The Tusk That Did the Damage

January 26, 2015
This ambitious but uneven novel by James (Atlas of Unknowns) tells three intersecting stories involving a murderous elephant on the loose in an Indian jungle. Part of the novel follows the elephant, Gravedigger, and does a stunning job evoking an animal’s sensory world, as when he remembers “the bark of soft saplings, the saltlicks, the duckweed, the tang of river water, opening and closing around his feet.” These sections also heartbreakingly capture the elephant’s terror and confusion in the face of human cruelty: the scene of the murder of Gravedigger’s mother, and his subsequent mistreatment as part of a traveling show, are almost unbearable to read. This narrative is a tour de force, and the other sections in the book pale by comparison. The chapters dealing with a love triangle involving two American documentarians and their subject, an Indian elephant veterinarian, seem to be from a lesser moral universe and are ultimately forgettable after the life-or-death stakes of Gravedigger’s sections. The story line about Manu, a would-be poacher, fares better by evoking the crushing economic and social realities of rural life in India, but is diminished by heavy-handed plotting. Having already killed one member of Manu’s family, Gravedigger pounces from the shadows to maim a second in a misguided scene that comes off like grim parody. Still, the Gravedigger sections are so original and moving as to tower over the novel’s less successful elements.

February 1, 2015
Wherever elephants roam, there are always opportunists ready to harm them for the perceived value of their tusks and tails. Most of the time, the animals are killed outright; sometimes they survive; and when they do, the wounds they carry transcend the physical. It is said that elephants never forget, and in James' (Aerogrammes, 2012) intense and unusual novel, one calf horribly wrenched from its mother is on a quest to avenge her death, a commitment that earns him the title of Gravedigger. When two American filmmakers arrive in South India to make a documentary about a charismatic veterinarian who works with these wounded giants, they find themselves immersed in the murky world of poachers and poverty, extortion and preservation. James establishes archetypes of the Poacher, the Filmmaker, and even the Elephant itself, then alternates among their various points of view, swaying ponderously between realms of lore, romance, and reality to create a heavily symbolic and achingly tragic work of fiction indicting the horrific ivory trade.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2015

In India, the elephant can be many things: a source of money, a god, a protected species, and a threat to life and livelihood. In alternating chapters, James (Aerogrammes) gives us three perspectives on this giant beast. There is the view from an elephant himself, the Gravedigger, who as a baby witnessed the killing of his mother, was captured and trained, tortured and loved, and ultimately escaped to become a source of fear and hate for the villagers. There is the poacher, Jayan, who cannot resist the money to be made from the elephants' ivory tusks but whose wife, mother, and younger brother struggle to keep him on their rice farm, leading an upstanding life. And there are filmmakers Emma and Teddy, Americans who have come to India to make a documentary about the work that a veterinarian named Ravi does caring for the elephants and find that even ostensibly noble work has its shadow side. VERDICT Fascinating facts and fiction about elephants are presented, and James's gift for the side-by-side portrayal of different cultures is evident here, as in her previous books. The complexity of the issues involved make this a perfect book club choice. [See Prepub Alert, 9/29/14.]--Joy Humphrey, Pepperdine Univ. Law Lib., Malibu, CA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2014

After her excellent first novel, Atlas of Unknowns, and short story collection, Aerogrammes, James takes on the ivory trade, where idealism, local needs, and animal suffering collide. Set in South India, the narrative fans out from the viewpoints of a poacher, an American documentary filmmaker, and an elephant called the Gravedigger that breaks from his chains and begins killing and gently burying humans. Being eyed by publishers worldwide.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.