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Summary: when is the next boat to Corfu?
Review: I've been to Corfu twice in my life and wish I had been 10 instead of 30 when I arrived the first time! This book I have reread probably 8 times and still find it amusing. Read it once and you will find yourself wondering why your parents took you to Disneyworld when Corfu was just a 7 hour flight away! Read it!!
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Summary: A great read. That makes you smile and enjoy life
Review: This is one of my favourite books. Durrells humouristic way of describing his family and happenings really makes you smile. In my opinion this is a must read book for everyone who likes people, places and life.
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Summary: my family and other animals
Review: This wonderful book is a gem for true animal lovers. It brings a refreshing bit of humanity and hilarity to this chaotic life. You'll want to immediately move to Corfu.
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Summary: Magical!
Review: This is my favourite book, bar none. I first studied it in school which should have been a reason for disliking it; instead I have fallen in love with Durrell's autobiographical description of his somewhat dysfunctional family, their gang of eccentric friends, and the fauna and flora he studies and collects ardently and for the seemingly magical island of Corfu. Overall a hillarious and very warmly and beautifully written book. My only regret is in not having a similarly magical childhood.
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Summary: My Family and Other Animals
Review: I first read this delightful book in sixth grade. I believe the book had just been published. The Durrell family found a place in my heart and they are still there, arguing happily, all these years later. This is the type of book that needs to be re-read every five years or so. There are so many levels to the book that as one matures, it can be enjoyed anew with each re-reading.
The book, an autobiography, traces the life and adventures (both as he explores Corfu and with his large, slightly dotty family)of the young boy, Gerry. One cannot help learning about various flora and fauna, and the book also revels in dry humor; so much that the reader will find himself/herself laughing uncontrollably.
The late Gerald Durrell brings the island of Corfu, Greece into one's brain and it is as if one had been there. The bright, hot sun, the cerulean blue ocean, the whitewashed houses ... and most of all, the slow-paced, often maddening outlook of the Greek people all help bring this book alive. To paraphrase Durrell: While on Corfu, it is good not to grasp reality too tightly, but rather to accept the lovely, unexpected siren-song of the island.
I highly recommend this book, from about sixth grade through adult.
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Summary: a Greek idyll with tortoises
Review: I read this book with a certain amount of jealousy. Like Durrell I had a childhood fascination with animals and Nature in general. Unlike Durrell I did not come from a leisure-class family and my mother would not have allowed me to revive heat-struck water snakes in the bath tub.This is a very funny book and it is related in a very dry tone of voice. Durrell succeeds in limiting the narrative to the perspective of a 10 year old boy. His older sister Margo remains an object of derision throughout the book and the young Durrell seems to have had no interest in or respect for 'girl stuff'. He is the perfect little Edwardian naturalist; you can just seem him poring through his big thick references books to try to figure exactly what insect he's got in his jar of alcohol. The book is filled with Wodehousian eccentrics including his entire family, but also other ex-patriate Brits (Theodore and Mr. Kralkefsky) and Spiro, the mountainous cab-driver and unofficial island potentate. Each chapter is fairly self-contained and the book is organized as a seasonal precession. One of the most memorable chapters, and the one that most approaches the level of literature, is Durrell's initial encounter with one of his many tutors, Mr. Kralkefsky. This chapter has the least to do with natural history and includes an almost surreal passage about Gerry's encounter with his tutor's mother. There really isn't a dull moment in this book, however, with elder brother 'Larry' Durrell fairly consistently serving the purpose of a sort of Bertie Wooster-with-brains figure. One particularly funny comic device is Durrell's description of the arguments between Larry and his mother over where the family should live. The chapters always end with his mother's adamant refusal to accept her son's suggestions, but things never come off as expected. The chapter on the final dinner party on the island is a comic tour de force. More than any other book I have read, this narrative made me want to visit the Greek islands. I only hope that some remanant of the natural and pastoral landscape that Durrell describes remains on Corfu.
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Summary: Get a copy with large type
Review: This and the sequel "Birds, Beasts and Relatives" are among my all-time favorite books. Recently a friend of mine declined to read the latter book in Fontana paperback because the type was too small but it looks like this new edition is a little easier to read. These books would be better still if they were accompanied by photographs of Corfu and of Gerald's animals, so its probably a good idea to read these while also stealing a glance at a photobook of the Greek islands.
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Summary: One of my all-time top-five
Review: I am so excited that this book is back in print! I first read it as a class assignment in 7th grade (almost 20 years ago) and still have that copy, dog-eared and falling apart. I have probably read it 100 times since then, no exaggeration. It is the one book I can always count on to pick me up when I am down. I am so glad that they are publishing this book again so a whole new generation of lovers of animals and quirky families can enjoy the escapades of the Durrell family. You will laugh yourself silly!
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Summary: ...
Review: I read this 25 years ago and am again now, 9/2001. Its just as funny now and the wry British humor is just great! However, ... listed this as "hardcover." I thought I would be getting a clothbound with clothbound size print. ... sent me a paperback with a hard cover on it. Anything for that price should not have been a paperback original. The print is too small for me. Be aware!
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Summary: English boy's magic childhood on Corfu
Review: My Family and Other Animals is a lovely collection of short stories - most of them dealing with Corcyrean fauna - set in the years before WWII, which the author, then a boy in his early teenage years, spent with his family on the Greek island of Corfu in the Ionian sea. Gerald Durrell is a hilarious storyteller, and page after page you will be entertained by the adventures of the young Gerry and his animal pets; his family, consisting of mother, brothers Larry and Leslie, and sister Margo; and their Greek friends: Dr. Theodore Stephanides, a doctor and polymath, their driver Spiro, and other mostly ephemeral characters. Having said that, a word of reservation. My Family and Other Animals fits into the "Young Adults" genre, and its target audience are early-teens boys with an interest in nature. I emphasised boys, as there is no character in the book a young female reader could identify with - Gerald's sister Margo is shown mostly as vain, whinny, and not too clever. The characters are rather shallow and predictable, and with few exceptions, the stories in the book follow the same scenario: Gerry takes a walk in the countryside, finds some interesting animal - a turtle, a magpie, a snake, a scorpion - and decides to bring it home as a pet. Then, interrupted by other pressing matters, he temporarily leaves it in some random place in the house, where it is discovered by some other unsuspected family member. The panic which inevitably follows increases, until there finally comes Gerry - cool, calm and composed - and gets thing back in order. It also smells of the British imperial grandeur, maintaining the view that the world is inhabited by two races: the Brits and the native peasants. One can observe the tenacity of this view from works written much after the British Empire has become a historical memory, e.g. the late Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See (don't miss it if you liked this one!). As an autobiography, My Family and Other Animals is not a very factual one, either. When faced with the dilemma of being factual or being entertaining, the author mercilessly butchered the facts. Thus, there is not even a slight hint of the fact that Lawrence was actually married to Nancy Myers during this time (he described his staying on Corfu in Prospero's Cell), and stayed with her in Koulouri, rather than with his mother, brothers and sister. Also, some of his stories from later years in Cressida are attributed to earlier years in Perama. However, if you are not exactly a Gerald Durrell biographer, these few details should not distract you from enjoying the book. If you are visiting Corfu and plan to visit some of the locales in the book - the strawberry-pink villa, the daffodil-yellow villa or the snow-white villa - you will probably find helpful a tiny booklet In the Footsteps of Lawrence Durrell and Gerald Durrell in Corfu (1935-39) by Hilary Whitton Paipeti, available in any bookshop in Corfu Town.
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