Elephantoms
Lyall Watson
(Associate Reviewer - Gail Evans)
2002 W. W. Norton & Co.
ISBN: 039305117X

Tracking the Elephant. Part meditation on an elusive animal, part evocation of the power of place, an alluring mix of the mysteries of nature & the wonders of childhood.

Associate Reviewer Gail Evans writes:

Walking through the aisles of my local bookstore, I was delighted to find Elephantoms by the same author who, at an early age in 1973, wrote Supernature & made us aware of “the natural history of the supernatural,” where, for example, a “potted plant registered emotion on a lie detector when an experimenter just decided to burn one of its leaves.”

Do not, for one minute, think that Watson is flaky. He backs up every observation with scientific evidence & has worked alongside such luminaries as Raymond Dart, Niko Tinbergen & Desmond Morris to name a few. So, when Watson talks about Elephants, I sit up & listen.

In Elephantoms, Lyall Watson weaves a delightful memoir starting out as a young twelve year old “strandlooper” (beach comber) & describes he first vision in the 1930s of a white African elephant. The setting is the Knysna forest in the Cape of Southern Africa. His interest in the area & in the elephants never wanes & he finally returns us to this magical place in the year 2000. As always, his focus is on “the natural history of the supernatural,” in this case, that of the elephants, or the Elephantoms.

To tell you more would spoil the tale, but as you turn the last page, you will be filled with a sense of wonder at these beautiful, gentle, intelligent giants. Human beings are so enamored with their ability to talk, to communicate & to exercise cognitive thought, that we deride & ignore the fact that perhaps nature, in its splendor, is far better equipped to exercise these abilities on another level, a level that is out of the range of our meager five senses. Perhaps it is not the elephants who are deaf & dumb to our language, but rather the human being who is deaf & dumb to theirs.

Elephantoms is a delightful, insightful & humbling read. One cannot help but turn with compassion & a better understanding towards all life forms once you have put this book down.

More from Lyall Watson:
Supernature
The Nature of Things: The Secret Life of Inanimate Objects
Gifts of Unknown Things: A True Story of Nature, Healing, and Initiation from Indonesia's “Dancing Island”
Jacobson's Organ: And the Remarkable Nature of Smell
(05/25/03)

Gail Evans
2003©Gail Evans
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I currently live in Johannesburg, South Africa & am the author of: The Firstborn of God: Resolving the Contradictions In The Bible, Time Trials & Meditations In My Favourite Places In Southern Africa.