stuck with me over the past year. The resentment that arises from trying to save the natural world which is seemingly so cruel and wasteful toward itself is very interesting. My vegan mother has expressed frustration that the natural world requires animal-on-animal violence to function, when she herself does almost everything in her power to reduce human and animal suffering. I’ve thought back on this book with that lens and felt more retroactively receptive toward its cynical tone. (It’s very Enneagram 1 coded, if you’re familiar with that typology)

In my essay ranking, I moved Hatch to 5th place, up from its previous spot at 11th place.

Here are the quotes from Zoo World I’ve thought about the most in the past year:

“When you put something in a cage, it becomes your responsibility. The burden of being caged is on the caged. The burden of the cage is on you.” (Page 94)

“Though I find no reason to believe this, I’m never sure what to believe, except that the whole story isn’t ever told. Or if it is, no one listens. Or if someone listens, they misunderstand.” (Page 95)

“When I look at pictures of young me working at S-21, I recognize the soft, unfinished features of boyhood. (...) who suddenly found themselves in a school, not as students but as intimidators, torturers, and murderers–or maybe as students of intimidation, torture, and murder.” (Page 133)

“My initial reaction to this place is, ‘How could this happen?’ But this seems like a question asked too late. Perhaps the real question is, ‘Why do we let this happen?’ Or ‘Do I let this happen?’ Or ‘Will I let this happen?’” (Page 138)