The Tree Where Man Was Born

This book is so well written and highly informative. It is a must read for anyone who seeks knowledge about Africa.

An icon of a book - unique in its craft. It's a journey through East Africa like no other.

The Tree Where Man Was Born (Classic, Nature, Penguin)The Tree Where Man Was Born by Peter Matthiessen My rating: 5 of 5 stars I bought this book before I knew who Peter Matthiessen was, namely, one of the greatest nature writers of all time. Because of the book's title, I thought the author would tie present day East Africa to a by-gone era when man was primitive and evolving and nature ruled. I read the first one-hundred fifty pages and put it down for five years before returning to it. At that time, I was lost in my passion for the life and times of early man and not so interested in anything that rhymed with 'present day'. Then, after finishing that portion of my writing, I returned to what might be Matthiessen's greatest nature book (well, there is Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord. Hard to pick). When I picked it up the second time, I couldn't put it down. His descriptions of nature, the depth of understanding he voices for the people of the land, his vivid descriptions of what happens around him are like no one else. Here are a few of my favorites: * Soon vegetation crowded the road, which was crossed at dusk by a band of bush-pig, neat-footed and burly, neck bristles erect, as if intent on punching holes right through the truck * Soft hills inset with outcrops of elephant-colored boulders rose beyond a bright stretch of blue river * Kamande Gatora is a contained person with the watchfulness of the near-blind; he had taken the Mau-Mau oath and been imprisoned, in the years after his mistress had gone home to Denmark, despite 'the kind deeds I was receiving from her untold and the old life we stayed with her * Marsabit in June: great elephants and volcanoes, lark song and bright butterflies and far below, pale desert wastes that vanish in the sands. * By morning the wind was blowing up in sandstorms. Flights of sand grouse, seeking water, hurtled back and forth over the cracking palms, and a train of camels etched a slow crack into the desert to the south. * Inland, black boulders climb to far-off ridges that rise in turn to the Kulal Mountains, in Rendille Land. * ...because the heat is dry and because the wind is never still for more than a few hours. * Since gnu are ever willing to stampede, the crossing is a hazard for the calves, and one morning of early winter more than six hundred drowned. * By late afternoon, when the predators become restless, raising their heads out of the grass to sniff the wind, those calves would already be running. I'm only to pg. 127... Does it take your breath away, too?

Matthiessen never disappoints. He writes like silk feels. One of the few authors whose books I re-read. The Tree Where Man was Born shows you an Africa seldom seen. The people are as wonderful as the places.

I'm sure it's a classic but it's an extremely dull read with almost incomprehensible and dense writing. It sets the atmosphere well though and it's obvious the writer is obsessed with Africa.

A classic. A beautiful yet very sad account of Africa in the late 60s, early 70s. Peter Matthiessen is a superb author.

I purchased this book in anticipation of a journey to Africa. This chronicle is nonfiction, but it reads with the depth and intensity of poetry. Even though this book was written about the author's experience and impressions of Africa on a series of trips in the 1960's his insights remain timeless. The politics of Africa are convulsive and the boundaries of countries dynamic, but much of Tanzania and Kenya lands have been preserved and remain essentially the same as when Matthiessen visited 50 years ago. His descriptions of natural occurrences like the systematic attack of wild dogs on a new born zebra made me want to beg him to stop. But, he gives life to the landscape and all the animals that dwell there with same brilliant mastery of the language and pulls the reader forward. He does speak of mans beginnings as the title suggests, "Baboons in silhouette looked like early hominids hurling wild manic howling at my head." Even though the information about the descent of mankind is fascinating, for me it is Matthiessen's incredible descriptive powers that give magic to a land that is often harsh and unforgiving to man and beast. Speaking about Kilimanjaro he said, "The glacier glistens. A distant snow peak scours the mind, but a snow peak in the tropics draws the heart o a fine shimmering painful point of joy." I will read this book again when I return from Africa to compare notes and take lessons from a truly gifted writer.