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_askthebookbug 's review for:
Feral Dreams: Mowgli & His Mothers
by Stephen Alter
• r e v i e w •
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The Jungle Book has always been very dear to me and I feel like I have known Mowgli personally from the time I was a child. A group of wild animals bringing up the boy with surprising tenderness and love is capable enough of melting hearts. Although Kipling's version of the story involves Mowgli growing up with a pack of wolves, Alter introduces an alternate story in which a herd of elephants tend to the boy. Feral Dreams is a wonderful tribute to the original Jungle Book but what Alter does here is to forward the story to portray Mowgli as an adult. The story isn't entirely similar to that of the original what with Mowgli in Feral Dreams being discovered by the forest rangers and brought back into civilization. With the matriarch of the herd looking after him, I felt my heart swell with love and the aftereffect of this book made me feel nostalgic.
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Mowgli is still a child when the story begins but he is fiercely guarded by all sorts of animals. It's clear that he's an object of affection as the langurs and elephants care for him like one of their own. He communicates with the animals in a language unknown to other men and with the smallest langur as his sidekick, Mowgli enjoys his life in the forest. Many years ago when he was found as a baby, the matriarch of the elephant herd adopts him as her son and indulges him in the story of his discovery. Despite of all the care and cautiousness, Mowgli is discovered by the forest rangers and is left at an orphanage. Here, Miss Cranston is both fascinated and confused about his survival in the forest and soon takes a special interest in his well being. Mowgli then grows up with his own kind but always feels a hollowness in his chest which comes from not remembering his childhood. He never feels at home even in America many years later.
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Mowgli's life can have many parallels and I never thought I'd like any other version apart from the one Kipling gave him all those years ago but Feral Dreams was a heartwarming story of a man cub in a wild. Alter's writing is extraordinarily simple and quick, the story lasting no more than 200 pages. I definitely recommend this.
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4.4/5.
.
The Jungle Book has always been very dear to me and I feel like I have known Mowgli personally from the time I was a child. A group of wild animals bringing up the boy with surprising tenderness and love is capable enough of melting hearts. Although Kipling's version of the story involves Mowgli growing up with a pack of wolves, Alter introduces an alternate story in which a herd of elephants tend to the boy. Feral Dreams is a wonderful tribute to the original Jungle Book but what Alter does here is to forward the story to portray Mowgli as an adult. The story isn't entirely similar to that of the original what with Mowgli in Feral Dreams being discovered by the forest rangers and brought back into civilization. With the matriarch of the herd looking after him, I felt my heart swell with love and the aftereffect of this book made me feel nostalgic.
.
Mowgli is still a child when the story begins but he is fiercely guarded by all sorts of animals. It's clear that he's an object of affection as the langurs and elephants care for him like one of their own. He communicates with the animals in a language unknown to other men and with the smallest langur as his sidekick, Mowgli enjoys his life in the forest. Many years ago when he was found as a baby, the matriarch of the elephant herd adopts him as her son and indulges him in the story of his discovery. Despite of all the care and cautiousness, Mowgli is discovered by the forest rangers and is left at an orphanage. Here, Miss Cranston is both fascinated and confused about his survival in the forest and soon takes a special interest in his well being. Mowgli then grows up with his own kind but always feels a hollowness in his chest which comes from not remembering his childhood. He never feels at home even in America many years later.
.
Mowgli's life can have many parallels and I never thought I'd like any other version apart from the one Kipling gave him all those years ago but Feral Dreams was a heartwarming story of a man cub in a wild. Alter's writing is extraordinarily simple and quick, the story lasting no more than 200 pages. I definitely recommend this.
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4.4/5.