Nature books that are tear-jerkers.

Judgement Day

Alan Eckert's novel - The Last Great Auk - is surely the daddy of them all and I cannot recommend it highly enough - suitable for all ages.



The review below is from Amazon.com and does a better job than I could and sets the scene nicely without giving away the plot. I first read the story as a child in the mid-1970s, in an abridged version in the Readers Digest, and it had a profound affect on me which has left me with a concern for protecting nature to this day.

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The Last Great Auk tells the story of one particular member of a large group of the last remaining Great Auks - flightless birds that were the North Atlantic's equivalent of penguins. Eckert's prose is simple and restrained - understandably it can appear in a childrens' library - but the themes he explores and the emotions he works with are deep.

We follow the auk through his growth and along his great migrations, as he and the species' remaining thousands face the yearly challenge of swimming from Iceland to winter on America's eastern coast, and returning months later. Along the way, our auk must face and overcome challenges that are no less fearful for being so familiar. We empathize as he struggles through youth, loses his parents, faces indifferent Nature with courage, and wills himself to survive and win.

Eckert's writing is descriptive and convincing, but it is the familiarity of the bird's predicament, and his courage that we hope to share, that makes us relate to him so immediately. The loss of a species may seem abstract, but the loss of a friend is all too real. The Last Great Auk pays homage to the lost multitudes by following the tragedy of their single last survivor.

Along the way we are reminded - if we care to think about it, because this tale never strays from simply describing the auk's life - that life and death are not experiences unique to us, and the fact of our being is little different to those other expressions of life around us.

A universal story, beautifully told.

Kess73

Tarka The Otter is both a book and film that really chokes me up.

Over the last two years I have tried to rewatch the film and re-read the novel and stopped about two thirds of the way through in each.

I have obviously seen and read Tarka before, but the ending gets me every time so I tend to stop each time I revisit it.


The Plague dogs is another novel with animals as the lead characters that has a few moments that pull at the heart strings, as does Animal Farm -

Boxer being taken away anyone?

Watership Down has it's moments also.

Judgement Day

Last of the Curlews by Fred Bosworth is another in the same vein as The Last Great Auk and brings the reader right into the lives of the last pair of Eskimo Curlews. The book should come with a health warning it's just so sad. Incidentally, although officially extinct since the late 1930s the Eskimo Curlew continues to attract sightings - along with Lord Lucan, Elvis and Glen Miller.

Judgement Day

Still on the subject of extinction and The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, also by Alan Eckert, tells the story of the extermination of this bird which once formed such huge flocks that they darkened skies in the USA. Wikipedia has a fairly accurate account here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon.
Despite once numbering in the billions this unfortunate species was mercilessly hunted for food and the last known bird "Martha" died in Cincinnati Zoo, Ohio on September 1st, 1914. Another great read but break-out the tissues first.

Feargal as Luimneach

I wonder will they ever be able to clone a Great auk and bring them back. I'm sure the way medical science is progressing it will be possible. Imagine having a colony of Great auks off the coast of Ireland again.:)
(going a bit off topic:cool:)

Judgement Day

Feargal as Luimneach wrote: »

I wonder will they ever be able to clone a Great auk and bring them back. I'm sure the way medical science is progressing it will be possible. Imagine having a colony of Great auks off the coast of Ireland again.:)
(going a bit off topic:cool:)

That thought had crossed my mind too but it's a bit too Jurassic Park for my liking. I used to dream that one day a forgotten colony of Great Auks would be discovered but 1844 is a long time ago and there have been no reports since. A natural comeback by the elusive Eskimo Curlew might be more likely.

There is an interesting account of a Great Auk which was briefly kept in captivity in Ireland published in the Birds of Ireland by Ussher & Warren (1900) copied from the original account which appeared in William Thompson's Natural History of Ireland (1847/53). The direct link to the Thompson work is here (page 238) : http://books.google.com/books?id=wnLU9bpNzo0C&q=great+auk#v=snippet&q=great%20auk&f=false

Judgement Day

The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico - a (very) short story about a reclusive artist, a young girl, a Snow Goose and Dunkirk. Richard Harris and Jenny Agutter starred in the 1971 BBC film. The book is a real classic and I seem to remember that the film isn't bad either - then again anything with Jenny Agutter couldn't be!

Judgement Day

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is the story about a battle of wills between a giant marlin and old Cuban fisherman - an epic tale told in simple language and suitable for all ages. Again, its a genuine tear jerker.



Anybody else got any favourites?

Kess73

Judgement Day wrote: »

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is the story about a battle of wills between a giant marlin and old Cuban fisherman - an epic tale told in simple language and suitable for all ages. Again, its a genuine tear jerker.



Anybody else got any favourites?

I put spoilers in, in case anyone has not read the book or seen the film.

Great shout. The old man and the marlin have a massive battle and then when

the marlin has lost and is strapped to the boat the sharks come in and ruin the marlin. Making the marlin's death pointless for the old man.

Plus you get the feeling that when

the old man comes back after the epic battle, that he is going to his shack to die. His spirit broken by how the marlin was ruined.

Another moment that hammers home how the marlin

died for nowt, is at the end when the spine of the fish is washed up on the shore and a tourist asks about it, and the spine gets called that of a shark.

thedarkroom

My favourite, excellent book that was faithfully converted in to a great film. Watched it only last week.

Judgement Day

Yeah, "Kes" was a great movie, never read the book, and I had forgotten all about it until now.....off to Play.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRYvUpsrqmg

artieanna

Can any of ye remember the name of the film about the bird/s (I think they were geese) a father and daughter reared and then had to lead them south across America, like the mother would have, in a little plane glider..

real weepie....

Found it.... its called Fly away home and its based on a true story...

get the hankies out

Judgement Day

A bit too Hollywood for my liking but here you are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCjlubLJcxk

IceMaiden

Out of these, I enjoyed the white badger the most ,I soon found a copy of it in a local library having seen a item on the television around the time Out of the books so far I would take Kes as my favourite & could easily re-read it more times .:)

Gorillas in the Mist: Dian Fossey


Born Free - a Lioness of Two Worlds
Joy Adamson 1960



The white badger:Gary Cliffe 1970