Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, a realy swashbuckling tale
Review: Not one for serious nonfiction pieces about animals, I picked up TO THE ELEPHANT GRAVEYARD because it was by a journalist and it was billed as more of a travel story.... A travel story it is: breathtaking descriptions of NE India and colorful anecdotes about the people and culture all told through the eyes of a journalist/relative interloper. PLUS, Hall goes into great detail describing the elephants and the way that they are tied to the culture -- in a way that I think animal and non-animal people will like.The book moves at a fast pace. Hall's fascination with the region and the hunt for the killer elephant is intoxicating -- and contagious. By the end, the adrenalin is pumping and you nearly lose your breath.
Rating: 
Summary: fun to read, not a great writer
Review: Tarquin Hall is not a great travel writer in the mode of Alexander Frater ("Chasing the Monsoon"), not to mention Twain or Theroux; he does not have that level of control over the language and the ability to make a scene jump to life. But he has great material here, and he does quite well with it. Having been to Assam, I recognize the place and the people. The author hams it up a bit at the end about how he just could not understand that he was being shown the elephant graveyard, and it is then that you realize that this is the novelized version, with a carefully designed climactic moment. But in general his desciptions are reasonably vivid and credible. Worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Can't wait for his next book
Review: This book argues strongly against mankind's misuse and overdevelopment of the land that once belonged to noble beasts such as the Asian elephant. I became captivated by the story and by the author's sympathetic stance towards the elephant. The book will make you mourn what is happening to wild animals, and it reaffirms that when mankind messes with animals, the animals are the ones who get destroyed. Mankind's ultimate destruction might take a bit longer .... This is a thoughtful book with an element of magic -- the myth of an elephant graveyard that grounds the more realistic, down-to-earth elements of Hall's adventure account. I would love to read more of this author's adventures, esp. if they involve magnificent animals. Hall has a journalist's eye, yet he creates moments in which you feel you are there, under the stars, hearing the sounds of the jungle with him, waiting in fear of the thunderous sound that will signal that the rogue elephant is near. It is a very fast read -- a bit like a suspense novel -- but what I appreciated most was its folkloric touch, Hall's hope to find the mythic elephant graveyard, and the sense that animals are mysterious and magical, and that our world is impoverished with each death of a spectacular animal like the elephant. Last but not least, this nonfiction book would make an amazing film.
Rating:
Summary: Elephant versus man, moving and primal
Review: This book argues strongly against mankind's misuse and overdevelopment of the land that once belonged to noble beasts such as the Asian elephant. I became captivated by the story and by the author's sympathetic stance towards the elephant. The book will make you mourn what is happening to wild animals, and it reaffirms that when mankind messes with animals, the animals are the ones who get destroyed. Mankind's ultimate destruction might take a bit longer .... This is a thoughtful book with an element of magic -- the myth of an elephant graveyard that grounds the more realistic, down-to-earth elements of Hall's adventure account. I would love to read more of this author's adventures, esp. if they involve magnificent animals. Hall has a journalist's eye, yet he creates moments in which you feel you are there, under the stars, hearing the sounds of the jungle with him, waiting in fear of the thunderous sound that will signal that the rogue elephant is near. It is a very fast read -- a bit like a suspense novel -- but what I appreciated most was its folkloric touch, Hall's hope to find the mythic elephant graveyard, and the sense that animals are mysterious and magical, and that our world is impoverished with each death of a spectacular animal like the elephant. Last but not least, this nonfiction book would make an amazing film.
Rating:
Summary: What a Blast!
Review: This is a great read. Like all good books, it is an amalgamation of many things: a memoir, a travelogue, a social & environmental critique, and a great adventure with a dash of mystery and lots of humor. The title is a bit stodgy, but the story is far from it. We really see India in a different light, a land both benign and disturbingly fatalistic. Tarquin manages to couple some very visceral descriptions of locales with a profound appreciation for India and the elephant that is rarely seen in literature. Tarquin is going to mature into a great travel writer someday soon. Meanwhile, somebody give this man a prize ($) so he can dash off on another adventure (so we can read about it in his next book).
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ IN YEARS.
Review: This is quite unlike any other 'travel' book that I have read. It is part adventure, part thriller, part reportage, and it also brings to light the terrible plight of the elephants. There is little of the writer, Tarquin Hall, in the narrative, which is refreshing. And it is set in a part of India that is rarely visited let alone written about. It is also beautifully written.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ IN YEARS.
Review: This is quite unlike any other 'travel' book that I have read. It is part adventure, part thriller, part reportage, and it also brings to light the terrible plight of the elephants. There is little of the writer, Tarquin Hall, in the narrative, which is refreshing. And it is set in a part of India that is rarely visited let alone written about. It is also beautifully written.
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