What I'm still reading March 24

I'm still working my way through Almost Adam. This book is, in part, what I'd call a Shangri-la book. That is, it posits a place "untouched by time", sort of a Garden of Eden. The place itself is virtually a character in the book. In this case, the place is a savannah region of Kenya called the Dogilani plain. The narrator of the book keeps referring to it as a place that still has the character of the Pliocene era of earth's evolution. And on this plain and in the surrounding hills, the protagonist discovers still-living australopithecines, the most ancient known evolutionary relatives of our species. Much of the book is taken up with our hero running with the australopithecines, narrating their behaviors and speculating on their inner life and how they survived this long.

When I say much, I really mean it. There's a bit too much of that sort of thing; kind of a short course in paleoanthropology. At times it seems a little forced. But I'm a sucker for these sorts of imaginings so I'm enjoying it. The book also describes contemporary Kenyan culture and history and that's quite fascinating as well. When I was a kid I read Something of Value, by Robert Ruark (Hamish Hamilton, 1955), about the Mau Mau war for independence in Kenya, and have loved stories about the jungle and the African plains ever since. Finally, the book has a seamy little subplot about murder and scientific jealousy that I think Michael Crichton would approve of.

Onward!