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Jen Meegan's Reviews > The Zookeeper's Wife
The Zookeeper's Wife
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Let me preface by saying a) I love Diane Ackerman's previous works and b) I have a deep interest in holocaust history. Therefore, I was surprised her latest book did not engage me as much as I'd hoped.
Ackerman usually tackles very broad, amorphous subjects like love, the five senses, etc. And her somewhat circular and poetic writing style is, I think, well suited to those topics. But for The Zookeepers Wife, I craved a level of linear details and specifics that I just could not find. I quickly became frustrated with how Ackerman would zoom in on some particulars but not on others (so much focus on the animals, so little on the everyday details of the refugees hidden around the zoo property, very little closure in terms of what happened to the zookeeper and his wife post-war). There were also some inconsistencies...for example a beloved family pet that seemed to disappear permanently early in the war yet strangely shows up post-war in a photo and accompanying caption.
I'm beginning to suspect my lack of enjoyment was due to my own expectations rather than any fault of the author's. Ackerman's style hasn't changed dramatically in this book...she's still an excellent writer. But I was looking for something I could sink my teeth into and this just didn't fit the bill.
Ackerman usually tackles very broad, amorphous subjects like love, the five senses, etc. And her somewhat circular and poetic writing style is, I think, well suited to those topics. But for The Zookeepers Wife, I craved a level of linear details and specifics that I just could not find. I quickly became frustrated with how Ackerman would zoom in on some particulars but not on others (so much focus on the animals, so little on the everyday details of the refugees hidden around the zoo property, very little closure in terms of what happened to the zookeeper and his wife post-war). There were also some inconsistencies...for example a beloved family pet that seemed to disappear permanently early in the war yet strangely shows up post-war in a photo and accompanying caption.
I'm beginning to suspect my lack of enjoyment was due to my own expectations rather than any fault of the author's. Ackerman's style hasn't changed dramatically in this book...she's still an excellent writer. But I was looking for something I could sink my teeth into and this just didn't fit the bill.
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Reading Progress
January 18, 2008
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Started Reading
February 1, 2008
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Finished Reading
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Kate
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rated it 2 stars
Mar 18, 2008 08:43PM
I couldn't agree more! I think this book had the potential to be incredibly interesting, but it was difficult to accept how she just glossed over a lot of the more ordinary details of their life. A huge question for me at the end was, if Jan retired, did they have to move out of the villa? I mean, you can't spend 85% of the book describing life at the villa and then suddenly just forget to mention whether they stayed. And how is it possible that after all of those years having badgers, rabbits, cats, hamsters, lynxes and every other kind of crazy pet that Rys doesn't have any pets now. I'm just not buying that "because a dog couldn't walk up 8 flights of stairs" story. Maybe I need to go back and read the ending again, because I *must* be missing something.
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I agree. I found it shallow.
She does actually explain, briefly, what happened with the pet, but it was at the very end (or was it in the notes?) and I wondered about that too.
