L.G. Cullens's Reviews > West With Giraffes

This book has a special place in my heart.

Take time for some exceptional comfort reading to lighten life's burden. Beyond the commercial hype of too many lackluster, frivolous book offerings, this is a true gem. Inspired by true events, this story explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.

"Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.
'Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…'"

And so begins his story.

"I could spend what I feel in my bones is my life’s last clear hours to tell you of the Dust Bowl. Or the War. Or the French peonies. Or my wives, so many wives. Or the graves, so many graves. Or the goodbyes, so many goodbyes. Those memories come and go here at the end, if they come at all anymore. But not this memory. This memory is always with me, always alive, always within reach, and always in living technicolor from deadly start to bittersweet finish, no matter how old I keep getting. And—Red, Old Man, sweet Wild Boy and Girl—oh, how I miss you. All I have to do is close my worn-out eyes for the smallest of moments. And it begins."

And what an all consuming story it is. A well crafted story full of wonder and insight, abandonment and tenderness, adventure and jeopardy, betrayal and forgiveness, and much more, that had this twilight being of a reader leaking at both ends. It will likely resonate in my mind through whatever years I have left.

"I can only suppose that when you’re riding with two 'towering creatures of God’s pure Eden,' and you grasp the first rotten proof of your true self, you never quite forget it, no matter what you do later to make it right."

Through the twists and turns of life there are experiences that we relish recalling long after, and there are others we labor to forget or try to make up for. And along the way we are sure to encounter both decent beings and those with no conscience.

“ . . . it always seemed wrong to think an animal’s life isn’t worth as much as a human’s. Life is life . . . no matter who or what is living it, boy—a thing to respect,” he said. “You don’t get that, then you’re just a waste of skin.”

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did.