The Memory of an Elephant / Alex Lasker - 4****

[Book Concierge]

At least one person tagged this "summer." I was reading it for my F2F book club, so thanks to the anonymous person who tagged it.


The Memory of an Elephant – Alex Lasker
4****

It begins when a surgeon on his way to an early operation is driving in torrential rain, so he is going significantly below the speed limit. He’s startled by a looming shape in the darkness and manages to stop his vehicle without hitting the shape or the median. Only when he is fully stopped does he realize that he is looking at the largest elephant he has ever seen. And the elephant is looking right back at him. After a few heart-stopping moments, the bull walks over the median divider and disappears into the rain. What was an elephant doing on the highway? There are no national parks or zoos in the vicinity.

This is an unusual “memoir” … an elderly bull elephant recounts his life as he treks across the African continent, intent on returning to his birthplace. The story goes back and forth in time, from Ishi’s recollections to his current-day trek across the continent.

What a marvelous book! Ishi (the elephant) is a remarkable narrator. Of course, he doesn’t always understand the ways of the two-leggers, with their boom sticks and mechanical birds (rifles and helicopters), but he has a long memory and remembers both those who have been kind to him and those who have harmed him or his family.

Lasker gives the reader a visceral experience by using Ishi’s voice to tell this tale. There are chapters that deal with the significant humans in Ishi’s life, from the Hathaway family (who operate an “orphan farm” in Kenya), to Kamau (the young tribal boy who first found and befriended the baby Ishi), to Gichinga (a sociopath and poacher).

One of my book-club buddies recommended this book for us. We all loved it!

LINK to my review