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The Snow Leopard
March 2018: Autobiography
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The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen 3 stars
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Sounds like you had a similar reaction to this one that I had. I had also hoped for more snow leopards!
LibraryCin wrote: "Sounds like you had a similar reaction to this one that I had. I had also hoped for more snow leopards!"No snow leopards?! I went back and read your review as well and I think I put this on the list for the wrong reasons.
Thank you both for setting me straight.
I don't think it's a spoiler to say that the author never sees a snow leopard. I agree that the title is misleading. There is a lot of information about blue sheep and the author sees snow leopard tracks and discusses a bit about them but if you want to learn about snow leopards this isn't the book to read.
Yup! Pretty surprising!
Matthiessen accompanies George Schaller on a two month trip into Tibet to chronicle blue sheep. The trip begins in late September of 1973 and the two have to hike in due to the lack of roads in the area. The book jacket makes it sound like they are alone but they are actually accompanied by sherpas and porters carrying their food and gear. The book is written in a diary format. I actually consider this three books in one. First the story of the trek through the Himalayas to reach the Crystal Mountain area which was interesting. Second stories of nature in the area especially the blue sheep which was also interesting. Third musings on Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy which are scattered randomly throughout the text. These didn't make much sense at all to me and were incredibly boring and this brought down my rating of the book. I wouldn't mind reading a book that actually explains Buddhism unlike this book. I also wonder at why Matthiessen decided it was a good idea to leave his young son for so long less than a year after his wife died.