Jamrach's Menagerie

A Novel

By: Carol Birch

Narrated by: Steve West

SHORTLISTED for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction

A thrilling and powerful novel about a young boy lured to sea by the promise of adventure and reward, with echoes of Great Expectations, Moby-Dick, and The Voyage of the Narwhal.

Jamrach’s Menagerie tells the story of a nineteenth-century street urchin named Jaffy Brown. Following an incident with an escaped tiger, Jaffy goes to work for Mr. Charles Jamrach, the famed importer of exotic animals, alongside Tim, a good but sometimes spitefully competitive boy. Thus begins a long, close friendship fraught with ambiguity and rivalry.

Mr. Jamrach recruits the two boys to capture a fabled dragon during the course of a three-year whaling expedi­tion. Onboard, Jaffy and Tim enjoy the rough brotherhood of sailors and the brutal art of whale hunting. They even succeed in catching the reptilian beast.

But when the ship’s whaling venture falls short of expecta­tions, the crew begins to regard the dragon—seething with feral power in its cage—as bad luck, a feeling that is cruelly reinforced when a violent storm sinks the ship.

Drifting across an increasingly hallucinatory ocean, the sur­vivors, including Jaffy and Tim, are forced to confront their own place in the animal kingdom. Masterfully told, wildly atmospheric, and thundering with tension, Jamrach’s Mena­gerie is a truly haunting novel about friendship, sacrifice, and survival.

A wonderful book

This is a better "lost at sea" book than Life of Pi and that's saying a lot! I'm searching for more books by Carol Birch, because this woman writes like an angel! Her descriptions of the sea, and the love and hate among 12 desperate men in two life boats lost at sea, may be the most exquisite prose I've ever read! Ten stars!!

A moving adventure to remember

Beautifully haunting tale of poverty, growth, adventure, coming of age and survival against unimaginable obstacles. Perfect for lovers of sailing and adventure with the stomach to handle the brutal conditions that surround both.

Story of Survival Against all Odds.

No spoiler here.

Overall the audible experience is 4 starts. There were two aspects of the book that I really liked. One is stories about how people lived in other ages. In this case it is the late 1800's in England. The second is stories of survival in desperate situations.

I purchased this book on recommendations of my daughters teacher. I started listening without any idea about what happens in the book. The narration is excellent and the story is very good. I have spent some time at sea and I thought that the sailing experience was well covered.

If I were to make any changes, I would say that book this could have been a bigger and better novel. I was left wanting more information regarding two of the characters. Mr. Jamrach, and Dan could have been given more depth, perhaps even there own intertwining storyline.

Overall good audible experience. A little dark, but well worth the listen.

Paul

Jamrach'a Menagerie

A remarkable tale, given added richness and dimension by the talent of reader Steve West

Fun & Meaningful

I gave this book 3 stars but I am a tough critic. I could easily see stretching that upward to 3 and a half. The narration is terrific and carries you along. The first half of this book is really, really good. The second half drags and you are forced to endure a bit of a long drawn out plot. If you stick around to the end of the book you will find a book loaded with meaning, told with thoughtfulness and pulled together nicely all the way from start to finish. A sign of a good audiobook for me is one that leaves me with characters that I cant seem to stop thinking about for days and this book does that for me. I LOVED the first half because it is fantastic, second half DRAGS, it ties together nicely in the end, and I loved the overall product. This book does not make my top ten but it is a fun, meaningful listen that I would recommend.