'The White Bone' is beautifully written. The language of the animals are a delight to read. Elephants speak in a formal timbre, birds of prey are taciturn and aloof, mangooses twitter repetitively. The elephants call snakes 'flow sticks', the ostrich is a 'big fly', the zebra is called 'ribs' (because in an earlier incarnation its skeleton covered its flesh), 'rouge's web' are wire fences put up by humans and the helicopters used to hunt them are 'roar flies' .

Not a simple act of creativity, the author based her book on work done by animal behaviourists, showing how elephants are intelligent creatures, how they live in matriarchal groups, how they communicate, how they mourn their dead, etc.

If the tragedy of the elephants do not move you, nothing will. Highly recommended.

If you don't like it, you'll REALLY not like it.

"The White Bone" is a book based entirely on an invention. It is the story of an elephant named Mud. Through her we learn everything about elephants, their societal structure, their mythology, their language, their beliefs, an entire invented universe which is so brilliantly put together, it seems almost logical. Indeed, if elephants do speak to each other, if they do share a mythology, the one Barbara Gowdy describes is the only one possible.

And what would the point be, one might ask... The point, I think, is that "what if..." What if elephants do have a beautiful, ornate culture, what if we just don't know all about it yet, what if they become extinct before we are able to share their knowledge, their culture and their traditions and enrich our own understanding of the universe by participating in a gorgeous society.

To participate in it, through such a gifted writer as Ms. Gowdy, is a wonderful experience. The world is so rich, so touching, so beautiful, so real. I'm starting to think that Barbara Gowdy was an elephant in a previous life and that what she speaks of, comes from past-life transgression sessions.

I believe!