an ecological fantasy full of hilarious character sketches. Oddly his fiction is not as bizarrely funny as his real adventures

A story which takes place on a fictional island, but incorporates many factual human characteristics and environmental dramas. This didn't do it for me. I found it predictable and rather tedious. Ended up skimming it to be sure, but I didn't see anything which made me want to go back for a more careful read. The portrayal of typical "Empire" men and the natives rather stuck in my throat, whether accurate or not, I didn't feel like spending time there. Too bad, because the dedication says, "This book is for Lee." I guess I prefer Durrell's nonfiction works. ( )

At first I was disappointed by this book since it was not written in the “I” form like most of Durrell´s books, and it was not as laugh-aloud funny as most of them.

But when I got into it, I began to appreciate it better. It is the story of Peter Foxglove, who is sent out as an assistant political advisor to the island of Zenkali, The colourful King of Zelkali is called “Kingy”, and the cast of the book is composed of various other eccentric and amusing characters, including a female Reverend who is not exactly meek and mild.

There are two opposing tribes on the island called the Ginkas and the Fangouas. The God of the Fangouas was a curious bird termed the Mockery Bird, which had been eaten to extinction by the French. (The French are notoriously fond of their food.)

At the same time as the Mockery Bird became extinct, a peculiar tree, called the Ombu tree produced a fruit that formed an important part of the Mockery Bird´s diet: These trees also vanished except for one old tree.

There is a “baddy” in the book too, the evil Looja, and a disgusting unkempt scientist, Droom.

The British Government is planning to turn the island into an important military installation, and this will involve building a dam and an airfield.

Peter gets together with a sympathetic girl called Audrey and together they make an amazing discovery involving the Mockery Birds and Ombu trees.

This turned out to be quite an entertaining and enjoyable story with a moral associated with wildlife preservation, which was one of Durrell´s areas of expertise.

I should warn you that some of the words used by Durrell are not today comme il faut, or politically correct.

The book is actually quite good, just not hilarious like many of Durrell´s previous writings. ( )

This morning, I finished a random little book called The Mockery Bird, which is a novella about a random paradise island in the Indian Ocean, written in the early eighties. The basic plot concerns the island’s moves towards independence from British rule, and the various colonial diplomats at work there, but it’s better than it sounds.

I don’t think it’s quite sure whether it wants to be a satire, a sketch, a piece of literature, or just a comic novel. There’s traces of racism in it (the word “wog” makes regular occurrences), but I don’t know if it’s with tongue in cheek or not.

It’s funny, definitely, but more in a one-liner and farce kind of way than with any Wilde-esque wit. Because many of the characters are caricatures, they tend to be overblown and a little hard to take. A couple of them have their saving graces, and the author’s descriptions of Kingy’s mannerisms and general air are quite fantastic.

In fact, when the author waxes lyrical for a couple of sentences, you get the feeling that he really does have talent. His little run-on paragraphs describing a room or a scene are rich with texture, wordplay and images, yet in other places it’s almost as if it were written by a journalist, using the bare minimum of descriptive language.

As I said, it’s an odd little book, with smirkable aspects in places, some social commentary about Britain giving up its old colonial lands, along with some eco-warrior narrative thrown in for good measure. I don’t know whether I’d really recommend it to anyone, but I quite enjoyed it. ( )