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"Mean and Lowly Things" is a good and engrossing book
"Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo" I have always liked snakes, but have also been very aware that many others do not share my interest in reptiles. Yet even for those who have no fondness for snakes and their kin, snakes stir up strong feelings be these of fear or awe or something else altogether. Snakes are in so many ways held in our minds via mythos and emotion that the real snakes, the actual animals, sometimes become an after-thought to their popular cultural meaning. What a joy it is then to experience a book as interesting as Kate Jackson's recent biography/travel narrative of her time spent in the Republic of the Congo collecting snakes and other reptiles for scientific study. Dr. Jackson, a Harvard-educated biologist, went into the deep forests of the Congo not once but twice, in 2005 and in 2006, to collect reptiles and shares her story in this moving, complex, book. The situation Jackson enters is made for a book or even a movie: a young American scientist going into the backwaters of an African nation troubled by civil war and learning to use not only all her lab-based and classroom training but even more her people skills and ability to make do with what is at hand. The fact she is collecting not botanical or other animal matter but snakes (many of which are dangerous) only makes the story more interesting, but beyond that, Jackson comes through as a gifted writer and story-teller in her own right. Her descriptions of the Congo's Brazzaville and the deep political red-tape she has to navigate to get the permits to collect her snakes is a fine example of the first-hand experience of researchers attempting to accomplish their work in a developing nation that itself is experiencing political and social strife. Despite the roadblocks she encounters, Jackson continues forth with a good attitude and a resolute spirit and meets many kind, like-minded, people willing to help her. And this, mind you, is even before she enters the jungle itself! One of the most amazing aspects of Jackson's tale is that it flows like a novel and it communicates the true experience of her fieldwork without getting lost in technical details that might bore or confuse non-expert readers. Although I've both worked in a biological research lab before and have a much stronger interest in snakes than probably most who will read this review, I found Jackson's book to truly be a volume that I could picture most of my family and friends picking up and becoming engaged in as quickly as I could a person who is actually fond of snakes. After all, when it all comes down, the book is as much about human relations as it is about reptiles. Jackon's writing is on par with that of Wade Davis, another Harvard-trained biologist who has since made his career writing natural history books heavy on exploration in far-off rainforsests and other exotic locales. Jackson, like Davis before her, brings a simple, humble, sense of purpose to her work and in her writing is able to communicate the joy and frustration of fieldwork in a place where even simple aspects of daily life are often very tough. Her prose is vivid and her emotions come across on each page. An additional benefit of a book of this nature coming from a professional scientist is that Jackson is able to offer an expert view of the ecology at work around her and is able to express in print how she, as a scientist in the field, approaches her efforts at collecting reptiles. The reaction of natives to her is also very telling: as Jackson enters a rural jungle area as a "snake expert" people come to her with questions about treating snake bites which brings her to frustration as she knows that the best advice for someone bitten by a dangerous snake is to seek professional medical care but such care is not possible for the very people who ask her for advice. As we in America take for granted that we have health care near us at nearly all times and that in even the worst of cases a helicopter will ferry the sick or injured away to a top regional hospital, it is a very sobering thought to consider that the very best hospitals in the Congo are probably below the standards of a typical secondary-care hospital in America. Also, Jackson provides us with a very long-standing view of a western-tradition scientist which has become very rare in modern science: the astute generalist. While her focus is on reptiles, Jackson's mission of collection and identification is one as old as Darwin, Bartram, and others involved in robust taxonomy. In a time when so much biological science is conducted in lab settings and is narrow in its purpose and focus, Jackson's research allows the non-expert a rather unique window into "basic" life sciences research. Some of the problems Jackson encounters are ones that make perfect sense yet still confound her ample planning: in instance, while Jackson speaks near-fluent French (the national language of the Congo) she knows very little of Lingala, the Bantu language spoken by rural natives including her guides and others she must interface with in the course of her fieldwork. An American in a strange land, a woman in a society where men do the serious work and are professionals, Kate Jackson nonetheless presses on with a good approach and sincere concern and respect for the people around her: a warm, touching, view of the Congo comes out of her writing and makes the reader realize how complex this small nation is in fact. Overall, "Mean and Lowly Things" is one of the best, most engrossing, books I have read all year. Jackson has done a sterling job of communicating the situation she experienced in the Congo and she has furthermore proven herself an adept writer, so I hope that despite her primary career as a biology professor, we will see future books about exotic places and amazing animals stem from her pen. As someone who writes about ecology and natural history myself, I found her voice to be one that needs to be listened to and her ability to bring to life a developing nation and its rare reptiles and complex ecological framework (plus its human sociography) a real treat.
MIKE WALKER is a writer based in Gainesville, Florida, who writes about ecology, natural history, and social history for this and other news media. In addition, he is a poet and his most recent publication is in the Tipton Poetry Journal's Fall 2008 issue. He may be reached via: cloudrace@prontomail.com
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