"Monkey Dancing", by Daniel Glick
Public Affairs, 2003 (Reviewed at publisher's request)
Amazon.com put this book in its Top 50 books of 2003. I don't think the company's UK division would follow suit. It is a wonderful account of a father's attempts to get closer to his two young children, to introduce them to a world beyond the shores of the US, to come to terms with the premature death of his older brother and to cope with the rejection from his wife. However, British readers may well find much of it too cloying, too navel-gazing, too.. dare I say it.. 'Rikki Lake'.
This would be to do the book, and its author Daniel Glick, a great disservice. I confess that having read the prologue I was not encouraged to read on. It was all far too cathartic and self-indulgent. Skip the prologue completely. All the background and context set out there is revealed quickly in the narrative.
Glick decides to take his two children, Kolya and Zoe, on an incredible round-the-world adventure, ostensibly to show them things that might no longer exist in a generation's time. His background as an environmental journalist means that he goes into plenty of interesting detail on the demise of coral reefs, the plight of the orang-utang and the decline of the Bengal tiger; and he always goes beyond glib superficialities. His children are, by and large, unimpressed by their Dad's crusades but tag along for the ride with their Game Boys in hand, scarcely realising how much they are growing as people along the way.
Glick's honesty about his feelings towards his children will be the emotional heart of this book for many. He writes a lot also about his brother Bob who died from cancer, and at times these long asides are very moving, but for the reader they are also somewhat abstracted. His children however are everpresent -- even given their own short passages (for a journalist's daughter, Zoe's spelling is truly appalling!) -- and thus for me it is that story that is the strong point.
As a travel book, Glick's prose is more than capable of describing the many places the trio visit, predominantly in Asia and Australia. Europe is glossed over in a few pages. Anyone wondering whether their children could cope with anything other than beach or theme-park holiday should definitely read this book. And anyone interested in understanding a bit more about where this planet is going, and why it might be important that we do something about it, will also find the book stimulating. But above all, read this book to have your heart warmed by an author's honesty, humility and passion. JT
Overall verdict: Heartwarming, but never soppy.
