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Rating: 
Summary: A poignant excursion into one of earth's last wild places
Review: Peter Mattheissen ("The Tree Where Man was born," "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," "The Snow Leopard") takes the reader on a safari into the Selous, the grandest piece of truly wild real estate left in Africa. Along for the ride in western Tanzania is the last great warden of this famous park, a direct descendant, in a way, of Frederick Cortenay Selous himself, for whom the park is named. Matthiessen is low key, unpretentious, straightforward and fresh in his descriptions. Yet, as the safari moves deeper and deeper into the bush, one wonders, as one found in Matthiessen's classic "The Snow Leopard", whether we're really going to see any big animals after all. And whether or not Matthiessen and the crusty old game warden are going to resolve their apprehensions about each other. Suffice it to say that at no level is this fine book a disappointment, including the excellent photography of Hugo Van Lawick, who accompanied the private safari, driving his own Land Rover down from the Serengeti. If you ever thought you might like to take a walk in Africa, the old Africa, this is your book.
Rating:
Summary: A poignant excursion into one of earth's last wild places
Review: Peter Mattheissen ("The Tree Where Man was born," "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," "The Snow Leopard") takes the reader on a safari into the Selous, the grandest piece of truly wild real estate left in Africa. Along for the ride in western Tanzania is the last great warden of this famous park, a direct descendant, in a way, of Frederick Cortenay Selous himself, for whom the park is named. Matthiessen is low key, unpretentious, straightforward and fresh in his descriptions. Yet, as the safari moves deeper and deeper into the bush, one wonders, as one found in Matthiessen's classic "The Snow Leopard", whether we're really going to see any big animals after all. And whether or not Matthiessen and the crusty old game warden are going to resolve their apprehensions about each other. Suffice it to say that at no level is this fine book a disappointment, including the excellent photography of Hugo Van Lawick, who accompanied the private safari, driving his own Land Rover down from the Serengeti. If you ever thought you might like to take a walk in Africa, the old Africa, this is your book.
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