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Supposedly Redmond O'Hanlon has written better. If you are an ornithological aficionado or expert of any kind, this is no doubt a must read.
The best of the book begins on page two where a Major Malcolm explains the potential dangers that lie ahead for the men. It ends on page six.
With the exception of the first two or three chapters and about 20% thereafter, this travelogue/jungle study is a real snooze. If you are someone who likes knowing the Latin name for all species encountered on a trip through a jungle, you're in for a treat.
Perhaps you are best reading only those pages in the library and then putting this back on the shelf.One thing you will learn for sure if you make it halfway is that Bertram E. Smythies wrote "Birds of Borneo." The author refers to both about every five pages.
But unless you are the kind of person who enjoys plowing their way through a tired, often confusing account written a man plodding through the jungle, I suggest you forget this one. Personally I'd try my luck with any number of other travelogue writers before trying another of his.
This classic travel adventure recounts a 1983 trip into, well, the heart of Borneo by the author, Redmond O'Hanlon, his friend the poet James Fenton, and three local Iban guides. The book includes much interesting information about the people who live in inland Borneo. The sympathetic Iban will have many a good laugh on account of the two clumsy Britons. The story evolves around the unlikely party's boat trip upriver from Kuching on South China Sea to Mt. O'Hanlon observes the world around him with a keen eye for detail and writes it all down in fabulously engaging prose. Batu Tiban. The purpose of the trip is, ostensibly, to try to rediscover the Borneo Rhinoceros that is believed to be extinct. Redmond O'Hanlon is a naturalist by training (Oxford) and was for years the natural history editor for the Times Literary Supplement, so inevitably the book contains frequent passages describing the nature--especially bird life--that they encounter.
The trip is at times dangerous, as they traverse rapids and face other natural challenges en route. Along the way the troupe comes across other ethnic groups--some of whom bear generations old grudges against the Iban--and engage in riotous celebrations with them. In the end they confess that they never believed they'd be able to complete the trip, O'Hanlon being too fat and Fenton immensely old. His sense of humour and self-depreciating style, as well as openness and empathy guarantee that this travel memoir is a definite winner.
Nevertheless it is an astonishing performance to make money with such an eventless story, in which there is nothing spectacular found, neither inside nor outside, without deeper insight in the course of the wildlife and the ways of the wild people. Here it is not always very entertaining if not flat. But the reality has a different look. How the protagonists behave in the jungle is partly naïve or distressing, at least they see it as such. Poor natives. Everybody who has visited primitive people and tried to get acquainted with their way of thinking has the opportunity to learn that they are not different to us and that in each one are the same capabilities that are found in our human race everywhere. The inhabitants of inner Borneo might be "primitive" in comparison with us, but their mind is not necessarily less civilized.
I regard it as doubtful whenever book writers take a commercial advantage when they design their individual pictures of other people which they have not studied thoroughly. Such kind of reports may impress those who stayed at home, which is not at last due to the expectation of the reader. The so called British humour. You do get some knowledge about the indigenous people and birds which both are not fit for cage-holding. But not so much more. What types of drifters and trampers populate our last virgin forests. But for anybody who wants to know how the proper rainforest and the people who live there is, I cannot recommend this book. Respect.
The art of humour should be not to practise it at the cost of others. This is what makes a good author, make a lot out of less. Maybe my different experience in the inner of Borneo is owed to the fact that I was not in the same place, but I fear it would have impressed me even less. For me the book was boring. And the reader consumes it. Better read Alexander von Humboldt`s South American journey.
This was a great surprise. Borrowed it from a relative and found it was absolutely hilarious. Made us want to visit Borneo, but not to visit Borneo (you'll understand if you read it). I had to buy another of his books after reading this one.
received above book; correct cover, but inside is another book by name of 'the glass key' by dashiell hammett. tried to contact you by various means, to no avail.original packaging long gone. how do i go about getting the book i ordered.
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