The humor here is incredibly dated and repetitive. ( )

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I love nature and I love humorous writing, but the combination of the two just didn't work for me in this case. Much of the humour derives from people doing dumb or inconsiderate things, and then suffering the consequences very shortly afterwards. I just couldn't help but sympathise with the person who was wronged rather than seeing the funny side of a meal spoiled by the presence of scorpions or a poorly constructed boat.

The characters were not engaging, seen as they are through the naturally self-centred eyes of a child. And the colonialist elements really grated right throughout the book. I know that Corfu wasn't a part of the British Empire at the time, but just the general attitude of moving the whole family there, renting a villa and then admiring the picturesque "peasants" in the fields was too much for me. There's also a colonial aspect the ceaseless conquest of nature that the narrator carries out. Just when I found myself warming to him as he observed the natural world with the wonder of a child, he'd change tack and grab a wild animal and stick it in a cage or a tank. This rarely ended well for the animals, although the reader only finds out about their "amusing" endings, not the many which must have perished in more mundane ways.

Yes, I know that desire to capture and own animals is very normal in children. I also know that this book is not meant to be read earnestly, but somehow I just couldn't warm to it. ( )

My only complaint for this book is that the author reproduces the speech impediments and incorrect English of some of the characters. This is very distracting, and has been considered poor form for several decades. When the book was published it was probably a common style, so the author isn't trying to make fun of the characters, but all the same it is irritating. ( )

High 3.

Not normally the sort of thing I would generally pick up, but I was pleasantly surprised.
An easy read with some fun anecdotes and good laughs. I may yet read another in the series. ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/my-family-and-other-animals-by-gerald-durrell/

As a teenager, I read several of Gerald Durrell’s autobiographical notes on collecting animals in Africa with great interest and enthusiasm. Nowadays I’m not so sure about the ethics of bringing animals out of their home environments, to which they are well adapted, to be gawked at by Europeans in cages. I’m sure that there are good arguments to be made on both sides.

Anyway, this is the story of Durrell’s childhood on the island of Corfu, as the youngest of a large family who settled there in the 1930s. He was already a keen collector of animals, and clearly drove his eccentric relatives mad with the inevitable domestic accidents that took place. But it’s a very affectionate portrait of an untroubled childhood, even if it leans a little too much on the funny foreigners that happen to live in foreign parts. ( )