Reviews

The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes by Peter Matthiessen

jefecarpenter's review

5.0

This is an extraordinary book. Over 300 pages, he describes every conservation effort for cranes going on around the globe, some of them in far flung places. That is not ordinarily the description of a book that I would want to read. It is through his elegant, seductive prose detailing the landscapes and the adventures that are his way into those landscapes that drew me in, and made it a right of celebration for me. How incredible that he would take on this mammoth task, akin to publishing an encyclopedia, for this bird. His reverence is made clear by the beauty of his prose, and the singular nature of his observation in the presence of these heavenly animals. How lucky we are that this zen master would also like to hang out with unusual scientists, and occasionally bureaucrats, in some of the least enlightened settings in our world.

I hope that I might meet Mr. Matthiessen in the sweet hereafter.

canisfam's review

2.0

Well, I FINALLY finished this book, after picking it up and putting it down for about a year and a half (usually not a good sign). It was interesting, but seemed kind of disjointed (maybe that had more to do with my reading habits than his writing). I was disappointed that he did not spend more time on sandhill cranes, but found the saga of whooper crane recovery to be very interesting.