For those who believe in dinosaurs
Boys can always be divided into two categories: those who throw rocks (the popular majority) and those who collect them (the inevitable outcasts). It’s from this latter category of fossil fanatics that mammologists, paleontologists and other such obscure professionals emerge—professionals like Tim flannery. The scientist’s most recent work, Chasing Kangaroos, is fundamentally about—no shocker here—flannery’s personal journey to understand the kangaroo. While there are bouts of humor and anecdote, the memoir is regrettably often as lackluster as it sounds.
Still, despite lapses of intrigue, Chasing Kangaroos has actually done something quite novel. In a time where pride in one’s country is a rarity, flannery has written a love letter to his, a piece of literature that hasn’t been drudged through the mire of politics. Just as much as Chasing Kangaroos is about the evolution of a creature, it’s also flannery’s acknowledgement of Australia’s inherent uniqueness, a uniqueness he begs is not casually lost in the growing conformity of the global landscape.