Monkey Dancing

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic for Book Clubbers
Review: I recently chose this book as a selection for a book club that I am a member of. I bought the book on the basis of the editorial reviews found here at amazon, and based on the fact that it was a top book from 2003. Daniel Glick is a writer of such ease, grace, and intimacy. I felt that i was on this journey with Glick and his young children. The book sparked great discussion in my goup, such topics as loss, tolerance, accountability, conservationism, and parenting. Daniel Glick should be very proud of this work of art and of his most important two works of art, his children!

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't finish it
Review: I should have loved this book. I love travel writing, I'm a mom and I would love to do a trip like this with my own son someday. I just could not finish it. I'm amazed that it made Amazon's top 50.

I didn't find Glick or his kids very appealing. As I was reading I would think -- this part is supposed to be amusing, but it's not; this part is supposed to be touching, but it's not.

Rating:
Summary: Brutal Honesty for Better and for Worse
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was impressed how quickly the dad adapted to his new responsiblities such as making soccer snacks and other jobs traditionally held by "mom."
Reading about the different countries they went to was fascinating. I thinks it's good for children to see that some countries are poorer than us so they might appreciate how good it is here (in the U.S.A.)
What made the book even more interesting was the author's inclusion of the conversations he had with his children. It was evident to me how truly in touch he was of his kids' feelings as well as his own. I felt like I knew all of them personally by the end of the book. I could tell they were beginning to slowly heal from the divorce and Uncle Bob's death.
The message that I got was uplifting -- that it takes time
but yes, one can move on if bad things happen.

Rating:
Summary: The mixed focus here doesn't allow any story depth
Review: Let's start with what I liked about this book. In contrast to many of the readers, I enjoyed hearing the details about the author's children and their day to day life. I have read accounts of so called family travel where it seems that the children of the family play a very small part---they are along for the ride, but seem to be farmed off often. Here, the children are omnipresent. I also loved hearing about various cities in the Far East---what the hotels are actually like, what is eaten, the nitty gritty travel details.

However, the book is really at least 5 books intertwined. One is the travel story. Another is the sad story of the author's brother's death from breast cancer. The third is the story of of the author's divorce, which he seems far from over. Still another focuses on endangered animals. There is of course also the part about the perils of raising a 13 and 9 year old as a single father. I often found it jarring to move suddenly from one focus to another---shifts sometimes even involving a change of fonts.

Although I appreciate the author's true honesty, I know I'm probably not alone in disagreeing with many of his parenting decisions, especially involving drug use and his young son. I also kept wanting to reach through the pages and tell his children to be a little more grateful for the unbelievable experience they were having---they both seemed world-weary and easily bored beyond their years. Did they realize how few children would belong to families with the inclination AND funds for such a trip??

All in all, I'm glad I read this, and I did feel it was well written, with an honest voice.

Rating:
Summary: Top Amazon.com editor pick of 2003
Review: Many thanks to the Amazon.com editors for picking this book as one of their top picks for 2003, otherwise I would not have found it. Monkey Dancing is a charming story of a father and his two pre-teen children as they make their way through forming a new family dynamic, all the while touring some of the world's most endangered plants and animals.

The author tells about how he and his family were dealt a double upheaval-the death of his brother from breast cancer and his wife decided that she wanted to leave her marriage and family to start a new one with another women. The writing is clear and flows fluently all the while weaving a tale of vanishing forest, eat exotic foods, and dealing with the forming of a new family.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Feelings, but overall pretty good
Review: This book, written by a drug-using serial college dropout (and occasional journalist) who arranges a far-reaching trip for himself and his two children after his wife leaves him for another woman, disturbed me on several counts: I was uncomfortable with the sleeping arrangements (his young daughter seemed to often share the author's bed), the invasion of privacy (the book includes lengthy excerpts from his children's private journals), and the generally smug tone used to describe some rather odd family rituals.

I'm sure the travel experiences were valuable to the participants, but there was way too much unpleasant information about the author and his family to allow me to enjoy this book---frankly, I didn't like them very much at all.

Rating:
Summary: Now THAT'S a great book
Review: This was a lovely book, beautifully weaving together personal tragedy and our place in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed the author sharing his fatherly moments with his kids, both the closeness and the bickering. Incidentally, while I was backpacking in Africa about 8 years ago, my group was joined for a time by a single father and his two kids from Colorado (hi Ari and Anna!), traveling around the world in the aftermath of a personal tragedy. What a brave and original way of forming a new bond, new memories and experiences.
At times, this book was so personal, I almost felt like a voyeur into their private life. Thank you, Daniel, for sharing your experiences and adventures with us, the readers. I was deeply touched, and wish you and your loved ones only all of the best.

Rating:
Summary: Him and his children on a journey around the world
Review: What is a father to do when his brother dies of cancer, his marriage ends, and his life falls apart? Newsweek correspondent Daniel Glick decided his course of action would take him and his children on a journey around the world to see some of the planet's vanishing life forms, and Monkey Dancing is his account of that trip, taken in the summer of 2001. From the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to elephants in Nepal, Glick and his three children embarked on an unforgettable adventure and Monkey Dancing tinges their experiences with insights on loss, fatherhood, and world changes.