by Barbara Gowdy
In The white bone Gowdy, author of the short story that was turned into the surprisingly sympathetic necrophilia movie Kissed (We So Seldom Look on Love) puts herself into the minds of elephants.
The culture and language she imagines for the elephants are the book’s main successes; the story itself is heavy on death, destruction, and the elephants’ constant struggle for survival and doesn’t quite manage to maintain the same high level of creativity.
Still, as a thought exercise it’s interesting to put oneself in the (imagined) minds of elephants, and Gowdy’s writing is, as always, cool and assured. It’s worth a read.