The Follow

by Linda Spalding

"Rousseau`s prescription for us, who have drifted so far from our origins, was to make two journeys, one to a place where life is still uncorrupted, and another into the self." In The Follow, novelist Linda Spalding travels to Borneo, first with her two daughters and later alone, in search of the famed orangutan scientist Birute Galdikas. What she finds instead is an unholy mix of foreign scientists, government workers, tourists, loggers, descendants of Dayak headhunters, Javanese gold miners, captive and wild orangutans. Her journey is the equivalent of a "follow," during which a tracker watches, over a course of time, an orangutan`s movements and the effect of the animal on the surrounding environment. Spalding`s follow takes her from Galdikas`s Orangutan Foundation International offices in Los Angeles to her subject`s original research station on the crocodile-infested Sekonyer River in Kalimantan. What unravels along the way is a story of relationships among women, people and animals, and natives and eco-tourists. Woven through these reflections is Spalding`s own incredible story of her journey up the Sekonyer River and what she learns along the way.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Linda Spalding, Kansas-born Canadian fiction and nonfiction writer, often explores world cultures and the clash between contemporary life and traditional beliefs. Born in Topeka, she lived in Mexico and Hawaii before moving to Toronto, Ontario in 1982.

Spalding's work has been honoured numerous times. Her non-fiction work, The Follow, was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award and the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize and she has since received the Harbourfront Festival Prize for her contribution to the Canadian literary community.

Her novel, The Purchase, won the 2012 Governor General's Literary Award.

She has two daughters and is currently married to novelist Michael Ondaatje. Linda, her daughter Esta, and Michael are also on the editorial board of the Canadian literary magazine, Brick.

Reviews

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really should have 2.5 stars, rather than 3, but since I did keep reading it all the way through and since there were things that I enjoyed learning about, I went for the 3. It is run through with petty anxieties and quarrels. Those of the author have only petty consequences (anxieties about her relationships with her daughters, her hurt feelings due to encounters with Gladikas etc) and they get very old very quickly, but the petty quarrels that Galdikas has gotten into have had a potentially horrible result for the remaining orangutan population in Borneo. I have long been interested in the big apes and the 3 women who pioneered the study of them, and have read all their books. This book, which illuminates some of the inside tensions and developments with orangutans, is frightening. It shows what can happen when a passion becomes so overwhelming that it forces a person past the boundaries of ethics. Galdikas has done some important and vital work in the field, but has she now become the equivalent of a crazy cat-lady? The corrupt government in Indonesia, the lack of money there, and the long distance btw it and the US have also allowed her to spend the funds that she has raised in a way that would probably horrify a number of her donors. It was sobering to see what can happen to an idealistic woman and a very worthwhile cause.

[Bambi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman tries to follow Dr. Birute Galdikas into Borneo to understand her work to save orangutans. Birute is the orangutan equivalent of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey and perhaps just as controversial as the latter. Good discussion of the conflict between saving wild orangutans and caring for orphaned ones.

[Ayelet Waldman]

Okay, so I know Linda. But I still loved this book. Seriously. I'm not just bullshitting to keep from embarrassing myself in front of a friend. I can believe what that NUT JOB Birute Galdikas is doing in Borneo. She's got to be stopped. I worked myself up into such a rage over this that I called Linda to holler my fury. She, of course, had put all this out of her mind years ago.

[rebelsofie · Rating 3 out of 5]

walaupun bahasa inggrisnya rada susah, tapi yang namanya orangutan, selalu jadi fave

[The Chicks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jane's pick

[Mark Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

The examination into the world of orangutan preservation and the role of Birute Galdikas is thought-provoking even though I learned more about the author herself than I really wanted to.

[Shari LaRue]

Combines a travel journal with being a naturalist and discovering the plight of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra. Good read