Skip to main content

My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell

Image courtesy: www.durrell.org


Genre: Autobiography (may be a bit fictionalised, but who cares!)
Rating: 4.5/5


When you are down and out and in need of some form of strong restorative, My Family and Other Animals is the medicine to resort to. Contrary to popular belief, you need not be in love with animals (though it certainly helps if you are) to read this book. It is a slap on the face of turmoil and a reminder that when life is down in the dumps, there are always a few cicadas around to marvel at (or whatever catches your fancy). 

My Family and Other Animals is not the first of Gerald Durrell's writing expeditions, but it sure is his masterpiece. By the time he had begun writing this book, he was a reasonably seasoned hand at mounting expeditions and collecting animals all over the globe. In 1956, recovering from a bout of jaundice, Durrell penned this sweet little piece of work about his life as a child on the Greek island of Corfu. 

My Family and Other Animals is a collection of short stories, mapping the eclectic Durrell family. Gerald was the youngest of the lot, with a passion for everything that moved or was rooted (mostly moved). He was preceded by Lawrence 'Larry' Durrell; the eldest, an aspiring - and later highly successful - author1 with lofty ideals and a weird bunch of friends. Leslie Durrell was the younger brother, mad about guns and a regular rogue. Margaret 'Margo' Durrell was Gerald's elder sister, who seems to have been like any of us teenage girls, worrying about pimples, boys and surviving crazy brothers. The mother of the brood is a calm, affectionate English woman, gluing the incongruous characters under the same roof. 

The stories vacillate between personal references and extensive descriptions about the beautiful flora and fauna of Corfu, and their ultimate subjugation and housing by the young Gerald. Even for non-lovers and neutrals, it would be impossible to fall in love with these creatures, the way they have been described. Besides, the book resonates the author's love for the Greek island - its sunshine, its waters, its people and the culture. Every society has its quirks (the absolute absence of plumbed-in toilets, the splash of colours of the house-walls) and the English family from the land of perpetual drizzle and grey skies, does its best to settle in this Mediterranean island. The family receives plenty of help from the locals - the over-protective cabbie Spiro, the shy, soft-spoken and immensely talented Dr. Theodore 'Theo' Stephanides and the 'lugubrious' house-help Lugaretzia. Between Larry's mind-boggling parties for his friends and Margo's fascinations with Gerald's many tutors, life in Corfu is an endless, light-hearted vacation. 

My Family and Other Animals is not strictly autobiographical; if public records are to be believed, there have been a few omissions and alterations to events and characterisation. I personally felt bad when I came to know that my idyll of childhood was not really so sun-soaked, but this isn't the first - or the last time - that this has happened. Another very dear author of mine - James Herriot, also followed a similar ploy, using a pseudonym and changing names and dates. In a way, I'm glad they choose to leave out the darker details from their books, because, honestly, life is tough one way or another. 

Gerald Durrell is a most entertaining writer. He may not always be riotously funny, but his work is based on witty introspection and finding the funny in the serious. Though not his primary occupation (multi-faceted as he was, he is renowned as a conservationist and a zookeeper), Durrell's literary work is a delight to return to, over and over again. Greece may no longer be the paradise Durrell noted in My Family and Other Animals, but no one can take away its sun, its sea and the lovely creatures that abound its islands.


1 Lawrence Durrell was one of those shortlisted for the 1962 Nobel Prize for his masterful The Alexandria Quartet; but lost out to John Steinbeck, presumably for not having proven enough mettle. What a time this must have been, to have authors such as these jostle for the top award!



Got something to discuss about this book? Feel free to drop a comment; we all here love a bookish discussion...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Side Reads - A Book of English Essays - Edited by W.E. Williams

Remember our school days? Remember those dreary passages we had to read and read again - between the lines and over and under them? Remember wondering how could the study of language be so dry? Well, it turns out, what we were served was high in protein, but pretty much devoid of spice and juice. Let me set the record straight. Essays are fun. Read A Book of English Essays to see if I'm right.  As the name says, it is a collection of small essays on a multitude of topics by the who's-who of English literature - Francis Bacon, Joseph Addison, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt, A.A. Milne, R.L. Stevenson - honestly the list is quite scary. But once you pull your head out of the table of contents, it's a treasure mine. Most essays are short, possibly the length of a newspaper article (which is how they must have been originally published I think). What is interesting though, is the topics they are on. So there are absolutely gorgeous ones like 'Getting Up on Cold Morni

Man-Eaters of Kumaon - Jim Corbett

Genre: Non-fiction Rating: 5/5 This one is decidedly a classic, so there is little point in reviewing this book. It is a beautiful one, without doubt.  Personally, I avoid any form of entertainment (books, movies, plays, anything) which features cruelty - either directly or tacitly - towards animals (I have not yet seen any of the Planet of the Apes movies, Ant Man  was uncomfortable too). So deciding to read this book took a certain degree of convincing.  Much credit goes to the beautiful cover of the book. This one is an Aleph Classics  (co-founded by David Davidar of The House of Blue Mangoes fame, and Rupa Publication) edition. In terms of sheer elegance, the cover design is unmatched. The palette concept of jungle green coupled with the late afternoon sun creates an ambiance even before you delve into the pages. I picked out the book from a thin pile on a shelf in the little HigginBothams book-store near Charing Cross in Ooty, one biting winter evening (more