A rare negative book review from January, 2003, of Isabel Allende\u2019s City of the Beasts<\/em>. I find that I still feel the same way a decade later.<\/em><\/p>\n Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold\u2019s mother has cancer and is going to a special clinic with Alexander\u2019s father; he and his sisters get dispatched to live with aunts for duration. In Alexander\u2019s case, it means that he accompanies his eccentric, acerbic Aunt Kate on an expedition to the farthest reaches of the Amazon River, in search of a murderous sasquatch-like creature called \u201cThe Beast\u201d. Ultimately the expedition encounters an Indian tribe, the People of the Mist, who have always eschewed contact with outsiders\u2014and also with \u201cThe Beasts\u201d, a race of creatures the People of the Mist worship as gods.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot to like in this book; once Allende gets past the first couple of chapters, which are completely atrocious (I nearly stopped reading, and only continued because my sister gave me the book for Christmas and I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt) she\u2019s quite a good storyteller. I\u2019m at a bit of a disadvantage, reviewing this book; I\u2019ve never read anything else by Allende, and according to the dust jacket this is her first book for young readers. Thus, I don\u2019t know whether the awful beginning is typical, or whether she forgot to write \u201cdown\u201d after she\u2019d gotten a couple of chapters into it. <\/p>\n But be that as it may, there\u2019s a lot to dislike, too. I\u2019ll start with the character Ludovic Leblanc, egotistical anthropologist and blithering idiot. He\u2019s the only scientist in the party, and he\u2019s an imbecile, less interested in what\u2019s before his eyes than what\u2019s in his books. He\u2019s not at all suited for life in the jungle, and he seems to know nothing about it\u2014and yet, he was chosen to lead this expedition because of his vast experience in the field. He\u2019s as two-dimensional as a playing card.<\/p>\n Okay, he\u2019s a badly written character. But it\u2019s the attitude that bugs me\u2014as I say, he\u2019s the only scientist. All through the book, the message is \u201cthink with your heart, not your head.\u201d I\u2019m not one to downplay the importance of feelings and intuition, but not using your head is just stupid.<\/p>\n And then there are the People of the Mist, who are portrayed as living a sylvan, idyllic life without modern goods, without modern thoughts, without modern technology. Really, we\u2019re asked, why should they change? Their system has worked for them for thousands of years. They are happy, says Allende. Again, we have the pluralistic, post-modern message: our way is no better than theirs.<\/p>\n In a word: hogwash.<\/p>\n I have three children. Just minutes before my second son was born, the heart rate on the fetal monitor dropped to nearly zero\u2014the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. The nurse immediately got Jane to stop pushing, and got her breathing oxygen. Meanwhile, she did what she could to get the baby to shift position. It worked\u2014she got him untangled, and he was born safely. Had there been no fetal monitor, likely he would have been stillborn\u2014a little baby boy, perfectly developed and ready to be born, dead of a stupid accident minutes before birth.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll take modern technology, thank you. I\u2019ll take Western Civilization, with all of its Dead White Males, against whatever pap the multi-culti crowd are pushing these days. It works, better than anything else we\u2019ve come up with. And I\u2019ll tell you, sitting here in my warm study, in a comfortable chair, with my little girl gurgling in her playpen, is much more pleasant than living in the jungle, \u201cin harmony with nature\u201d, worshipping the spirits in every plant and animal and worshipping giant ground sloths as gods.<\/p>\n Sorry, Isabel. No, thank you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A rare negative book review from January, 2003, of Isabel Allende\u2019s City of the Beasts. I find that I still feel the same way a decade later. Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold\u2019s mother has cancer and is going to a special clinic with Alexander\u2019s father; he and his sisters get dispatched to live with aunts for duration. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,55,28],"tags":[23,60,14],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blasts-from-the-past","category-shakers-of-salt","category-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-family","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\n