Monday, January 29, 2007

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

After my last attempt to find something to read for a few minutes before going to bed, I turned to the classics pile. An hour later, I put the book down; finished. I don't remember reading The Call of the Wild in school , but I remember my brother carrying it around at one point.

I haven't read a book from the point of view of an animal in years and years - unless it was one of those sci-fi ones where the "animals" are more intelligent than the humans. It was interesting to see things through the eyes of a dog. It was a change of pace to have the writing try to reflect what we think dogs actually think about; not adding all kinds of human emotion to the life of the dog. We were having a discussion about how people are like the pack animals with a layer of intelligence over the top of it. Controlled and behaving like pack animals - jockeying for position, revelling in a job well done, desiring a sense of purpose, and taking advantage of poor leaders.

I very much enjoyed this book, and I think I'll keep it around until Owen's old enough for me to read it to him. Although, maybe I would be better off getting another copy when he's older rather than using shelf space all those years...

1 comment:

Kristin said...

I've never read it. I love classics when I read them by choice (as opposed to for school).