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Sounds pretty promising, right? Nice little tale of terror, neatly wrapped up in a 500 word article for Outside or National Geographic, maybe with some pretty pictures and maps. Well, this book is more than that. It is panoramic in its scope, covering everything from ethnobiology to history to economics to political science to spiritualism to wildlife conservation. The author gives a vivid picture of a society unlike many others - a cold, forbidding, primal place, where man is not at the top of the food chain, and where man lives or dies on his relationship to his local environment.
That’s why our roundup of books about tigers includes several that draw attention to the plight of these magnificent big cats and the humans who risk their lives to protect them. The augmenting material is every bit as interesting. For example there is this about Russia's far Eastern wilderness known as the Taiga: First I recognised the name Urizen (°*waves to friend who used this an an online alias*°), but I have not read William Blake, and it seems that much of the entire mythos in this book is based off those writings. The author certainly lingers on the tiger's symmetry and the the spelling of Tyger is straight from Blake's poem of the same name. Like the beast this book is about, The Tiger is patient. It stalks ahead with care and diligence as it learns about its prey, and each step forward the tension builds until the target is reached and then it pounces with devastating fury. I loved this book! I thought it was a really good idea of a dystopian world. It feels very real and eerie. It’s really well thought out and developed and I thought it was a very good idea.I won't share the outline of the story - other reviewers have done this, but I would recommend letting the book roll the story out for you, the suspense as it is teased out makes it all worthwhile. Whatever it was made the tiger change direction, and he stalked this new information with a single-minded intensity that would have been chilling to behold. One thing I couldn’t get my head around is the mob - I didn’t really find a full explanation of how it started or why it’s there. It feels like it just comes out of the blue. I would’ve loved to see a spark of rebellion or a development of the mob. It sounds like the teaser for a trashy thriller but this story really happened. The Tiger is the story of a rogue tiger and it's man-eating ways.
Sprinkled in among the hunt for the man eating tiger, is a rich history of the land, the people who call it home, and the psyche of the tigers who live there. People and tigers don't coexist well. Especially in a place like Russia's "Wild East." But their population has modestly rebounded since Vaillant's book was written, due to intensive conservation efforts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia...
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The final fight with the tiger is pretty tense, especially considering it probably took less than a few minutes. I liked the epilogue, most notably the fact that many of the people in Trush's region think he has the taint of the tiger on him now and won't sleep under the same roof. Some in the village felt sure he had invited his own death by robbing the tiger of its kill. 'It became a bit of a joke,' said one local resident, 'that he brought that meat to his own funeral.' Regardless of their other feelings about tigers, the residents of Sobolonye had great respect for the tiger's intelligence and hunting prowess, and the idea that these powers might be directed against them—at random—was terrifying. This tiger’s presence had cast a pall over the village”
Tyger is based on William Blake's poem of the same name, and just as Said mentions learning about the poem in school, I too remember being entranced by the same poem. It is just fascinating how creative minds work in similar ways, which is also a theme explored in the book. Tyger is going to be a children's classic like Skellig, The Little Prince, Watership Down, Stig of the Dump... just off the top of my head. It is the contemporary classic of my dreams.
In the course of this account, Mr. Vaillant colors the local characters and the poverty in the Primorski province of the Russian Far East, and makes one contemplate who is more danger to man (Panthera tigris altaica or Hominis corrupti regimen). Tiger sightings in those days were uncommon because they were primarily nocturnal. In addition, the felines were extremely shy and not accustomed to being around people. This is a book that can broaden your perspective of not only tigers, but also human proclivities and the paradoxes of evolving Russian life. With distinctive striped coats and elusive behavior, tigers are perhaps the most popular apex predator in fiction and non-fiction books alike. But the grim reality is that the tiger population the world over faces an uncertain future due to human activities and habitat loss. There are scenes in the beginning of this book that will give you chills. A tiger has killed a man and a group of investigators are on the scene. Vaillant describes the remnants of the victim as the group very carefully follows the trail of carnage, seeing what has been left uneaten. The tiger is probably watching. I was hooked very early on. Although the book does not sustain that high level of tingle, it is a fascinating look at the largest feline on earth, the Siberian tiger, or more specifically, the Amur tiger. I particularly liked the author’s description: “this is what you get when you pair the agility and appetites of a cat with the mass of an industrial refrigerator.” Siberians, larger than the more familiar Bengal tigers, max out at about 800 pounds.
The books featured in this review fall into three basic categories: non-fiction, fiction, and children’s. If you’re looking for a book that will teach you more about the perilous plight of tigers as endangered species, you’ll want to select one of our non-fiction selections such as Living with Tigers or Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed. If you’re interested in a lighter, more entertaining read, go for a fiction book such as Life of Pi or A Tiger for Malgudi. And if you’re buying a book for a child, they’re sure to love The Tiger Who Came to Tea. FormatThis book tells the story of one Amur Tiger - one who turns maneater, one with a vengeful attitude.
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