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Title: The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge
ISBN: 1401302130
Author:
Jamie James
Publicate Date: 2008-06-03
Publish: 2008-06-03
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $14.44
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $15.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.47
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| Customer Review: |
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1: "Into the Wild" for poisonous snake collectors
About halfway through this book I had a feeling of deja vu in that I was reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer but this time this young man with a loose screw(and an alcohol problem) for a brain collected poisonous snakes barehanded.
This book is not the page turner that Into the Wild was but I found myself thinking how many people this young man hurt by dying so foolishly. I know there must be many people, both personally and in his field, that knew this man had a screw loose but couldn't pinpoint his mental problem. Many probably did try to warn him but it was no use.
Maybe its a reflection of the soceity we live in. ESPN glorifies "extreme sports" in which people risk their health and lives pursuing some ridiculous sport. This man was probably no different. He probably thought he was impressing his friends and co-workers by repeatedly picking up dangerous poisonous snakes barehanded when his coworkers probably thought, as I do, this this guy was a little nutty.
My heart goes out to the people that was close to this young man. His coworkers knew this would happen sooner or later.
As far as the book, it simply was a little bit on the boring side. If the book had been more about the travel adventures of pursuing poisonous snakes in exotic countries(like Redmond O'Hanlons books)rather than dealing with the boring academic side I would have rated it higher.
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2: Tragic story beautifully and eloquently told
Jamie James has written a fascinating account of the life (and unfortunately, premature death) of Joe Slowinski, and woven into the narrative details about herpetology in general and various snake species in particular. Joe was charismatic, brilliant, and impulsive. His sad, tragic end is not made easier to accept but becomes more understandable against the backdrop of Joe's entire life. Both he and Steve Irwin brought an infectious enthusiasm to the study of herpetology, and both their lives were tragically cut short. They will both be sorely missed.
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3: Un-Putdown-able!!
When I first heard about Joe Slowinski's bizarre and tragic death by snakebite in Burma, I was fascinated and wanted to learn more. The moment I saw this book, I grabbed it---an impulse move that was a lot safer than Joe's impulsive grab into the snake bag containing the krait.
This book is riveting, being simultaneously a character study, an adventure story, a peek into the world of academic science, and a biology primer. It succeeds in all categories, making it almost impossible to put down and haunting afterwards. The author's writing is concise yet accurate and descriptive.
As a trained biologist and a herpetologist on the hobbyist level, I appreciated Joe's fascination with snakes. I am a turtle person myself (oddly, nothing much is said about the turtle people in the prestige rankings among herpetologists) but have also had a snake. I can verify that herp meetings that feature snakes have had nearly all male attendance, as Mr. James states. Snakes exert a draw for a certain type of person, exemplified in Joe Slowinski, that other reptiles don't. They have magic.
Like all possessed geniuses, Joe Slowinski would not have been easy to live with, but he contributed immensely to the life around him. It is so tragic that he did not get to fulfil his lifespan. I think the last 2 sentences in Mr. James's "Sources and Methods" afterword sums it up so well: "..it's the great gap at the end I regret most of all. It's a peculiar kind of sadness to feel sorely the loss of someone I never met."
Highly recommended, for readers of all ages and backgrounds.
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4: Wonderful account of a sad story
This is an excellent account of a very sad event. The author goes in to detail about Dr. Slowinskis life as well as his tragic death. The events leading up to the end are an exciting story regarding herpetology and world travel. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in herpetology, anthropology or travel. For all of us that work with snakes it is a warning and "wake up call" as to what NOT to do. Buy it....well worth the price.
Larry Cartmill, Ph.D.
Huntington, WV
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5: Worth the Read
The Snake Charmer is one of two books I plucked from Dr. Al Mohler's suggested reading list for dads. It is a book that is rather unlike any I've read before. It is a biographical account of the life of Joe Slowinski, one of the world's great herpetologists. Slowinski dedicated his life to studying snakes and, in particular, poisonous snakes.
In 2001, Slowinski led an expedition of biologists and botanists as they traveled through the jungles of Burma. It was there that he was bitten by a many-banded krait, the most deadly snake in Asia and one of the most deadly snakes in the world. A world away from any kind of hospital or clinic, Slowinski knew that his chances of survival were slim. It was this quote, provided by Dr. Mohler, which gave me an interest in reading the book:
"As his friends gathered around, Joe calmly explained what was happening to him. No one in the world knew more about the venom of Bungarus multicinctus than Joe Slowinski. He described the effects of a slowly deepening paralysis: The snake's venom works on several different parts of the nervous system simultaneously, blocking the nerve impulses that transmit instructions to the muscles, including those required to maintain life. There will be no pain, he told them. "First my eyelids will drop; I won't be able to hold them up." Soon he would lose the ability to speak and move his limbs, he said. Within a few hours, his respiratory system would shut down: The paralyzed central nervous system would be unable to instruct the diaphragm to breathe, causing a swift death by asphyxiation...
"As the morning wore on, Joe's physical condition deteriorated precisely as he had predicted it would. In stark contrast to the hysteria that prevailed after Joe was bitten by the cobra when he was filming with the National Geographic team, the scene at the schoolhouse in Rat Baw was wonderfully calm, even solemn. Joe lay down on his sleeping bag in his tent, with Moe Flannery and Guin Wogan lying next to him to provide human warmth and comfort. The men quietly gathered nearby. Joe asked someone to find an Ace bandage he could wrap around his right forearm to slow the traffic of blood and lymph in his hand, though by now the toxin had passed throughout his body. There was nothing more to be done except wait and see how serious the bite was."
Written by Jamie James, The Snake Charmer is a good and interesting account of the life of this man. He is a man who is hard to like--he was brash and immature and obnoxious; he was committed to understanding nature through a Darwinian lens and had only venom for creationists. Yet he was a man who loved God's creatures and who fought to understand and preserve them. Woven into the book are many interesting facts about some of God's least-understand and most-feared creatures. This book is an easy read and a perfect selection for a warm summer day outdoors.
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