I read this book when it first came out back in 1998. At that point, I was still in middle school and had seen it featured at our library. Through the years I have often thought back on that book and while I couldn't remember precisely what it was about, I knew it involved elephants and for some reason had captivated me. Not too long ago I remembered the title and knew I had to read it again. After reading again, I can see why I was intrigued by the book, but didn't think it was anything completely spectacular. It is a novel about great sadness and I think that is what makes it stand out the most in my mind.Mud (also known as She-Spurns, a name she rejects) is the adopted daughter of the elephant herd of the She-S's. A visionary, she has dreams sometimes of things that are going to happen, or things that are happening far away. She is newly an adult elephant with her first child growing inside her when a great drought comes to the land. To add to this hardship, massacres are occurring within the elephant herds as they are being hunted for their tusks and feet. Whole herds are being decimated at one time due to ruthless hunters.In spite of this, the elephants have hope. A great male elephant named Tall Time has brought word of a mysterious relic. This relic is known as the White Bone and is said to hold great power. It can lead them to the Safe Place where at least they will be protected and unharmed by the vicious poachers. Trying to find this bone and get to the safe place is another matter entirely however and proves to be difficult. Mud knows she must get there and help her friends at all cost, but with everything against them along the way she is no longer certain they will all get there alive.The characters in this novel can't be rated like other characters. They are elephants. And while they are somewhat anthropomorphic they are definitely written as an alien creature with dreams, stories, and personalities all their own. Mud in particular, is an interesting being in that she has mixed feelings about everything and is a bit of a loner. In most elephant herds this is unheard of. It makes her unique in a story already full of strange characters.The writing takes some getting used to in this. The elephants are able to talk through their minds and all the different herds of elephants have their own naming system. Not to mention that other animals have their own names and thoughts that are translated through the elephants speech. It can become very confusing at times. Despite this, Gowdy manages to convey a deep sense of depression and sadness in this book. The plight of the elephants is not a happy one and there are plenty of descriptions and happenings to remind the reader of this. Some of the language in this book is very descriptive. To a weak stomached or sensitive reader I would advise being careful as there are talks of eating feces, elephant's sexual parts, and other more squeamish subjects littered substantially throughout the entire book. Looking at it from an elephant's standpoint there is no need to be squeamish, but for us who are not elephants the language is a little more taboo.One complaint I would have about this book is that the second part of it drags quite a bit. While its supposed to simulate the elephant's searching, it becomes repetitive and boring after awhile. I would have liked to see more interaction between the herds and matriarchs of the elephants or something to fill the void in which they are continually wandering.Overall though this book makes the reader truly feel sorrow. Its a tough subject and hearing it directly from the elephants themselves is even more heartbreaking. This is not a good book for cheering a person up, but it is a good book for gaining a different perspective on life.The White BoneCopyright 1998330 pagesAlso includes a map, term explanation and family tree.
