Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The Call of the Wild (book review)

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, is a sad story of survival. Buck is a happy shepard-St. Bernard mix who lives in Santa Clara, California, with a kind owner by the name of Judge Miller. But then, he is kidnapped by the gardener's assistant and sent to be a sled dog in the North during the Klondike gold rush. He meets many dogs who are more unfortunate than he, but he also faces many hardships himself. A man in a red sweater beats him cruelly and makes him realize that not all people are like Judge Miller. Buck meets many people with many different personalities, but it is ultimately their brutality that makes him choose the destiny he does... Buck is heading into the wild.

This was a very well written story, and a very sad one too. Someone died in almost every chapter, and nearly all of them were dogs. The character of Buck was very well-developed, but the other characters passed out of his life very quickly. The book was a great one and it made me thankful that I wasn't a dog living during that time.

I give this book 8.5 out of 10 stars.

2 comments:

Jean said...

I remember reading this when I was about your age and thinking how sad it was. I hate to read about animals being mistreated. And I still want to adopt every stray dog or cat at the SPCA, but we have enough here already.

Kelly said...

That's a great review