A Polar Affair: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero and the Secret Love Lives of Penguins

My eye caught three things: Robert Falcon Scott--Antarctica--Penguins--and I submitted my request for the galley. Later I noted one other stand-out word: Sex. Specifically, the sex lives of penguins, but the book embraced more than just the birds' proclivities.

My first introduction to Antarctica was Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, which an elementary school teacher read aloud to my class. I read it many times. When I was about eleven years old I picked up The Great White South by Herbert Ponting, the photographer on the Scott Expedition to the South Pole. Scott's story caught my imagination. He was a tragic, flawed hero. Ever since, I have been drawn to read books about Polar expeditions and explorers.

A Polar show more Affair by Llyod Spencer Davis is a highly readable and entertaining book about Davis's career in penguin research and the stories of the explorers who first encountered the Antarctic penguins. Specifically, George Murray Levick, physician with the Scott expedition, who became the first to record the habits and lives of penguins.

Levick wrote a book but it was never made public. When Davis discovered a copy he was shocked to learn that he was not the first to observe what Levick had already documented.

The book is a wonderful blend, offering science and nature, history, first-person account, and adventure. He vividly recounts the story of the men who vied to be the first to reach the South Pole, including their human frailties and ill-thought decisions.

The story of Levick and two other men trapped over an Antarctic winter in an ice cave is especially horrifying to read! The harsh realities of the penguins' struggle to survive was eye-opening.

Davis's quest to understand Levick and the mystery of the suppressed research takes him across the world, snooping into libraries and museums.

Even though I know the stories, I was riveted, especially since Davis includes the explorer's personal lives. As Davis writes, "Our idols are never so virtuous as we make them out to be."

The next visit I make to the Detroit Zoo Penguin Conservation Center I will be looking at the penguins with more appreciation.

I was given access to a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. show less

Amundsen. Scott. Shackleton. Levick. ... Wait, who? The world knows of the exploits of Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton - men of renown from the turn of the 20th century famous for their exploits in the Antarctic and beyond. In this book, Davis - a lifelong penguin biologist and filmmaker - traces the path of a man who both inspired his own work and is forever tied into the lives of the more famous men who were his contemporaries. That man being George Murray Levick, the member of Scott's crew who inadvertently became the very first penguin biologist - and who made discoveries about Adelie penguins that would go hidden for nearly a century before Davis himself next observed them. In this book, Davis show more explores both his own path and research and that of Levick, as he finds himself on a quest to find the "real" George Murray Levick and the reason Levick hid his more salacious findings about Adelie penguins. Truly remarkable work, told in an incredibly approachable and easily readable manner. Very much recommended for all, particularly those who - like this particular reader - find themselves also very attached to penguins.

Merged review:

Amundsen. Scott. Shackleton. Levick. ... Wait, who? The world knows of the exploits of Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton - men of renown from the turn of the 20th century famous for their exploits in the Antarctic and beyond. In this book, Davis - a lifelong penguin biologist and filmmaker - traces the path of a man who both inspired his own work and is forever tied into the lives of the more famous men who were his contemporaries. That man being George Murray Levick, the member of Scott's crew who inadvertently became the very first penguin biologist - and who made discoveries about Adelie penguins that would go hidden for nearly a century before Davis himself next observed them. In this book, Davis explores both his own path and research and that of Levick, as he finds himself on a quest to find the "real" George Murray Levick and the reason Levick hid his more salacious findings about Adelie penguins. Truly remarkable work, told in an incredibly approachable and easily readable manner. Very much recommended for all, particularly those who - like this particular reader - find themselves also very attached to penguins. show less

I got this book through the Amazon Vine program for review. I kind of surprised myself by finishing this. In the end, finding out who got to the South Pole first and who survived the journey really propelled me through the book.

This book is a mishmash of historical and contemporary encounters with Adelie penguins. There is a lot of survival and history of polar exploration as well.

I enjoyed the middle portion of this book (where they are in Antarctica) much more than the beginning and end. The beginning and end just throw around too many names and jump around too much.

In fact the discontinuity is a fundamental flaw of this book. The author jumps around between past explorers and present explorers kind of willy nilly. He also jumps show more between his search for info on Levick and his own experiences at the South Pole. He does make an effort to tie together the topics across all of the people and timelines but it still comes across as a bit jumbled.

This is also not a book to read with kids. Each chapter starts with a two page discussion on a deviant type of sexual behavior and how it could relate to penguin reproductive behaviors. In fact this is another heavy theme throughout the book that felt forced at times. Davis often tries to relate the sexual exploits of the Adelie penguins to the sexual exploits of past explorers. The heavy sex theme is a bit weird and feels contrived.

The above issues aside, I did enjoy reading and learning about Antarctica and what explorers who go there suffer through. It was also intriguing to read about the different types of penguins and how they reproduce and survive. I didn't find the piecemeal history and background about the different explorers to be as interesting.

Overall this is a decent read if you are interested in the history of polar travel and penguins. If blatant discussion about deviant sexual behavior bothers you I would skip it. show less

Probably really 4.5