Cannibalism, by Bill Schutt

Bill Schutt’s forthcoming book, Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, is an informative and yet very light-hearted look at a fascinating subject. From the animal world to the human world, the author explores cannibalism in a non-judgmental way.

His premise is that cannibalism is perfectly reasonable from an evolutionary perspective, and the first half of the book is devoted to examining its prevalence in nature. As it turns out, cannibal animals are rather common. From parents eating their offspring to children eating their parents, and from an easy meal to mating benefits, cannibalism proves itself a useful tool throughout the animal kingdom.

Schutt consciously avoids sensationalism, preferring not to dwell upon famous cases of survival cannibalism, with the exception of the Donner party story, or cannibal killers who’ve been in the newspapers. As he rightly observes, there are plenty of gory books devoted to these people.

Instead, he talks about cannibalism in China and Papua New Guinea, where it never achieved the taboo status that it did in the West, at least until very recently. From Chinese children slicing off body parts to feed their parents to tribesmen eating their dead out of respect, it is a gory and yet fascinating part of the book.

Also of interest is the section on diseases spread through cannibalism, such as BSE in the UK and kuru in Papua New Guinea. And speaking of medical issues... did you know cannibalism was conducted in the name of medicine in Europe? 

Cannibalism comes out next year from Algonquin Books. Do yourself a favour and pre-order it.

Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond's 1997 classic non-fiction book is a study of history, geography, anthropology, and other scientific disciplines. It is a readable, highly informative work that won a Pulitzer Prize and has proven very popular in its field over the past twenty years.


Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, attempts to answer the question of why the European powers, or rather the Western World, came to power rather than Asian, African, or South American societies. He suggests this notion was brought to him by a New Guinean friend who asked why it was the European nations who conquered and colonized, and not, for example, Oceanic civilizations. "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?" Elsewhere he asks why Spain invaded South America instead of the Mayans invading Spain.

His central theory is this: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." He painstakingly makes the point that societies took different paths for four reasons:

1. The native crops and animals in each region.
2. The orientation of continental axis, which hinders or promotes the diffusion of agriculture.
3. Transfer of knowledge.
4. Population density.

While it is true that European historians have often attempted to use racist theories to explain Western hegemony, at times Diamond seems to go to the opposite extreme. At the beginning of his book he seems eager to explain himself as different from previous generations and free from their racial prejudice. Throughout the book, he pours on the political correctness, which is at times excruciating. He makes outrageous racist statements about white people which are as bad as what you might expect to find in a more traditional "whites are superior and that's all you need to know" sort of study.

It is easy to see why this book earned so much respect. It is incredibly well-researched and does offer a fantastic explanation for why different societies took different paths. I've heard from an anthropologist friend that political correctness is a curse throughout all anthropology these days, so I suppose you just have to suffer through that and accept it for what it is. 

Billy and the Devil, by Dean Lilleyman

This bizarre novel (told through a large number of very short, fleeting chapters from varied perspectives) tells the story of Billy, an alcoholic. Billy is viewed by those around him as a devil of sorts because he hurts everyone with his actions when he's drunk. He is, by all accounts, a terrible human being.

I like stories about terrible human beings because usually there is a reason for what they do, and in real life we seldom look for that reason. Yet, in novels, sometimes we can find sympathy for the devil. Yes, that's the name of a Rolling Stones song, and yes that song is mentioned a handful of times through the book.

We follow Billy's life from before he was even born up until an ambiguous ending of sorts, and always we see the side toll of addiction. We know that if Billy was a player in our own lives, we would be harmed by him and push him away for the awful things he does, but as a character in this novel we pity him.

Billy is drinking heavily from age eleven. As an adult he cannot drink without pushing on through to complete drunkenness, and when he is drunk he invariably ends up doing awful things. He cheats, he starts fights, he alienates everyone.

There is one scene when he actually - uncharacteristically - goes to Alcoholics Anonymous and ends up telling a sad story and cries in front of everyone in the room. Of course, for a working class Glaswegian this is too much to bear and he goes start to the "offy" (off-licence) to buy more booze and get drunk.

The book is depressing in many ways, and it takes a while to get into it. The fragmentary nature of its composition is challenging at first, but soon you realize this is how Billy sees his own life. This is how life can be. It ends up being a rewarding, powerful book. 

Kingdom of Rarities, by Eric Dinerstein

This past week I've been reading the wonderful Kingdom of Rarities, by Eric Dinerstein on my Kindle. As soon as I read the synopsis I was excited to get into it, and it absolutely did not disappoint. Though it may sound a bit inaccessible, it is a thoroughly readable look at species on this earth which are rare, exploring why exactly they aren't in abundance.


