The Whispering Land is the tale of Gerald Durrell's animal collecting trip to Argentina in the 1950s. It is much less a story of collecting animals and more of a travelogue. Argentina is one of the places in the world that I dream of visiting, and this book whetted my appetite even more. ( )

In Book 2 of The Zoo Memoir Trilogy, originally published in 1961, it appears that Gerald Durrell wanted to follow the path of Charles Darwin as recorded in "The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle". Before getting to their first main destination, Patagonia, along the coastline of Southern Argentina in South America, he made a point to stop and stay over at a small town called Carmen de Patagones, one where Darwin had stayed and written about while on his adventure. Once reaching Patagonia, he, his wife Jacquie, and his secretary Sophie, stayed in Calilegua with a couple he had met. They actually let him store his collection in their garage, and even helped take care of the animals at times while he went on his own excursions in search of rare creatures.

Once again, his observations of the penguins and fur seals in the wild are very interesting and quite humorous. It is as if you were actually watching National Geographic with a commentary. But, unfortunately, this was the most interesting thing about his journey to Argentina.

In Part 2, he continues his travel down to Jujuy looking to collect more animals and birds for his zoo back on the Channel Isle in Jersey. His wife, Jacquie, had to be sent back home and didn't make this part of the adventure because upon first arriving in Patagonia, they were involved in an automobile accident which left her with severe migraines.

The focus in this book seemed to be more on the people he met and his travelling adventures getting from one place to another. Still quite an adventure, but just not quite as interesting. His strong suit in writing seems to be in his descriptions of animal behavior.

He was able to collect about 150 rare birds and animals to ship back to his zoo. You might want to have your phone nearby so you can Google images of the wild animals he crosses paths with and mentions, such as the variety of parrots, guans, seriemas, coatimundis, puma, agouti, his favorite...a very young peccary he named Juanita (common species of wild pig), tree frogs and a baby coral snake, pigmy owl, a pair of douroucoulis from the monkey tribe, etc...

Now on to Book 3: Menagerie Manor... ( )

An interesting read of something written 60 years ago. There is absolutely no qualms about keeping a zoo. I suppose it was "political correct" in 1961. What I found interesting was that Durrell was collecting single animals, either a male or female, which meant he was adding to their possible extinction. ( )

I dimly recalled quite liking 'My Family and Other Animals', but perhaps I was put off by how popular and celebrated the book had become over the years. This was an accidental read, in a way; it was part of my school's forgotten student library, and the pages were practically falling out by the time I began with it. But a few days later I was finished and felt so exhilarated by Durrell's prose - here he describes an adventure in Patagonia - that I immediately ordered another five of his books online. ( )

great illustrations by Ralph Thompson!