When I first heard of this book, which is an anthropomorphic tale about elephants, I read comparisons to Richard Adams' Watership Down and Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song. So, when I cracked this novel open I expected similarities. Some kind of epic adventure in the realm of Hazel and Fritti's exploits.Here's the basic plot: Mud, a young cow elephant, and her adoptive family, the She-S's, embark on a perilous journey for "The White Bone", a mythical object that can lead elephants to a human-free paradise called The Safe Place. They face slaughter, drought and insanity along the way. If anything, the story is incredibly sad and moving towards the elephants' plight.But...I can't say I agree with shelving White Bone next to Watership or Tailchaser. We read through the eyes of talking animals, examining their customs and mythologies, but otherwise there is no relation. I guess that's why I wanted to post this review-- so if anybody checks this book out they won't feel misled by the comparisons to other animal epics.It's common place for stories revolving the natural world to feature the grimy as well as the beauty. Watership had rabbits "chewing pellets" (globular droppings, gnawed on to re-ingest undigested plant matter); Fire Bringer had deer feeding on regurgitation; Wolves of the Beyond had scat rollers and urine sniffers. They're animals. This stuff happens, and authors acknowledge it just as National Geographic documentaries do. To not bring up these events is to put suits and ties on your fuzzy heroes, and in that case you might as well just write about humans.There is a reason Adams said "chewing pellets" instead of "chewing poop", however. Disgust would have shaken his audience out of his story. Williams, likewise, didn't say "Fritti sprayed the tree with piss", he said "Fritti sprayed the tree with his hunt mark." These are courtesies to the reader. Even though we know what the animal is doing, and surely the animals don't care what you call things, the language makes all the difference. It is the difference between recoiling at animalistic tendencies or accepting them as common place without batting an eye.The White Bone is incredibly crude. Here, you read about green penises that drip egg-sized drops of discharge. It talks about drinking piss and eating dung, defecating and urinating in excitement. One of the main characters, an adult bull named Tall Time, has his penis shoot out in excitement upon meeting Mud, a calf. Then the other elephants compliment him on it's size.Do these things happen in nature? Outside the penis compliments, probably. But they don't need to be described like this, "Drink some piss, you'll feel better in no time!" because it's distracting as hell.Crudeness is not usually something I pick on. I mean, I'm an avid horror reader. But these are animals, and we need to relate to them. I don't know who the author was writing this book for. It certainly wasn't to the Watership Down crowd.I don't regret reading The White Bone, and for the most part I was engrossed in the story, but stuff like that just makes me dislike a character (I didn't like Tall Time, even though I was clearly supposed to, and I had a hard time with She-Soothes too). The plot was also very, very aimless. Most of the novel is spent wandering in a desert, looking for water.My goal is not to put anybody off reading the book though. I enjoyed Gowdy's prose and, like I said before, was emphatic for the most part. But let's not compare apples to oranges. I've read an awful lot of animal fiction, and I've never experienced anything quite like The White Bone. Perhaps the critics haven't either, and that's why they made such poor comparisons.
What do You think about The White Bone (2000)?
Heartbreakingly sad; incredibly creative. Anti-anthropomorphists beware. This story is told from the point of view of a family of African elephants, battling drought and the threat of slaughter by hindleggers (humans). The book contains a fantastic glossary of elephant vocabulary, and details their religion, memory, telepathic skills, social structure, and so much more. They are in search of a mystical white bone which will point them in the direction of The Safe Place, where "... entranced hindleggers... sit in mighty sliders (jeeps)... as quiet as rocks." "Do you know what they do all day? Gape at the she-ones (elephants). All day long." This was a fabulous book; one I know I will read again. Proud to be a gaping, entranced hindlegger.
—Anne Marie
I was on the verge of trying to categorize this novel by inventing the necessary genre. Hah! The genres have all been taken, which leaves me to try to actually describe the essential feeling of the book without resorting to buzz words. For me, the many visions of some of the principals (Mud, Date Bed, Tall Time), cast the tale in a mythic light. Tall Time's revelation, if you will, of "the sickening prospect that everything exists for the purpose of pointing to something else" is central to my understanding of the novel as a tale on the cusp betwixt and between an age of holocaust and an age of gold. Tall Time's epiphany reminds of Rachel Carson's “In nature nothing exists alone.”The white bone, the white prize, the that-way bone, is the bit of magical connectivity between eras (ages, aeons) and places.This passage from Alexander Schnurov's "Mythological Realism" manifesto was useful to me, after the fact, in applying meaning: There will pass a time and the heroes of our time will be forgotten. Folk memory will not leave a trace of their names and their lives' deeds. Time will erase the details and memories will disappear but the legend will live on. It will preserve in itself what the memory cannot hold onto. Passed from generation to generation it will absorb into itself the living power of folk creativity and will rise to its peak [http://www.arthealing.org/Myth_rl.html].
—Terry
One of my favorite books ever. This is one of the few books I've read that never quite made it into popularity, or onto any bestseller lists, but was still a great read. It follows the story of a certain group of elephants in Africa and their way of life and their hardships, of which there are plenty of. The entire book is overall very somber, with moments of being heartbreaking. The ending is almost reminiscent of the ending of "The Handmaid's Tale", at least in my opinion. I truly wish this book was more widespread and well-known.
—Cassandra
