I have said before that I aspire to be David Quammen when I grow up. Despite the fact that Monster of God was not my favorite Quammen book, I still feel that way. As ever, Quammen combines world travels, science, and an unabashed loved for the English language . His language is rich - ovoid, sessile, extirpated, such terms pepper his chapters and enrich his readers. So, too, does his ability to mine centuries of thought and literature for relevant themes, incorporating Beowulf into a section on Romanian bears and passages from the Bible as he discourses on the lions.
Monster of God sees Quammen travel the globe looking for human-nature interactions between homo sapiens and the largest remaining top-of-the-food-chain predators on earth. Those range from the salt water crocodiles of northern Australia to the lions of India and the Amur tigers of the Russian far east. In each stop, Quammen takes the time to understand the history, the biology, the cultural imperatives, and the end game. Here's a hint, the end game doesn't look good, certainly not for these Alpha animals, and not particularly for the homo sapiens, either. His approach is thoughtful and thorough, and he leaves his readers with more questions than answers, always a hallmark of good writing, IMO. (In this sense I was reminded of the eminently fascinating, but equally depressing Chesapeake Requiem.)
At times, Monster of God hues wordy. I didn't go back and check the number of pages compared to other works (Song of the Dodo, Spillover, Boilerplate Rhino), but it felt longer to me. That said, anyone who appreciates really good writing should appreciate this work -- all the more so if travel or science feature among the reader's passions.
Four stars.
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