Dinerstein has spent his life travelling the world, studying rare animals, and his knowledge and experience guide the reader from chapter to chapter. We are taken on a trip around the world, from South America to the Himalayas to Southeast Asia. His descriptions of his surroundings are vivid and impressive. I've travelled much of my adult life and I envy his ability to capture the magnificence of a locations.

Moreover, he knows a lot about biology and the workings of the world, and where he isn't the expert, he talks to those who are, and eloquently captures their perspectives of rarity. He describes jaguars and rhinos and other amazing creatures, explaining why these animals are rare and what exactly their place in nature is.

The book is filled with fascinating information. For example, in the UK there are 15 species of trees which occur naturally, while in the tropics - where rarities abound - there are 70,000 species. 1,000 of these exist on a single mountain, which harbors numerous rarities. Elsewhere, he describes the tropics canopies and methods scientists are using to explore the life they support. All of it is surprising and informative.

Sadly, though many of these animals exist naturally in small numbers, many of them are endangered due to human activity, and many naturally occurring rarities are pushed from rare to extinct due to our own growth. It is incredible sad how Dinerstein details amazing creatures all across the globe over his career, and yet whenever he draws close to the present day, he finds them extinct or nearly extinct. It is nothing short of heartbreaking just how much destruction we are doing to our planet, and much of it is irreversible.

He talks about the Vietnam War and its aftermath - the battle between conservation and development. Unsurprisingly, the conservationists are losing all the way. Where American bombs damaged populations of wildlife, now the population is hunting every remaining species and ensuring that natural diversity disappears.

Though Dinerstein often seems optimistic about conservation, it is hard to read this beautiful book without feeling the opposite. I've been lucky in my life to have come face to face with the most incredible animals, yet if I have children I'm sure I'll have to explain to them how so many of these animals are no longer with us. 

The Worst Motorcycle in Laos, by Chris Tharp

This fantastic collection of travel essays takes its title from a shorter piece near the end of the book. The author details a comedic journey through Southern Laos on a motorcycle that may very well be the worst bike in the whole damn country. The essay is typical of Tharp's style - witty, descriptive, and no-holds-barred. He barely manages to get the bike through a trail called The Loop, suffering a series of comic misadventures, before coming to the realization that sometimes we need these calamities in order to see the real side of a place.

Throughout this short and enjoyable collection, Tharp takes us off the beaten track to a number of weird and wonderful locations across Asia, from Western China to the Philippines, from Japan to Thailand. In every instance he presents the world as fascinating, colorful, and mysterious. He lopes around drunkenly for the most part, stumbling from misadventure to misadventure, but never forgetting to clue us in on his surroundings. The result is a very funny, very informative, and strangely poignant book.

If you love travel or are interested in the food, the culture, or even the landscape of Asia, check out this cool book. If you're sick of Lonely Planet and sugary-sweet travel blogs, I'm pretty sure you'll get a kick out of Tharp's tales.

The Town and the City, by Jack Kerouac

Recently I've been rereading an old favourite - Jack Kerouac's The Town and the City.

The Town and the City details the lives of the Martin family of Galloway, Massachusetts. The five sons and three daughters' lives are detailed in years before, during, and after World War II. The sons include a college football star, an introverted scholar, and a wanderlust romantic - all elements of Kerouac's own personality. In fact, whereas in later novels Kerouac would write about his own life, the Duluoz saga, with himself as a very loosely fictionalized character, in The Town and the City, Kerouac's personality is split between the characters quite distinctly, reflecting the rather distinct elements of himself. Throughout his life, Kerouac was pulled one way and the other - Buddhist and Catholic; liberal and conservative; lover and misogynist.

This book is very different to Kerouac's later works, and readers of his most famous novel - On the Road - will wonder if it's even by the same author. The Town in the City was an early work - his first published novel - and was heavily influenced in terms of its style by Thomas Wolfe. Later, Kerouac would be influenced by Neal Cassady's Joan Anderson letter (and his general style of talk) to write in a more improvised fashion. He'd focus on longer descriptions of scenes - sketching jazz bars with words to the rhythm of a song.

In this book Kerouac's story weaves in more traditional fashion. It is self-contained, and apart from the Duluoz legend books. It elegantly tracks the family's comings and goings, reaching a logical, satisfying conclusion.

Until recently, Kerouac's works weren't available on Kindle. However, thanks to Open Road Media, several of them, including this, have been recently released. Hopefully one of America's great writers will continue to reach new reads in this format.

Shadows in the Work of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Baraka

Today's review will not be posted here. You can read it here at Beatdom. It concerns a newly released book about Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Amiri Baraka, and their relation to shadow imagery in the post-war era.

Anything related to the Beat Generation will be published at Beatdom and not here.